Paraskavedekatriaphobia

Today is the day for paraskavedekatriaphobiacs.

As irrational as it is, many people harbor a little phobia here and there. Today is one of the biggies:

FRIDAY THE 13th!

Now for be it for me to cast aspersions to those who give some credence to this being a not-so-lucky day. I have to admit that I don’t tempt fate when it comes to today, or even with events centered around the number 13.

For me I will NEVER sit in row 13 on a plane. I know it’s stupid and irrational, but I feel more comfortable in row 12 or 14. Those of us who don’t tempt fate are not exactly alone:

• I have seen buildings where the floors run 12, 12A, 14, or 12 then 14
• Some sailors will not sail on the 13th
• Many cities do not have a 13th Street
• Continental and Alitalia airlines have no row 13 on their planes
• How many players wear 13 on their uniforms?
• The Mesopotamian Code of Hammurabi (ca. 1760 BC) omits 13 in its numbered list
• Remember Apollo 13?

Phobias are part of the human condition and are as varied as there are people – a short list from Anxiety, Panic and Health:

• Achluophobia or Scotophobia — Fear of darkness
• Acrophobia — Fear of heights.
• Aichmophobia — Fear of needles or pointed objects.
• Amaxophobia — Fear of riding in a car
• Arachnephobia or Arachnophobia — Fear of spiders
• Aviophobia, Aviatophobia or Pteromerhanophobia — Fear of flying
• Brontophobia, Ceraunophobia or Keraunophobia — Fear of thunder and lightning
• Claustrophobia — Fear of confined spaces
• Cynophobia — Fear of dogs or rabies
• Dermatophobia — Fear of skin lesions or cuts
• Hydrophobia or Potamophobia — Fear of water, rivers or running water
• Ophidiophobia — Fear of snakes
• Hemophobia, Hemaphobia or Hematophobia — Fear of blood
• Insectophobia — Fear of insects
• Kenophobia — Fear of voids or empty spaces
• Lygophobia — Fear of darkness
• Musophobia or Muriphobia — Fear of mice
• Oneirophobia — Fear of dreams
• Pathophobia or Bacteriophobia — Fear of bacteria, germs or disease
• Somniphobia — Fear of sleep
• Spermatophobia or Spermophobia — Fear of germs
• Stenophobia — Fear of narrow things or places
• Triskaidekaphobia or Terdekaphobia — Fear of the number 13

I would add to this list:

• BSODiphobia – Fear of Windows choking
• Linuxophobia – Fear of Linux taking market share from Windows; very common among Microsoft employees
• W7updateiphobia – Fear of having to redo everything to move from XP to Windows 7
• Vistaphobia – Fear of installing an OS and having nothing work right
• Malusdomesticaphobia – Fear of non-Windows OSs
• Fenestraephobia – Fear of Windows OSs

These are relatively new to the scene but in some cases quite debilitating. For an extensive list of phobias see The Phobia List – incredible!

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to throw salt over my shoulder while circling a four leaf clover four times.