Today’s Not Their Day : Friday the 13th Puts Crimp in Plans

It’s Friday the 13th--when even those people who are not super superstitious think twice about getting on an airplane or making an important business decision. And for Curt Lyon, the day already is doomed to go up in smoke.

His Newport Beach company, Lyon Studios, produces commercials. And today’s job stars a Gremlin slated for a date with dynamite after its fictitious owner wins a new Camaro--an explosive contest sponsored by the Circle K convenience store chain.

“I’m freaking out,” Lyon said. “It’ll be a dangerous undertaking. I tried to think of everything possible not to shoot it on Friday the 13th. But they told us they needed the commercial by Saturday, and we were booked the rest of the week.”

Wyatt Haupt, assistant manager of Mail Boxes & More in Irvine, said that fewer people entrust the U.S. Postal Service with critical documents on the Friday that gets no respect. “They come in here and say, ‘What’s today’s date? Oh, Friday the 13th! I better not mail this today--it might get lost,’ ” he said.

However, people often take pleasure in signing some documents--especially divorce papers--on Friday the 13th, said Haupt, a notary public: “They say, ‘This is an appropriate day to do this.’ ”

Sky divers also take morbid delight in the day, said Chris Graham, office manager of Perris Valley Sky Diving School. “It’s a busy day for us--people specifically schedule jumps,” she said. “Diving on Friday the 13th makes the experience all the more daring.”

But less-daring souls want to keep their feet solidly on the ground. “I have to be on a plane Friday, and I’m not happy about it,” said David Willis, president of Corporate Real Estate Advisors, an Irvine firm that helps companies make site selections. “If my seat was on aisle 13, I think I’d cancel.”

Indeed, aisle 13 is the last to go on airplanes, said Sonja Lockshaw, a travel agent with Alpha Omega Travel in Irvine. “If someone wants an aisle seat and only aisle 13 is left, they’ll say, ‘Give me a window seat somewhere else,’ ” she said.

Customers make comments about the day, Lockshaw said, but they seldom actually back out of flights. Pragmatism won out over superstition with one customer this week. “He realized he was on a prop plane to Las Vegas on Friday the 13th, and asked me to switch him to a jet,” she said. “But when he found out how much the additional air fare was to change to another airline, he stayed put.”

Rieva Lesonsky, editor of Entrepreneur in Irvine, said that every day is Friday the 13th for her, but the real thing amplifies her fears.

“We’re a superstitious lot in the editorial department. We’re constantly knocking on wood,” she said. “On Friday the 13th, I’m even more paranoid.”

She will put out their smaller monthly magazine, “Business Start-Ups,” today. “I was once told that anytime something crucial is happening, I should wear red. So I will have red somewhere on my person,” she said.

Triskaidekaphobia: fear of the number 13. More than black cats and broken mirrors, more than stepping on cracks or walking under ladders, it is probably the most prevalent superstition among otherwise reasonable people.

“We think it goes back to witches’ covens in pre-Christian times, when 13 was the accepted number in the group,” said Gerald Larue, who teaches religion at USC. “In Christianity, it’s associated with Jesus and the 12 disciples, which makes 13. And Friday was the day Jesus was killed.”

People cling to superstitions because they are prone to “magical thinking,” Larue said: “As children, we believe we have certain powers--that if we wish something, it will come true. And sometimes things we wished for did come true, reinforcing the idea. Sometimes we stepped on a crack and Mom did get a backache, or something bad did happen on Friday the 13th. Then we carry these beliefs into adulthood.”

Rational or irrational, Phil Adam knows this: “I will not go anywhere near an airport on Friday the 13th, I will not sign contracts, and I typically don’t even set up meetings on a Friday the 13th.”

Adam is vice president of business development for Interplay Productions Inc., a computer and video game maker in Irvine. As such, he acquires products and signs off on new business ventures.

“It’s very important to start out on the right foot,” he said. “And in my book, Friday the 13th is not the day to get anything off on the right foot.”