Episode 154: Adding It Up (ad-free)

Everywhere you go these days, there are superstitions. Many are modern, and not much more than clever word games or rhymes designed to help us remember things. But a few are older, with roots in a past that’s a bit darker than we’d like to admit. 

————————

Further Reading  

1. Jonathan Carr, Mahler: A Biography (Woodstock: Overlook Press, 1998).
2. Melissa Chan, “Why Friday the 13th Is a Real Nightmare for Some People,” Time, October 13, 2017. https://time.com/4979595/friday-the-13th-triskaidekaphobia.
3. Cara Giaimo, “The 1880s Supper Club That Loved Bad Luck,” Atlas Obscura, April 25, 2017, https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/thirteen-club-superstition-new-york.
4. Ethan Haimo, Schoenberg’s Serial Odyssey: The Evolution of His Twelve-Tone Method, 1914-1928 (Oxford: Clarendon, 1990).
5. Brian Handwerk, “Friday the 13th Is Back. Here's Why It Scares Us,” National Geographic, April 12, 2018, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2017/10/what-is-friday-13th-superstition-facts-science.
6. Norman Lebrecht, The Book of Musical Anecdotes (New York: Free Press, 1985).
7. Malcolm MacDonald, Schoenberg (London: J. M. Dent & Sons, Ltd., 1976).
8. Deborah Jane Murrell, Ray Burrows, and Corinne Burrows, Superstitions: 1,013 of the Wackiest Myths, Fables & Old Wives Tales (Pleasantville: Readers Digest, 2008).
9. Dika Newlin, Bruckner, Mahler, Schoenberg (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1978).
10. Jeffrey K. Olick, In the House of the Hangman: The Agonies of German Defeat, 1943-1949 (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2013).
11. Chris Opfer, “Does Your Body Really Replace Itself Every Seven Years?” How Stuff Works, June 6, 2014, https://science.howstuffworks.com/life/cellular-microscopic/does-body-really-replace-seven-years.htm.
12. Charles Panati, Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things (New York, NY: Harper & Row, 1987).
13. Warren Perry, “National Portrait Gallery Blog,” National Portrait Gallery Blog (blog). Smithsonian Institute. Accessed May 1, 2020, https://npg.si.edu/blog/fears-fearless-fdr-president’s-superstitions-friday-13th.
14. Georg Predota, “Why Arnold Schoenberg Was Terrified of the Number 13,” Interludes, May 9, 2014, https://interlude.hk/friday-the-13tharnold-schoenberg-and-triskaidekaphobia.
15. Chloe Rhodes, Black Cats and Evil Eyes: A Book of Old-Fashioned Superstitions (London: Michael O’Mara Books Limited, 2015).
16. Aja Romano, “Friday the 13th Isn't Unlucky. It's a Meme Disguised as Superstition,” Vox, October 13, 2017, https://www.vox.com/culture/2017/10/13/16465896/friday-the-13th-origin-history.
17. Sadie Stein, “Morituri Te Salutamus,” The Paris Review, March 13, 2015, https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2015/03/13/morituri-te-salutamus.
18. Hans Heinz Stuckenschmidt, Schoenberg: His Life, World, and Work (New York: Schirmer Books, 1977).