In which Seanan is superstitious and going to Australia.

[seanan_mcguire]

I am weirdly superstitious. I say "weirdly" because the things about which I am superstitious tend to be, well, weird. I think black cats and the number thirteen are lucky, but I won't walk under a ladder (at least in part because I don't want anyone dropping paint on me). Finding a penny on the street is cause for celebration and declarations

Comments

[azurelunatic]

I am similarly superstitious about walking under ladders, and also about waving around umbrellas in the house. I got the ladder thing from my father, who can, upon request, display the dent in his skull caused by a waffle-headed hammer falling upon it when he walked under a ladder. He tells me that it was a very entertaining wound, because it was all waffly, and that he said some very entertaining things when it happened.

[seanan_mcguire]

YOW!

[saffronrose]

that's at least a start on getting your money converted. I've never seen one, much less on the street!
Loonies, doubleloonies, I have them, but no Australian coinage.

[seanan_mcguire]

I've got quite a bit, on account of I've been hoarding it for years.

[saffronrose]

Good for you!

[aliciaaudrey]

Pony-side huntsmen spiders sound rather like the subject of my worst nightmares.

I've never been overly superstitious as an adult (except I am convinced I am perhaps the human incarnation of a minor deity of bad luck and that the epicenter of my bad luck is centered squarely on my birthday.) Yet I believe I too would take the auspicious finding of Australian coinage as a lucky sign indeed. Good luck!

[seanan_mcguire]

I probably wouldn't be too thrilled to encounter one in real life, but in the dream, it seemed perfectly reasonable.

[sysrae]

A point of potential interest: in my family, we refer to huntsmen and other big hairy spiders as triantewobagongs. I suspect this is not so much a little-known Australian slang term as it is definitive proof that I come from a crazy clan of word-maker-uperers, but even so. Also: my father is the only person I have ever met who addresses all animals - but particularly spiders - as 'sir'.

[princess_kessie]

Heh. I suspect that term started from the poem by CJ Dennis: The Triantiwontigongolope, and your family just reinvented it by adding another Aussie animal, the wobbegong (a type of carpet shark, for those non-Aussie readers). I personally have not heard the term before, but there is every possibility it could be well-known vernacular in your local area :)

I think it fits well :B

[sysrae]

OK, that makes PERFECT SENSE. My dad is a CJ Dennis fan, and I suspect that we originally did say triantiwontigong, but that I made a malapropsism of it as a kid: thus, triantewobagong, which I personally prefer. I've never heard anyone use it outside our family, but then, CJ Dennis isn't exactly well-known among the younger generations, given that he died in 1937. But Songs of a Sentimental Bloke still = great stuff :)

[seanan_mcguire]

Hee!

[stagemanager]

There is no such thing as 'coincidence.' Therefore, finding the AUS$2 coin is a Good Omen.

[princess_kessie]

Agreed :)

[seanan_mcguire]

I surely hope so.