Notebook
May 13th, 2011 by admin
 
Good morning from Collegeville,
 
Friday the 13th.  This is the only month that there will be a Friday the 13th this year.  Next year we will have three Friday the 13ths.  According to the Stress Management Center and Phobia Institute in Asheville, NC, an estimated 17 to 21 million people in the United States are affected by a fear of this day.  Some people are so paralyzed by fear that they avoid their normal routines in doing business on this day.  “It’s been estimated that $800 to $900 million is lost in business on this day..”   source John Roach.
 
According to Wikipedia, the actual origin of the superstition appears to be a tale in Norse mythology.  Friday is named for Frigga, the free-spirited goddess of love and fertility.  When Norse and Germanic tribes converted to Christianity, Frigga was banished in shame to a mountaintop and labeled a witch.  It was believed that every Friday, the spiteful goddess convened a meeting with eleven other witches, plus the devil  – a gathering of thirteen – and plotted ill turns of fate for the coming week.  For many centuries in Scandinavia, Friday was known as “Witches’ Sabbath.”  source:  Charles Panati, Panati’s Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things.
 
The show this week is a live performance from the State Theater in downtown Minneapolis.  Special guests include Tulsa bluesman extraordinaire, Elvin Bishop, the magical Concordia University Hand Bell Ensemble and Women’s Vocal Ensemble of the St. Olaf Choir.  Gospel vocalist supreme Jearlyn Steele will be there to help Garrison to carry a tune.  Enjoy the show.
 
“Read, every day, something no one else is reading. Think, every day, something no one else is thinking. Do, every day, something no one else would be silly enough to do. 
It is bad for the mind to continually be part of unanimity”  Christopher Morley, writer (1890-1957)

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