19 April: Knife superstitions

In the French Revolutionary calendar, today was the day of the knife. 10 superstitions about knives.

1. Giving a knife as a gift will sever a friendship unless the recipient gives the giver a coin, which makes the gift a purchase instead. This superstition is said to date back to the Vikings, who believed that giving someone a knife implied they were too poor to buy their own. This would have been an insult.

2. It’s bad luck to stir anything using a knife. The saying goes, stir with a knife and stir up strife.

3. Crossed knives on a table mean there will be a quarrel unless the knives are uncrossed immediately. A knife crossed with a fork, in Catholic countries is said to be an insult to the cross. In the 17^th century, it was believed that a knife crossing another piece of cutlery was a sign of witchcraft. In some parts, crossing a knife with a for or spoon might be interpreted as an insult to the cook.

4. In Greece, a black-handled knife placed under the pillow is used to keep away nightmares. In China, sleeping with a knife under the Bed or under the pillow keeps evil spirits away.

5. Putting a knife under the bed of a woman giving birth is said to ease her pain.

6. Some people believe that sharpening a blade after the sun goes down is bad luck.

7. Knives were included in some Anglo-Saxon burial rites, so the dead person would not be defenceless in the next world.

8. Dropping knives: a common belief is that if you drop a knife, a man will visit you and your luck will change, for better or worse. A variation is that luck will come from the direction the knife is pointing in when it lands. In Iceland, if someone drops a knife while cleaning fish and the knife points in the direction of the sea, the fisherman will get a good haul the next time he goes fishing. If it points inland, however, he won’t catch anything.

9. It is bad luck to say the word "knife" while at sea.

10. A common superstition from Romania is that if you play with knives, your guardian angel will run away.

Beta

(Combat Team Series #2)

Steff was abducted by an evil alien race, the Orbs, at fourteen. Used as a weapon for years, he eventually escapes, but his problems are just beginning. How does a man support himself when his only work experience is a paper round and using an Orb bio-integrated gun?

Warlord is an alien soldier who knows little but war. When the centuries-old conflict which ravaged his planet ends, he seeks out another world where his skills are still relevant. There are always wars on Earth, it seems. However, none of Earth's powerful armies want him.

Natalie has always wanted to visit England and sees a chance to do so while using her martial arts skills, but there are sacrifices she must make in order to fulfil her dream. 

Maggie resorted to crime to fund her sister's medical care. She uses her genetic variant abilities to gain access to the rooms of wealthy hotel guests. The Ballards look like rich pickings, but they are not what they seem. When Maggie targets them, little does she know that she is walking into a trap.

Hotel owner Hamilton Lonsdale puts together a combat team to pit against those of other multi-millionaires. He recruits Warlord, Natalie, Maggie and Steff along with a trained gorilla, a probability-altering alien, a stockbroker whose work of art proved to be much more than he'd bargained for, a marketing officer who can create psionic forcefields, a teleporting member of the landed gentry, and a socially awkward fixer. This is Combat Team Beta.

Steff never talks about his time with the Orbs, until he finds a woman who lived through it, too. Steff believes he has finally found happiness, but it is destined to be short-lived. He is left with an unusual legacy which he and Team Beta struggle to comprehend; including why something out there seems determined to destroy it.

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