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Friday 13th Brings Some MischiefBy JOHN C. SHELTONUnited Press InternationalFriday the 13th, rolling in with a full moon, is just another day to those who aren’t superstitious, but you’d have a hard time proving that to New Jersey lottery officials, a Cleveland used-car dealer or the parents of a baby boy born in Boston.What might pass for the nor mal ration of calamities, misfor tune and just plain oddities take on added significance when they happen on Friday the 13th.Some of Friday's weird occur rences included:— The zapping of the com puters used by the New Jersey lottery.“It’s a full moon, Friday the 13th, and we’ve got trouble with the computers again — who could ask for more?’’ asked Lottery Director Hazel Frank Gluck.Although players were still able to place bets, winners from Thursday night’s drawings were unable to collect their prizes because the computers could not calculate the total number of winners and what the payoffs were.— A Cleveland used car lot is featuring a 1977 Olds Cutlass with a bit more decoration than the usual hood ornament. It’s a 15 pound chunk of metal that fell off a jet engine.The hunk of metal apparently dropped onto the back end of the car, parked at CT Auto Sales, located about 8 miles from Cleveland Hopkins Inter national Airport, Federal Avia tion Administration Officials said.FA A officials said theybelieve the metal was part of the exhaust system of a jet engine.— The parents of a baby boy born in the front seat of pickup truck have not decided what to name the infant, but they have a nickname — Chevy.Nothing went according to plan when Myra Simcock went into labor Friday morning and headed with her husband, James, to Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.A block from the hospital, Myra told her husband, “I’m not going to make it.”James pulled their pickup truck into the hospital and the medical staff arrived with a stretcher in time to join a crowd of cheering onlookers moments after Myra gave birth to a healthy 9 pound, 4 ounce boy.Friday the 13th and a fullmoon coincided for the first time since 1 970. One psychologist studied 4,000 men tally ill people and found that psychotics exhibited their most bizarre behavior during full moons, especially in the sum mer and the fall.There are a variety of legends and superstitions about Friday the 13t,h dropping a buckeye or a dried potato in your pocket will cure a headache and putting cabbage leaves on your head will ward off trouble. Never throw anything out the window on Fri day the 13th you may hit a good fairy.According to one tale, you can have good luck on Friday the 13th by tying your big toes together and walking backward to your bed.The fear of the number 13 is called triskaidekaphobia
Newspaper Details
DuBois Courier Express
DuBois, Pennsylvania, US
Sat, Jul 14, 1984
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Rosalyn M.
NA, 13 Jul 2024
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