Pete Bungum's BLOG - Day #26,046 in my journey through life.

It is Saturday, April 14, 2012 - I'm grateful for another day of "I'm HIV."

On this day in 1865 Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, in 1902 J.C. Penney opened his first store in Kemmerer, Wyoming, in 1912 the Titanic hit the iceberg at 11:40 PM, and in 1910 President William Howard Taft, was the first president to throw out the firat ball at a major league baseball game.

My fitness goals were accomplished this morning: I did yoga, the exercise ball and walked 50 minutes = 2.7 miles for an April total of 32.7 miles.
My weight was at 164.0 pounds.

FRIDAY THE 13th.

Yesterday was Friday the 13th and it is considered an unlucky day. It will be the only one in 2012. I did a little research to find out some reasons why. There were many explanation given but the three most frequently mentioned were:

1. At the Last Supper there were 13 people - Jesus and the 12 disciples and Jesue was crucified on a Friday.

2. This one was new to me but the second most frequently mentioned had to do with the KNIGHTS TEMPLAR in 14th century France. The Knights Templar were the soldiers/militia who protected the Crusaders when they went to Jerusalem to fight the Moslems in the 1100s and 1200s. In the 1300s they had become so strong militarily and economically in France that the king of France (Philip IV) decided they were getting so strong that they were becominga threat to his power. So in association with the Pope he decided to arrest them all and charge them with heresy. They were rounded up and most of them died in the next couple of years. They were tortured in order to make them admit to their heresies - many died from the torture and some were burned at the stake. So what does this have to do with Friday the 13th? The order to arrest them and round them up was given on Friday the 13th. As I said, I had never heard this reason before.

3. A third reason mentioned had to do with Norse mythhology. According to the myth the 12 main Norse gods were meeting at Valhalla . Some how a 13th dude appeared and caused one of the 12 gods to murder another god - in other words he messed things up pretty bad. There is more to the story but that is the essence of it. So number 13 was the cause of the problem.


Hee are some examples of the sordid history of Friday the 13th.

- In March, 1964: The "The Good Friday" earthquake wasn't so good. It remains the largest earthquake in North America history, killing 131 people near Prince William Sound in Alaska.
- In a traditional hangman's noose there are 13 twists of the rope and 13 steps to the gallows.
- There is no 13th Avenue in San Francisco.
- In Formula 1 racing, there is no car with the number 13.
- Hotels and many other buildings do not have a 13th floor.
- Killers Charles Manson, Saddam Hussein, Jeffrey Dahmer, John Wayne Gacy, Theodore Bundy, and Jack The Ripper each have 13 letters in their names.
- Al Capone was sentenced to prison on Friday the 13th.
- Benny Goodman, the King of Swing, died on Friday the 13th.
- Hubert Humphrey. 38th vice president of the U.S. and Senator from Minnesota, died on Friday the 13th.