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Vendredi le treize

Plucked from my daily investing newsletter:

Today could be a day of horror for superstitious people who dread the number 13. According to a German professor, not only will the date be Friday the 13th, but all the digits in the numeric notation of the date add up to 13 as well.

Whichever way round the date is written – 13-10-2006 or 2006-10-13 – the sum of all the digits adds up to 13, notes Heinrich Hemme, who teaches physics at the University of Aachen.

The last time 13 coincided this way was Friday, January 13, 1520. What is more, Hemme established that 2006 is the first year since 1411 where Friday the 13th occurs twice – January 13, 2006 was a Friday.

More horrors are in store: May 13, 2011 will also be a double-13 Friday.

October 13, 2006 - 5:11 pm

dan - Delayed 2 hrs so far … I love business travel!

October 13, 2006 - 10:14 pm

sheldon - … stuck in Vancouver airport… buying a new round each time the flight is delayed… the bartender is begging for a break, he just left the bar and we nominated Dan to take over, because of his experience in these matters… not sure how much longer we can keep this up…

Maybe we won’t be flying to China on Friday the 13th after all. Latest word is we’ll be delayed until after midnight (from the original 2 o’clock departure). Maybe that German professor was onto something with the “day of horrors”.

… departure has just been postponed to 12:30 am… we’re debating if this is just a stalling tactic (so far everything else has been, for example the 3 pm departure, the 3:30 departure, the 4 pm departure, the 4:30 departure, the 7:45 pm departure… I think you get the picture). Doesn’t Vancouver have a bylaw banning takeoffs after midnight?

[break for an update on the bar situation]
the bartender is back after his smoke break, but now there’s no more draft. The Granville Island ran out a few hours ago, and now the Canadian is gone… it will be a long night…
[now back to your regularly scheduled blog]

We met an interesting man from Drayton Valley, Alberta. He’s flying to Tanzania to check out an orphanage that he’s going to be sponsoring. The orphanage supports something like 100 kids, and will close unless it gets money soon. The amazing thing is that it only takes $6000 a year to keep the place running! That’s $60 per year per kid… How long does it take you to burn through 60 bucks? I think our bar tab this afternoon is well over that…

8pm update: Air Canada is paying for dinner at a Chinese take out place in the food court, up to a max of $8… too bad this doesn’t buy much in YVR! It’s a good thing the flight doesn’t leave for 4 hours… I wouldn’t let Dan on a plane right now. I’m glad he didn’t carry through on his plan to put mustard and ketchup on the Shanghai noodles. I think a nap is in order now.

October 14, 2006 - 5:35 pm

shannen - FINALLY! A flight from hell that can’t be blamed on my bad luck!

An 11 hour flight delay is easily the worst way to spend a Friday. Good thing there was beer at your disposal to ease the pain.

October 15, 2006 - 11:22 am

Gary - Is Sheldon a real person that’s travelling to China with Dan, an alias of Dan, or Dan’s imaginary friend much like the bartender in The Shining?

October 15, 2006 - 12:12 pm

dan - Haha! Sheldon’s real – I swear.

The flight ended up leaving 11 hrs late, and after 2 planes, 1 bus, 1 boat, 2 taxis, and over 40 hrs since leaving the house on Friday morning, we arrived safely at our hotel.

I didn’t get my picks to you in time, but here’s what they would have been: STL, CAR, ATL, CHI, KC, PHI, CIN, DAL, DEN, NYJ, BUF, WAS, SD.

Back to not being able to sleep at 1am …

November 9, 2006 - 1:48 pm

forgetful.ca » WestJet, I love you. - […] In case anyone hasn’t flown this airline before, I should let you know that it may be your best flight experience ever.  There is no guarantee, of course, that all will flow smoothly, but after having flown Westjet to Vegas and back, I’m an airline convert.  Our last 6 return flights or so have been on Air Canada and thay have been disasterous.  Awful.  Unbearable.  I’d easily give up collecting Aeroplan points (which has been quite rewarding for us in the past) if it meant leaving and arriving on time and actually making connections between cities.  […]

November 9, 2006 - 1:48 pm

forgetful.ca » WestJet, I love you. - […] In case anyone hasn’t flown this airline before, I should let you know that it may be your best flight experience ever.  There is no guarantee, of course, that all will flow smoothly, but after having flown Westjet to Vegas and back, I’m an airline convert.  Our last 6 return flights or so have been on Air Canada and thay have been disasterous.  Awful.  Unbearable.  I’d easily give up collecting Aeroplan points (which has been quite rewarding for us in the past) if it meant leaving and arriving on time and actually making connections between cities.  […]

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