As luck would have it (unluck?), Team Scrawl had technical issues with this week’s episode and wasn’t able to record it for future listenings. So, here’s the rundown of our spooky, trivia-filled, Friday the 13th episode.
New members
With a new quarter comes new team members. Matthew, Brendan P.’s usual guest host, has resumed his position in the production and planning of Scrawl. Kate H. is back from studying abroad and in the co-host seat next to Brendan. We welcomed back Robert D. as our post-production man as a guest, and we introduced our newest team member, Kathryn T. Moving forward, we expect Kathryn to take on a role of something like a correspondent—doing interviews, recording events like open mics and poetry readings, and giving us clips to play on-air. This week, she was also a guest who gave Brendan some competition during Scrawl Brawl.
Friday the 13th Origins
We began the show by discussing the origins of Friday the 13th and how they are mostly unknown and unconfirmed. The first written instance of the unluckiness of Friday the 13th didn’t appear until the 19th century, making it somewhat of a newer superstition. We talked about how written texts are what reveal the origins of most things.
We also discussed the way some superstitions come from common sense (i.e., don’t open an umbrella indoors, don’t walk under a ladder), and how some come from pure nonsense (i.e., saying “rabbit rabbit rabbit” on the first of the month for good luck, sailors whistling being forbidden because it was said to be “challenging the wind” and could bring on a great storm). Ultimately, it’s interesting to observe how these sayings and superstitions that have been passed down through word of mouth and through writing affect how people act today.
What about you?
Writers—do you have any writing superstitions? Do you wear the same jacket every time you write? Do you edit, edit, edit so that a chapter doesn’t have 13 pages?
You can listen to Scrawl radio every Friday from 11am-noon on the Radio DePaul website, or through the Radio DePaul app, and on ITUNES by searching the UCWbL. Be sure to check the UCWbL out on Facebook, Twitter, and Digication!