OK, here are answers to my little pop quiz.
#1, 4 and 6 are Filipino superstitions.
#2, 3, and 5 are English superstitions or old wives tales.
#7 is actually true, in a way. Opium is derived from poppy seeds, and you can fail a drug test after ingesting too many poppy seeds (as in a poppy seed bagel, like Elaine on Seinfeld did!) This website found a record of a young man actually dying from consuming poppy seed tea. Urban legend? I don't know.
What else is true? Graham INSISTS #2 is true and his parents INSIST #3 is true but I have actually read food articles by nutritionists/pediatricians stating that OJ, crackers and cheese are a good bedtime snack for kids. I myself have eaten all 3 foods near bedtime with no adverse effects. So go figure.
These were so much fun to read about! Great post!
ReplyDeletetotally fun superstitions! my dad lived in spain for two years and he did the grape thing, although he never mentioned jumping up and down. ;-D
ReplyDeleteinteresting...and fun! nowadays, we can't even tell these to our kids.
ReplyDeleteLiked this. Interesting post.
ReplyDeleteWow I have never heard of any of these before...interesting! I love the grape one...I'm totally trying it this new years. :)
ReplyDeleteI could see OJ making you hyperactive - its full of easily digestable sugars. But sugar doesn't make all of us hyper...and the cheese thing? I'm obsessed with cheese and eat it whenever possible and especially as a late night snack...and I'm relatively sane. If the wet hair one is true I'll be very blind when I'm old :)
As for the poppy seed one - being a lab geek I've read in publications that there are opiate compounds in the seeds that will cause you to fail a drug test (even enough on a poppyseed bagel to do it!), but you'd have to ingest enough to pretty much make you sick before you'd even begin to feel nausious...I doubt unless you were allergic to it if it would cause a problem...although your body doesn't filter out opiates well though so if you ate a tonne of them every day for a week maybe...? Seems a pretty slow and tedious way to try and kill yourself.
Wow...being a biochemist means I know a lot of useless things I guess. Just had to say hi and comment on your post. It's so interesting to hear new superstitions.
The cake you made for your husband looks yummy BTW :)