Friggatriskaidekaphobia

Lileks on bad luck:

Gnat explained to me today that if she did poorly on the spelling test, it might be the fault of Friday the Thirteenth. All the kids are abuzz about it, because it’s Bad Luck.

There’s no such thing as bad luck, I said.

Uh huh there is.

No. There’s no such thing. If something doesn’t work out, or something bad happens, it’s not because of bad luck. It’s because of something real. Luck is an excuse.

Well Faith said –

I don’t care. Do you really think tomorrow is bad luck?

Maybe.

Then we’d better not go to the pizza store, because the ceiling could fall! Or they could put snail feet in the sauce!

Dad.

And we’d better not get on the bus, because it could be attacked by buzzards. That would be bad luck.

Dad.

And we’d better not study for the spelling test, because we might poke our eye out with a pencil. Bad luck!

DAD.

Well, you see what I mean.

Yeah.

So what do I mean?

There’s no such thing as luck, she said, disappointed.

That’s right. Because it’s up to you. You make your own luck. I know it’s hard to give up thinking about good luck, but that means you don’t have to worry about bad luck.

She brightened. This was good news.

So let’s study the spelling words!
And that was the bad news, I guess.