Paraskavedekatriaphobia.

That sesquipedalian monstrosity is a word meaning "the fear of Friday the 13th." Apparently, this phobia is so widespread that it gets its own Greek term.

Tomorrow is Friday the 13th, a day long held to be one of the unluckiest in the year. M. Night Shyamalan's new film, The Happening, is opening tomorrow, with what I suppose is to be a metaphorical symbolism of some sort (although if you really subscribe to superstitions, I should think you'd avoid beginning a financial venture of that caliber on the unluckiest day of the year).

However, at least if one lives in the Netherlands, Friday the 13th may be a bit luckier...at least for your property. A new study shows that "fewer accidents and reports of fire and theft occur when the 13th of the month falls on a Friday than on other Fridays." Furthermore, the number of traffic accidents reported during the study fell by 300, from 7,800 on a typical Friday to 7,500 on a Friday the 13th. Perhaps, like some of the 21 million Americans who suffer from paraskavedekatriaphobia, those Dutch people just can't make themselves leave the house.

However, not all are so lucky. A study in the British Medical Journal found that the number of hospital admissions for traffic-related injuries in Britain rose rather significantly on Fridays which were also the 13th of the month (up to a 52 percent increase).

The moral of all this? Clearly, the only place to be on a Friday the 13th is Amsterdam. Guess I need to cash in those frequent-flier miles.