| Show Y7Y7 V Arts movies & music Best bets Q Q Q Ogden Gramrry Aaard winners Bruce Hornsby and the Ran-- e vUl be in Sa't Lake Dty ApM 5 3D 'Tin Wen" shines It covers trie gamut of human emotions — and has three Great stars 4D The wives cf Short Creek were featured this week in a ta!k at Weber State College 8D March 13 1987 Standard-Examine- r 0 Everyone has one or two in Athletes are well 'just careful' By MARK SAAL Standard the closet By MARK SAAL staff Superstitions are a lot like leisure suits Most people consider them silly but everybody has one or two in the closet Spilling salt Breaking mirrors Walking under ladders Black cats crossing your path Opening umbrellas indoors All of these phenomena have been used to explain away reasons for bad luck The dictionary defines superstition as "any belief based on fear or ignorance that is not in accord with the known laws of science or with what is considered true and rational" In this age of enlightenment one would think there is little room for superstitions but for all his technology and learning modern man still looks to irrational sources for inexplicable events Take Carol Kimball of Layton for example An otherwise perfectly sane individual Kimball who was born on Friday the 3th refuses to celebrate her birthday during years in which it falls on a Friday "If my birthday falls on a Friday I will not celebrate" Kimball said emphatically Til celebrate the day before or the day after but every time I celebrate my birthday on a Friday something horrible happens Every thing goes wrong on that day nothing goes right" As if Kimball hasn't enough worries her second child was born on a Friday the 3th — yet another birthday not to celebrate But Kimball is not alone Mandel Smith is another product of Friday the I3th "My father was born on a Friday the 3th and I was born on a Friday the I3th" Smith said "What's more my son missed being born on Friday the 3th by a couple of hours" Smith assures all she has no superstitions — "None that I'd admit anyway" What about those poor souls who are forced to work around these bad omens day in and day out? Scott Atwood foreman at Merrill's Paint and Glass regularly cuts mirrors to order Having worked in the glass business for eight years Atwood estimates he's broken somewhere in the neighborhood of 1000 mirrors Using the superstitious formula of seven years bad luck for each broken mirror Atwood's bad luck should last him well into the 27th century None of this worries him "I'm not really superstitious: I consider myself pretty lucky" Atwood said "There have been some cases where I'll break a mirror early in the day have a bad day and think maybe the mirror had something to do with it but I really don't believe breaking mirrors brings bad luck" But walking under ladders? A different story for Atwood who paid dearly for his most recent stroll under a ladder "I w alked under a ladder one morning and by 6 pm that night I had 35 stitches in my mouth" Atwood said "I got cut because I wasn't paying attention but I still don't walk under ladders It could have had something to do with it" Debbie Malone a computer operator for the salt division of Northern Utah Drywall Equipment and Supply in Ogden said she probably spills table salt twice a week And she always always follows it up by throwing salt over her shoulder "My mom had us do it when I was a little kid so I'm just being safe" Malone said "My kids see mc do it and they think I'm crazy I've tried to teach them to throw salt over their shoulder but they say 'Who's going to clean it up off the floor?' And I say 'The same person who cleans everything up around here — me' " However even at Malone's workplace people disagree which shoulder salt should be thrown over "My mother taught me throw it over your right shoulder but Judy (Wells) throws it over her left and I'm Of course she's Malone said When it comes right down to it Malone added that job security takes precedence over superstition protocol any day: "Judy owns the place so she can throw it over any shoulder she wants to" For Clare Kingston an assistant manager at the salt distributor this superstition business can be more trouble than it's worth Since Kingston works with 50- - and bags of salt throwing one over his shoulder after it spills from a fotilift would at best bring cry little luck and at worst a hernia Kingston is superstitious about Friday the I3ih &airg he had his worst accident ever on that day his brand new car when a truvk driver on the freeway See LUCK on 80 4 Examiner staff Athletes have always been a superstitious lot From the baseball player's lucky bat to the basketball coach's favorite sport coat good luck charms have been standard fare in the arena of competition Margo Jones a girls coach at Bonneville High School has seen her share of athletic superstitions Among them are: A player who wore a pair of special socks each game and never ever washed them A father who had to drive all the way back to Huntsville to get his daughter's lucky before she would compete in a track meet A track athlete who had to wear the No or she couldn't compete The school didn't have a No sweatshirt so Jones had to use adhesive into an 11 tape to make the No A basketball player who had to have her shooting wrist taped a certain way even though the wrist was healthy Jones persuaded her to remove the tape for one game but her shots came up woefully short every time After a few fell "7 feet short" Jones put the tape back on — quick Jones is slightly superstitious herself As a coach she has owned a pair of lucky jumping shoes a pair of lucky socks and a lucky charm necklace The shoes and socks wore out The necklace broke And for the past 15 years Jones had kept a cross in her gym shoe occasionally reaching down and touching her shoe when she needed an extra burst of luck The cross broke last year and the result was a "terrible year in volleyball" Numbers have always held a special meaning for athletes A player's jersey number often takes on mystical powers and it can be a traumatic experience for players entering college if they can't have their high school jersey number "When a team goes to play (the University of) Nevada-La- s Vegas every player will pass by the roulette wheel and put money down on his jersey number" said George Furgis of rv r i i it aau i DasKetoaH player cuy a iormer prep ana college won money mat way once SmD If anyone has reason to be superstitious it's Furgis After graduating from East High and being recruited by the University of Utah Furgis was unable to get his old high school number He had to settle for — of all things — No 13 His freshman year at the university Furgis developed severe back spasms After trying various un- See SPORTS on 8D rssJ j a 6L ISC Si |
