Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with superstition

In Chinese 4 is badluck, but P4 ok?

imaswinger — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 15:49:38 -0800

If my appartment building has gone through the trouble to leave out the number 4 from all numbered floors and numbered appartments, why did they leave in the parkade level 'P4'? OK, my building has no 4th, 14th, 24th, 34th floor, and neither does it have any appartment numbers ending in 4 (ie: there's 501, 502, 503, 505, 506). Now I understand this, because in chinese the number 4 is apparently pronounced the same as 'death' and is considered extremely unlucky. My question is, why is there a P4? why didn't they skip it and go right to P5? This has been driving me bonkers for ten years.
(I asked two people at work who grew up in China and they had no idea other than maybe it doesn't matter cause you don't live there your car does. I'm not buying it...)
Anyone?

Mythbust supermarket petrol for me, please.

Lorc — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 12:18:19 -0800

Is supermarket petrol bad for my car? It seems to be common knowledge that supermarket petrol from Tesco, Asda or what have you stations is inferior to the stuff from a "proper" petrol station. That it damages the engine in the long run for any of a variety of vague and poorly explained reasons.

Is there any substance to this idea, or is it just superstition? Googling gave me lots of conjecture but nothing authoritative.

UK-centric in case it matters. Thanks.

Clues on Israeli superstition?

zadcat — Tue, 12 May 2009 14:06:45 -0800

Hints on Israeli superstitions? I am currently working for an Israeli guy in his thirties and have quietly been told by a third party that he's quite superstitious. For example, I am never to put my bag or purse on the floor, because so doing suggests one does not value one's possessions. And then today, I picked up one of those multi-color ballpoint pens that was lying around to take a few notes, and happened to start writing in red ink. He gasped, told me one NEVER writes in red ink, took the pen away from me and gave me a different one.

Granted he may have his own hangups, but I can only assume that, like anyone else, he's picked up some of these ideas from his own culture. Are there any other Israeli cultural taboos I should be careful of? (He doesn't seem to be especially religious, dresses very casually and has indicated I can also dress casually, and seems otherwise fairly down-to-earth. I'm not so much interested in taboos connected with Judaism as with the current culture in Israel.)

There's something strange in the neighborhood...

Metroid Baby — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 11:14:47 -0800

The apartment building I'm moving into might be haunted. I know it's not rational to believe in ghosts, but I'm kind of superstitious. The other day I was Googling the address where I'm moving in a few weeks, and I found a couple mentions of the building being haunted. My reaction has ranged from "cool, ghosts!" to "oh no, ghosts!" to "psht, ghosts don't exist." My inner Scully tells me it's ridiculous to even entertain the notion of a haunted apartment, but my inner Mulder wants to believe. And I've got to admit I'm not a very good skeptic in practice, especially not when it's midnight and I'm all alone in a dark apartment.

So my question is twofold. The first part: how can I tell if my apartment is haunted, and what should I do if it is? I'm not sure how you know if a funny sound, a stray thought, or a sudden cold feeling is due to a paranormal presence rather than a more mundane source. On the rare occasions in the past when I've sensed something strange, I've been able to rationalize it as my senses playing tricks on me. What should I be looking for, and how do I know whether it's just my imagination? And if ghosts do exist, and if they exist in my apartment, how can I coexist peacefully with them? Real or not, the last thing I want to do is piss them off.

The second part: How do I keep a healthy sense of skepticism about this and avoid turning into Scooby-Doo when the lights go out? There is a part of me that strongly wants to believe in the supernatural, but I want to keep that in check. I don't want to get carried away, and I don't want to become paranoid or gullible. And I definitely want to be able to sleep at night.

For the record, I've visited the building twice, I like it, and it seems like a perfectly normal apartment building to me.

I feel a little silly asking this question, but I'm curious all the same. Thanks for your help!

Can you help me debunk my Mom's food superstitions?

moof — Fri, 16 May 2008 16:30:24 -0800

Mom's visiting. Along with her decade's old prohibition against eating tomatoes, eggplant, bell peppers, potatoes, etc. I'm kind of sick of this. Any clinical proof that solanine causes osteoarthritis? Even better, any proof that it does not? I am forbidden to even re-use cooking utensils between pots that have touched the forbidden foods.

Beyond black cats and four-leaf clovers

Andrhia — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 10:39:46 -0800

Got any great books about luck? I'm looking for books or other great reference material about luck, chance, fortune, that certain something that makes the cards fall your way (or not). Not interested in pareidolia or confirmation bias - no science, please! Not really interested in numerology or kabbalah, either. What I want is folklore, superstition, mythology, from as many cultures and periods as possible. Particular emphasis on actions you can take to make your luck better or worse, and the more obscure the better.

Pickings seem to be slim so far, but there has to be something out there like that, right? ...Right?

Finished the first novel, in research mode for the second. :)

What to say instead of Good Luck

finite — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 14:42:38 -0800

What are some less superstitious-sounding alternatives to the phrase "Good Luck"? I frequently find myself saying good luck to people, often after I've been only able to partially answer something asked of me, and lately I've begun to question the usefulness of the phrase. What I usually really mean to say is something more along the lines of "I'm sorry that I wasn't able to solve your problem completely, and I sincerely hope that you're able to" but that is a lot more syllables. I'd like to avoid giving anybody the impression that I'm praying for them or crossing my fingers or knocking on wood etc. I'm sure that lots of people who do not consider themselves to be superstitious say "good luck" regularly and think nothing of it, but because so many people in the world are extremely superstitious I'd like to lessen my use of the phrase. What are some good alternatives?

Another reason to hate AT&T

Mr_Zero — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 15:34:40 -0800

I live in Mesa Arizona. Recently, several churches have had or/are having these giant cross shaped cell towers installed on church property. I can't tell you how much this bothers me. First and foremost they are eyesores. When I step out into my front yard and look at what used to be sky, there is a gigantic white cross.

I can't believe they do not violate some building law about the height a structure can be. I suspect because they are cell towers receive an exception. I spoke with the city and they said that AT&T has gone through the approval process and there is no turning back now. Apparently AT&T leases the space and pays a monthly fee to the church.

It just seems so weird to me, that a corporation is paying for a tax-exempt companies gigantic logo. Shouldn't they lose their tax-exempt status? I can't put my finger on it, but it just seems wrong to me.

Has anyone dealt with anything like this? Any suggestions on how to get rid of these or at least stop any more from being erected?

White rabbit!

ducksauce — Wed, 01 Feb 2006 14:19:52 -0800

First words on the first of the month: "White Rabbit" or "Rabbit, Rabbit(, Rabbit)"? I was just talking to a co-worker and when I asked her if today was the first of the month she said, "Yep, I said 'rabbit, rabbit' this morning!"

I gave her a kind of dumb look for a few seconds before my brain dusted off a bunch of elementary school memories of saying "white rabbit" on the first of every month. I finally understood what she was talking about, but I clearly remembered "white rabbit" and not "rabbit rabbit".

Googling turned up this page, with a few somewhat old (1920's and 1950's) references of each, but I can't find the history of these traditions anywhere (I even tried, and failed, at Wikipedia).

Any Ask-Mefites know more about why people say this, and which is more common? Now I'm really curious.

A knife and a penny - origin of?

robbie01 — Sun, 23 Jan 2005 20:45:45 -0800

I gave my girlfriend's grandmother a set of kitchen knives as a gift. She told my girlfriend I needed to give her a penny as well, for good luck. I remember when I was a kid, my dad would give me pocket knives, but ask that I give him a penny in return (he used to say something like, "You can't give or trade someone for a knife. You have to sell it to them." I can understand the selling part, except why would I have to give my girlfriend's grandmother a penny as well? Anyone know the origin of this tradition? Or is it a superstition?