"Friday the 13th, also known as Black Friday, is considered an unlucky day in Western superstition. It occurs when the 13th day of the month in the Gregorian calendar falls on a Friday" (source of information: Wikipedia).

Many people believe in the eccentricity of Friday the 13th and how the date brings out strange fears and paranoia about misfortunes and the unpredictability of general bad luck. People ascribe various symbols to bad luck such as a black cat, and hence, we might connect the sighting of a black cat to an auspicious experience of Friday the 13th.

We live in a world that celebrates economics-catalyzed networking (i.e., eTrade). Every Wall Street broker knows that a great deal of the success of investment strategies in a supply-demand free market is dependent sometimes on pure luck. You read stories in the news of venture capitalists making risky or even questionable decisions to avoid the pitfalls of bad luck (i.e., stock market crashes). Some go so far as to engage in illegal insider-trading information retrievals.

In the world of yesterday, 'bad luck' was marked by a devastating storm or drought that threatened crop yields. Today, even information is a commodity, and 'bad luck' can be connected to network short-circuits, communique misdeliveries, and accidental data loss. The Internet hacker, perhaps the new terrain terrorist, compounds the problem and reminds everyone of the distinct economic signature of Friday the 13th.

One day, a Wall Street broker named Steve went to work as usual on a Friday the 13th to do his mad-money trading on the floor of the so-called exchange. He had a great day of trading and decided to go drinking afterwards to celebrate in a pub. As he was walking to his car late at night, not too drunk, he noticed someone (or something, he couldn't immediately tell) approaching him. He was wearing a hockey-mask and a grey raincoat and seemed to be carrying a night-stick. Steve asked this figure, which seemed to be a man in an odd costume, "Hey, you look like that psycho-killer Jason Voorhees from those Friday the 13th horror films." The figure/man, with his hockey-mask still on, replied, "Since today is Friday the 13th, I wanted you to know that Jason is a messenger of bureaucracy." The figure/man then disappeared.

As Steve ran away from this ominous figure/man and hopped in his car and sped away, he wondered to himself, "Is Jason Voorhees a Loitering Leprechaun?"







Friday the 13th

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