All posts by Howard Tayler

Because any word with “frigg” in it is inherently cool…

The local paper had a “Friday the Thirteenth” article in which I learned that fear of Friday the 13th is called paraskevidekatriaphobia. That word seemed long and unwieldy, so I did some searching, and sure enough, there is an alternative word: friggatriskaidekaphobia.

The word is shorter, it nicely concatenates “Frigga” (derived from the name of the Norse god from whom we get the english word for Friday) with “Triskadekaphobia” (the word for “fear of the number 13”), and when you say it you sound like you’re saying “friggin’ triskaidekaphobia.” That last is what makes me happiest. I have no fear of this day, or that number, and will cheerfully poo-poo such superstitions — especially if it makes friggin’ triskaidekaphobes uncomfortable.

I also step on cracks, break mirrors from time to time, and fail completely to knock on wood. Like right now. Friggin’ triskadekaphobes! Nothing bad is going to happen today that couldn’t just as easily happen on any other day. Aaaand here I am, not knocking on wood.

So… the word of the day is friggatriskaidekaphobia. Say it with a sneer!

800 milligrams of caffeine later…

Long story short… we drove straight through from just north of Seattle to 30mi south of Salt Lake City. We decided to go straight through when we learned that a stomach bug was barfing its way through our extended family in Boise, which is where we’d initially planned to spend the night.

I may be barfing all day tomorrow, hung over from the Vivarin-popping I did, but at least it won’t be contagious.

Safe Arrival!

Sandra, Kiki, Link, Gleek, Patches and I are all safe and sound here in Seattle. Sandra will probably say more about this than I will, since I’m still burnt out from the drive — it was about 90 minutes longer than I expected it to be thanks to the posted speeds in Oregon and Washington being between 5mph and 10mph lower than I was counting on. Oh, and there was a very, VERY dense dust-storm at the Oregon/Idaho border that originated from one freshly-turned field. I guess the cloud is guaranteed to be dense for freeway drivers when it originates on a field adjacent to the freeway.

Tomorrow is Schlockfest. Email schlockmercenary-subscribe@yahoogroups.com if you’re in the Seattle area and are interested in getting together in the evening at the Strohl Munitions Worldwide Headquarters. I’m preparing for it by going to bed very, very shortly.