Superstition - do you have any superstitions? I have one that’s too silly for words. If I am going out, leaving the house that is, I have to put my right shoe on first or I feel decidedly uncomfortable as though some disaster threatens. If not going out it doesn’t

matter which foot goes in first. How and why and when this started I have no idea. But superstition on a wider scale and I am not just talking myth and religion here. Well, yes, I am to a certain extent. Superstition number one – In Israel it is said a group of ultra-orthodox rabbis have sentenced a dog to death by stoning. Why? It entered their bank, I think it was, and refused to leave and one of the rabbis remembered that about twenty years previously one of their number died and his spirit entered the body of a dog. Could this be the very same dog and should the spirit be released? It was even said that they asked children to perform the stoning. Many years ago superstition for some had it that machinery involved in a death had to be destroyed and an animal subjected to sexual assault, through no fault of its own, was also condemned to die. In the case of the dog there have been furious denials but I ask the old question about smoke and fire. Anyway evidently the dog sensed what was good for it and made its exit.

Superstition number two – We know all about the belief that the number 666 is the mark of the devil but in Afghanistan it is believed the number 39 is bad bad bad and to be avoided if at all possible. This is a fairly recent phenomenon and no one knows how this started but it is evidently spreading like wildfire. It is rumoured that the number plate of a pimp’s car contained the number 39 since when no one wants a number plate with that number. According to one driver he has been terribly embarrassed because men shout out to him, “Bring the girls to my place!” This has created quite a quandary for the traffic department because all the number plates at this time contain the number 39 and no one wants them. Car sales have slumped (which can’t be a bad thing except for the dealers) and it is alleged officials in the licensing department for a bribe will issue a plate without the offending number. There’s always someone willing to jump on the bandwagon. They evidently can’t wait for the 39’s to come to an end and the 40’s to start. Mind you, that’s not to say someone might not start a superstitious rumour over the number 40.