Here comes your 13th Nervous Breakdown

Did you notice a lower-than-normal amount of Friday the 13^th commotion yesterday, which was one? Maybe the children of today have bigger things to worry about - the crushing trillions of dollars of debt into which our capitalists have led us, or Dick Cheney shooting them in the face - and what's another number in an all-digital age? Everyone afflicted with Friday the 13th mania darts about skittishly, looking up for falling pianos or down for open sidewalk grates. Meanwhile,the former vice president of the United States, injured in a tragic moving accident, rolls along merrily. We hope.

The actual fear of F the 13th is known as paraskavedekatriaphobia. I looked it up, and was informed that that word is a concatenation of the Greek words for Friday, fear and thirteen. While I had my Funk & Wagnalls cracked and ready for business, I was also informed that concatenation comes from the words con (meaning crook), cat (meaning feline) and nation (meaning all of us.) I'm not going to keep reading a dictionary that tells me that all cats in this country belong in jail, for the love of Pete! But I felt a little better to read that this whole fear of Friday the 13th is a form of triskaidekaphobia, or the fear of Triscuits. They're just no good without cheese.

When I think of Friday, I think of elementary school lunches on that day that almost always featured tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches. I think that ties the whole thing together nicely, and here it is Valentine's Day already. Have a happy one. Love is all around!