May 16, 2005 - 'Eds Up on Friday

Friday the thirteenth is a superstitious day of bad luck. It’s not a day to walk under ladders or hang out around black cats, or handle slippery saltshakers. In other words, it’s not a good day for taking chances. The good thing about bad luck, though, is that there is always an antidote. You can knock on wood, or throw the spilled salt over your left shoulder, or, in some cultures (and if your mom’s not looking), spit. All of these things will guarantee that your life is put back on the lucky path it may have strayed from.

It was Friday the Thirteenth last Friday, so the dedicated staff of edhat.com decided to spread a little good luck around. Armed with one hundred pennies, we took to the street – State Street, that is. At around noon, we walked down the block of State between Figueroa and Carrillo casually dropping pennies on the sidewalk. Then we crossed to the other side and did the same. We wanted to see how many pennies would be left if we came back in an hour. After our strenuous two-block walk, we stopped at Tuttini for a quick working lunch, then headed back out to the bricks.

Speaking of bricks, did you know that the bricks that make up the sidewalk all along State Street are roughly the same color as pennies? Just a little food for thought. Along our route, we were met with a few stares, but if there’s one thing the dedicated staff has learned, it’s that Santa Barbara is definitely a live-and-let-live town. The two guys sitting in front of the Sprint store did ask us what we were doing and we were happy to tell them. On our return trip, they reported that they had witnessed a woman and two men picking up a penny or two. “Normal looking people” was how they described them.

We asked the Sprint guys why they didn’t pick the pennies up. “Wrong side up.” They said. Hmm. So, as we collected the remaining pennies, we counted how many tails were left and how many heads. We ended up with more heads than tails, debunking that particular theory. It’s heartening to know, that in this day and age when pennies have just about no monetary value, they are still valued for the mystical power they contain – the power of good luck.

On our return journey down Penny Lane, we picked-up all the unclaimed pennies and put them in our dedicated pockets. And when our work was done, we had retrieved 27 of them. Of course some of the ones we retrieved might have been not the ones we left (unlikely), and there might have been one or two pennies left behind, but 27 is the number we are sticking with.

Everyone knows that it is better luck to give away found coins. We decided to stack our coins on top of the one-eyed black cat that guards the Victoria Court parking lot.

In yesterday’s contest, 2 subscribers guessed 27 – Cari (good name for Friday the 13th and the fact that the DP prom was this weekend) and Eyedoc (a good name for what we needed after searching for pennies). The Edhat dog, neither black nor a cat, was called into action to decided the tie. Cari had the winning biscuit. She wins an Edhat t-shirt!

Want to get instant fame and cool prizes? ... enter today’s contest

We want to hear from you ... tell us what you think of this tidbit