Post Number 13

666, 420, 69. They're all just numbers that people have decided to give meanings. Sure, mathematically, 13 is just the number that comes after 12 and before 14, but with a lot of things, people have decided that this arbitrary prime number is one of the spookiest! There's a bit of a history with this one, and I've seen it argued about a few times, mostly over drunken banter, but I'm here to give you what I believe is the true answer.

Triskaidekaphobia is the fear of the number 13. To my knowledge, this is the only number I could find that people are afraid of. There must be something significant behind it, right? Well, not from what I could gather. The reason that I see it debated is that there are so many different theories and answers. And trust me, there are a lot. Long story short, there isn't anything definitive and concrete to why 13 is considered so spooky.

The first instance that comes to mind was the Apollo 13th near-disaster. Everyone thought it would happen, and there was a disaster! Kind of. One of the oxygen tanks blew up when the pilot pushed the "stir tanks" button. Had 13 wielded the stopping power of a truly unlucky number, those three men would be dead, and Tom Hanks wouldn't earn yet another paycheck playing Captain Jim Lovell. I actually met Jim Lovell a few years ago, and I unfortunately lost the picture. It's one of my greatest regrets to capture the moment on an IPhone. He said to the crowd at the event we were at that: "It didn't come down to luck. We were astronauts, we're trained to deal with things like these, and thanks to our training and hard work, we made it back to Earth safely." or something to that effect. Yes, there was an accident, but it could have been worse. The Apollo 1 launch was a complete disaster, and the number 1 isn't so unlucky, now is it? Apollo 7 was successful, but there's one little detail that was missed here. There was no Apollo 2.

Technically, this means that Apollo 7 wasn't the 7th Apollo mission. It was the first successful manned mission, taking place in near-earth orbit, but if 13 is considered unlucky, then by all means, Apollo lucky number 7 would have accidentally met an alien fungus that cured cancer and made childbirth painless. That would be lucky. Myth busted, good sir.

What about Judas Iscariot? 

Yeah, that guy. Got paid 20 pieces of silver to betray Jesus. Almost makes you wonder why the number 20 isn't unlucky. Some say that 13 is unlucky because Judas was the 13th person to sit down at the last supper. There's a problem with this little theory. There is no mention in the Bible about the order of bum-placing at Jesus's little dinner party. Not to mention, there are other sources that say that 13 is lucky according to Christianity. The Thirteen Attributes of Mercy come to mind, Bible-thumpers.

What about Friday the 13th? No, not the film series, the actual date of Friday the 13th. Nothing of note or of substance could I find about the actual date of Friday the 13th being so bad. Yeah, some crusaders got arrested and there was a tiny stock market crash, but that's nothing. There is no cosmological reason why Friday the 13th is so bad. Stephen King thinks so, but then again, Stephen King thinks croquet mallets are scary murder weapons.

Spoooooooky!

And with that, I finish my 13th post of October, today at the 31st. 13, 31? I think it's just a spooky number palindrome!

Oh, as I finish this up, 13 isn't the only number commonly associated with fear. I totally forgot about 666. Maybe some other time, kids. I've got candy to eat. Happy Halloween.