This is described in the Dictionary as fear of the number 13; it is a superstition and related to a specific fear of Friday the 13th, called paraskevidekatriaphobia or friggatriskaidekaphobia. Some Christian traditions have it that at the Last Supper, Judas, the disciple who betrayed Jesus, was the 13th to sit at the table and that for this reason 13 is considered to carry a curse of sorts. Ancient Persians believed the twelve constellations in the Zodiac controlled the months of the year, and each ruled the earth for a thousand years at the end of which the sky and earth collapsed in chaos. Therefore, the thirteenth is identified with chaos and the reason Persian leave their houses to avoid bad luck on the thirteenth day of the Persian Calendar (a tradition called Sizdah Bedar).
In 1881, an influential group of New Yorkers led by U.S. Civil War veteran Captain William Fowler came together to put an end to this and other superstitions. They formed a dinner cabaret club, which they called the Thirteen Club. At the first meeting, on Friday 13 January 1881 at 8:13 p.m., 13 people sat down to dine in room 13 of the venue. The guests walked under a ladder to enter the room and were seated among piles of spilled salt. All of the guests survived. Thirteen Clubs sprang up all over North America for the next 40 years. Their activities were regularly reported in leading newspapers, and their numbers included five future U.S. presidents, from Chester A. Arthur to Theodore Roosevelt. Thirteen Clubs had various imitators, but they all gradually faded from interest as people became less superstitious
In the late 1970s, we were introduced , via The Friday The 13th movie, to Jason Voorhees who terrified a whole cinema audience.
Are such fears and phobias justified ?
And should you be afraid of Friday The 13th?
YOU BET YOU SHOULD...
for here is the latest release from Nowhere Man Records...
A Bakers Dozen...
In 1964, non-Blue Meanies, known as the Good Guys, opened their studio doors To The Beatles at WMCA radio in New York City. These recordings have been "lost" for some time...but, we are pleased to have found them and present them to you.
Toronto's turn to be twisted and shouted at next...a sound-only recording of a CFTO TV special from 1964 which after a number of editorial meetings was named somewhat imaginatively...The Beatles!
And, a series of radio promos aired only in the USA and probably Canada...The Beatles and the Beach Boys...George promoting Yellow Submarine...and to round it off..a fit of the giggles.
As a special bonus, we are including the BBC programme Beatles in the USSR...if you thought that William Mann of The Times, citing the "Aeolian cadences" of Lennon's vocals as the song "Not A Second Time" draws to a close and comparing it to Mahler's "Song Of The Earth" (was pretentious ...and nonsensical)...You ain't heard nothin' yet!!
We hope you have as much fun listening to this, as we did making it.