Superstitious theater

The theatrical world is full of different superstitions such as ghosts, whistling being bad luck, "Break a Leg" and sleeping with your script under your pillow to learn your lines. The most famous, however, is The Scottish Play.

Before I continue, I wish to explain to you a couple ghostly superstitions. A general superstition about ghosts is that a theater should be closed one night of every week. Interesting superstition, but why is it brought about? Well, generally if a ghost is attracted to a theater they would naturally be the theater type. Maybe they want to perform their own show? This is the exact reason a theater should be closed one night a week, to allow the ghosts to perform their own show. This is not, however, the only ghostly superstition of the theater. There is also Thespis and the idea of a ghost light.

A ghost light is a light that is always left on in the theater. Some say it is to ward off ghosts, others saying to give the theater's ghosts some light to see so they are not angry. Many say, however, that it is to keep non-spectral personnel from walking into the pit, which they could not see in the dark.

MACBETH! CLICK TO SEE A HISTORICAL VIDEO ON THE CURSE
If you read that out loud I urge you to please walk outside, spin around three times, spit, curse, and then knock and request permission to re-enter the building. That is, if you are in a theater of course. Why? You just cursed the theater. No, seriously, anytime that name is spoken in a theater, there is surely something to go wrong that night. I've almost died a few times after someone spoke it. Well, I'll admit I was looking for something to go wrong so I'm sure it would have happened either way.

This curse was first originated by the fact that anyone who played Macbeth would somehow get killed in the process of the show. Somehow, the fake swords that were supposed to be used in the show suddenly became real and many people have died. One explanation for why it is cursed is the idea that the incantations which the weird sisters have in the show, are actual curses.

Like I stated before, though, when someone speaks the name I tend to look for something to go wrong. This puts my guard down and there is more likely something to go wrong. It could very well all be in the mind and work kind of how a horoscope works. Someone gives you something vague and interpretive to look at, and you try to mold your life/day around it instead of allowing it to mold itself around your life/day.

Vitamin C & My Mom

My Mom used to always tell me to take a vitamin c supplement when I had a cold.  She used to hand me these large pills when she detected a sniffle or when cold season was around. I always felt good feeling that the magic vitamin c was doing something to help me fend off or even overcome my cold.  When I was older, living on my own and couldn't afford the $30 bottles of love I would faithfully drink orange juice hoping for the same effect.  It seemed that every time I took my C or drank my juice the cold would go away a few days later.  I don't remember what happened if I forgot to take the supplement.

In the past few years I have purposely stopped taking vitamin c when i've had a cold, just to see what would happen.  Turns out I still get over my colds in the same amount of time, as far as I can tell.  Also seems that a scientific consensus has been building and shows that vitamin c has no greater effect than placebos for the common cold (WebMd). In fact large doses can actually cause health problems (slate).  Does anyone remember Airborne?  Wasn't it invented by some elementary school teacher who claimed her pupils were infecting her constantly and fizzy vitamin c concoctions were a sure fire prevention?  Looks like she used fake evidence in a phoney lab to back up her potion's claims (consumerist).

In the end it looks like our own bodies' immune systems do best at miraculously curing ourselves from colds and they don't need any help except for a balanced diet and some exercise. The perceived effects of vitamin c are likely what psychologists call a cognitive determinant of a questionable belief or a confirmatory bias (Thomas Gilovich).  In other words when people look for evidence they tend to look for information that confirms their ideas. So now when I visit my mother and she offers me my vitamin c supplement I think of it as her way of saying that she loves me and cares about me.

But I found a great cure for headaches!