Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. We'll end today on a lighter note for just our last 10 minutes. After all the heavy stuff about the war and housing and US politics that we've been doing today. Tomorrow is Friday the 13th, and we're going to open the phones now for any superstitions that you may either believe in or that at least guide your behavior a little bit, even if you intellectually think that they're silly and not real. Who has one? 212-433-WNYC. 212-433-9692.

Again, it's for any superstition that you may either believe in or that at least guide your behavior a little bit, even if, intellectually, you think they're silly and unreal. 212-433-WNYC. 212-433-9692. Maybe we're doing this call-in on Thursday the 12th because it would be unlucky to do it on Friday the 13th. Maybe. What's a superstition that maybe guides you a little bit? Are there superstitions that you have that are particular to your culture, any kind of culture?

I read, for example, that knocking on wood- you know that one? Good luck- knocking on wood came first from a Celtic belief, for example, and there are many more. Any others from whatever culture of yours? What if you're an athlete? Athletes have superstitions. Wade Boggs, when he was in baseball, ate the same chicken dinner before every game, I read. Many pitchers in baseball won't step on the foul line, the baseline as they go from the pitcher's mound to the dugout. What's a superstition for you as an athlete or in your sport?

There was a funny article some time ago on Business Insider, The 30 Strangest Superstitions in Sports History. It starts with a basketball coach who chews on a towel during games, a football coach who eats turf, and a hockey player who drinks beer during every intermission. Well, that's not a good idea. I wonder if that hockey player started shooting the puck at his own goal.

There's also lists on lines of common superstitions. I just mentioned knocking on wood. Walking under that ladder, bad luck. Find a penny, pick it up. I could go on. Our lines are full. What superstitions guide your behavior even a little bit, even if you don't believe in them? 212-433-WNYC. Call or text, and we'll take them right after this.

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Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Now, to those superstitions that you either believe in or that guide your behavior a little bit, even if you don't. Pete in Westchester, you're on WNYC. Hi, Pete.

Pete: How're you doing, Brian? I'm a big fan. I actually love two members of the Lehrer family. I was colleague of your brother's for many years at a university up north. Anyway, I'm Italian-American, and I assume this is common, but we always heard that if a bird flew into the house, someone was going to die. That happened at a home back in my hometown of Niagara Falls of my Uncle Dominic, and sure enough, heart attack a few weeks later.

Brian Lehrer: Did it make you actually believe it, or you think, oh my God, a freaky coincidence?

Pete: Oh, absolutely.

Brian Lehrer: Did, huh?

Pete: No, no, I believe it. I'm a humanist and all of that, but I believe it.

Brian Lehrer: Pete, thank you very much. Ruby in Emerson, New Jersey. You're on WNYC. Hi, Ruby.

Ruby: Hi. Good afternoon. I'm a third-generation Pakistani American. In our culture, there's a saying that if someone crosses over you, especially on a growing kid, that he won't grow tall. His height would be subsided by someone crossing over. My kids are in the living room, and my daughter just steps over to reach over because he's on the carpet, she has to go over back on him to undo this superstition otherwise he won't grow.

If my son is joking around and then steps over me, I'm like, "Oh, my gosh, I lost an inch on the height." I'm a physician, so I know it intellectually makes no sense. Just genesis of the bones is not affected by it, but yet my family has to follow that rule. Otherwise, I can't go to sleep that day because someone is going to shrink in height.

Brian Lehrer: [chuckles] Ruby, thank you for that one. I personally didn't know that one. Eva in Lafayette, New Jersey, you're on WNYC. Hi, Eva.

Eva: Hi, Brian. When I worked in the operating room, there was this Russian nurse that said, never wear your shirt inside out when you sleep. In the locker room, we would get changed after the surgery and get our regular clothes on to leave. Sometimes we'd be on call and have to come in in the middle of the night, and when you're done, you just want to go home.

I threw my shirt on inside out, and she saw it and said, don't do that. You can't go to sleep with your shirt inside out, and so I never go to sleep with my shirt inside out now. Then I looked it up, and I guess it was a Russian tradition that if you sleep with your shirt inside out, you would get beaten. I don't know, maybe that's from her culture. I just don't sleep with my shirt inside out anymore.

Brian Lehrer: Interesting. Eva, thank you very much. Many different cultures with so many different ones. I mentioned earlier, knock on wood, I read, came from Celtic origin. I got that from the website Artsandculture.Google.com. Here's another one from there. Throwing salt over your shoulder, you know how that's supposed to be good luck. They attribute that to what they call European Christian or Ancient Roman.

It says, "Like knocking on wood, this superstition also involves the idea of warding off evil, in this case, the devil himself. In Leonardo Da Vinci's The Last Supper, Jesus's betrayal, Judas is portrayed as having accidentally spilled salt. Since Judas was associated with doing something bad, the argument goes that, ipso facto, so was salt, and throwing it over your shoulder would blind the devil waiting there. Hank in Port Washington has one that's a little more specific, I think. Hi, Hank. You're on WNYC.

Hank: Hi, Brian. Thanks for taking my call. Three times in my life I have purchased a Jimmy Buffett concert ticket. All three times between the time when I purchased the ticket and the time the concert rolled around, I've lost my job and had to do something else for a living.

Brian Lehrer: Oh, my goodness. Well, no more anyway Jimmy Buffett tickets for you.

Hank: Yes, no more anyway. Obviously, not that I really believe that, but it's just one of those funny things. This is over the course of a period of time between the late '80s and the early 2000s. I finally learned my lesson in the early 2000s.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you very much. Ethan in Brooklyn, you're on WNYC. Hi, Ethan.

Ethan: Hey, how's it going, Brian? Yes, I don't have any superstitions, except I saw that movie Drugstore Cowboy by Gus Van Zant about 30 years ago, and there's a scene where someone puts a hat on the bed, and then everyone gets really worried someone's going to die, and sure enough, someone dies because a hat was put on a bed. Since then, I will not put a hat on the bed. I don't put a hat on a chair, I won't put a hat on the car seat. I don't believe it, but it's like the Gus Van Zant superstition that I've adopted.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you very much. A lot of calls saying I'm not superstition, but-- Craig in Riverdale you'll get the last one. Hi, Craig.

Craig: How are you doing? Mine is Murphy's Law. I lost my Ranger season tickets in 1993, and sure enough, as soon as we found that we lost in September, me and my friend knew they were going to win the Stanley Cup playoffs. We bet a boatload of money, and we won [laughs].

Brian Lehrer: Our second ticket superstition in this call-in as we wrap it up there. I guess I'll just throw in another one. I have a relative who will not let you celebrate their birthday with them until on the day of, at least, that if you do it before the birthday, it's bad luck and they may not live until the birthday. We've never celebrated her birthday except on the birthday, at least. I guess it works because that relative is now 95.

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That's The Brian Lehrer Show for today. Produced by Mary Croke, Lisa Allison, Amina Srna, Carl Boisrond, and Esperanza Rosenbaum. Juliana Fonda, and Milton Ruiz at the audio controls. Our intern this term is Muskan Nagpal. Zach Gottehrer-Cohen produces our daily politics podcast. Stay tuned for Allison.

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