Theater Superstitions

[Zaphod]

So I'm doing a play in college as an elective. Friday night we opened to a sell-out crowd. Tonight, our second night, all reports are it was still a fantastic fantastic performance, but we undeniably had some technical issues and even one twisted ankle of a major player. After tonight's show, one of the actors comes up to the director and says some of the cast have been saying things they shouldn't be saying in a theater. At first I thought she meant there was some gossip going around, but I soon realized she's talking about superstitions. She was convinced that tonight's problems were because people had been using unlucky language. I'm aware that saying "Good luck" and "MacBeth" are commonly thought to bring bad luck in theater, but she didn't go into specifics about what she had heard. Anyhow, one person objected saying it was a load of horse shit, and the two sides got to bickering, and I felt bad for staying out of it, but I'm just not a confrontational person. I wait until I have calmed down and then state my case in a very carefully prepared and diplomatic fashion. I did tell the objecting person later that she was right.

 

So later I was telling my mom about it and she says, "Well, I guess you have to respect that if this is their field and their major. That's their belief. I'm sure there are some superstitions in science, too."

 

"No!" I said. "There are no superstitions in science! That's why it's SCIENCE!"

 

Only asinine superstitious beliefs could cause someone to believe that rave reviews, standing ovations, and (in a first for this little college) two consecutive sell-out performances constitute a run of bad luck.