{"id":26967,"date":"2009-08-23T14:15:30","date_gmt":"2009-08-23T14:15:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scienceblogs.com\/gregladen\/2009\/08\/23\/the-anxiety-of-the-threes\/"},"modified":"2009-08-23T14:15:30","modified_gmt":"2009-08-23T14:15:30","slug":"the-anxiety-of-the-threes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregladen.com\/blog\/2009\/08\/23\/the-anxiety-of-the-threes\/","title":{"rendered":"The anxiety of the threes"},"content":{"rendered":"

So, bad things come in threes, right? Well, no, we don’t believe that. This discussion came up after the recent death of Michale Jackson. A rumor of the death of another celebrity came along (that rumor was incorrect) and this somehow sparked a discussion of there “needing to be” a third death to fulfill the prophecy of the three … because Farah Fawcett had died, then Michale Jackson, and then ….. OMG!! Who was going to be next!!!
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\nThen, of course, it was pointed out that David Caridine had died earlier. Or was it Ed McMahon. Or someone else. And the whole thing got kind of silly. People started discussing which celebrities should be counted in “the three.” And people started noticing that the total number of celebrities that had died in the previous few weeks was rather large. Eventually, the question was well addressed here on Quiche Moraine<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Well, the other day, something bad happened to someone I know. I won’t go into details or give names, and this is not funny so don’t laugh<\/em>.<\/p>\n

OK, so this person I know bought a new car with the Cash for Clunkers program. Within hours after owing the new car, she found herself on a construction site and while there backed into a front loader bucket that had been carelessly left on the ground, down low where you could not possibly see it, right in the middle of the road. First day, first dent.<\/p>\n

A couple of days later, she had gone off to meet someone, and while on the way to the meeting place, accidentally ran into the person she was meeting. (Don’t laugh!<\/em>) The person was in a car, it was at an intersection, it was complicated. One of those things that make you really understand why No Fault insurance makes sense. First week, two dents, one in front and one in back.<\/p>\n

How could things be worse?<\/p>\n

Well, that would be the subsequent Friday (don’t laugh!<\/em>), when she was on her way out state for a family gathering. Driving on the highway at speed, and some truck throws up a stone and pings her windshield.<\/p>\n

By this time, what started out as grief for the damage to the new car became more of a hopeless laughter … something between a nervous chortle and a cynical guffaw. A kind of chortfaw. Anyway, it wasn’t pretty, but at least it wasn’t uncontrolled crying or screaming or anything non-Minnesotan like that.<\/p>\n

So later that same day, sitting around with family, a relative comforted the young woman like this:<\/p>\n

“Well, at least it’s over!”<\/p>\n

“What do you mean, ‘over’?”<\/p>\n

“Bad things come in threes. The wind shield crack is the third thing. You’re outta the woods for now.”<\/p>\n

“Oh, yeah … (a bit more nervous chortfaw) … Good. I can relax now.”<\/p>\n

Everyone else nodded in assent. It was over. Things come in threes.<\/p>\n

The person who did the comforting is a professional skeptic. I asked her later on “You don’t believe that, right?”<\/p>\n

“No, of course not, but I wanted to help her feel better.”<\/p>\n

OK, whatever.<\/p>\n

So, a few minutes ago the news just came through.<\/p>\n

Another stone thrown up by a truck. The windshield now has two cracks.<\/p>\n

What are the chances of that happening?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So, bad things come in threes, right? Well, no, we don’t believe that. This discussion came up after the recent death of Michale Jackson. A rumor of the death of another celebrity came along (that rumor was incorrect) and this somehow sparked a discussion of there “needing to be” a third death to fulfill the … Continue reading The anxiety of the threes<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"1","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[321],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5fhV1-70X","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregladen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26967"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregladen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregladen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregladen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregladen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26967"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gregladen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26967\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregladen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregladen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregladen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}