In San Francisco, there is no 13th Avenue. Rather, Funston Avenue sits between 12th and 14th. When I was little, my mom would explain how many think 13 is bad luck, but for her, 13 is actually lucky, as her birthday falls on May 13th.
From a young age, I never understood how superstitions got traction. Sure, some superstitions have fun origin stories; four is unlucky in China because the word for four sounds like the word for death. But how do superstitions stick? Advertisers should bottle this stuff! Superstitions seem so personally rooted. It is my mom’s perogative to decide that 13 is lucky. Why or how would her luck or misfortune be relevant to others? How do superstitions trend? Word of mouth? Pseudo-science? Real Science? Correlation-Causation-Confusion?
If I were to start a new superstition, what would it be?