Useful can be such an ugly word.
What is “useful”, after all? One person’s trash is another person’s useful, as the saying goes, and as sayings go that’s one saying that goes straight to the heart of the matter.
So, ok, sure, the Is Today Friday the 13th? site may not tell you the price of a first-class stamp in the US, but when (complete stranger) Mr. Jason Kottke referred to priceofastamp.com as “a genuinely useful new Single Serving Site”, we can’t help but say that our lil’ superstition lovin’ hearts were crestfallen.
Not “our”, in the sense of the writer of this post, per se, so much as the Triskaidekaphobia organization as a whole.
Ok, and actually, “crestfallen”, although approved via Editorial for this post, is just way, way too strong a way to put it.
Still! The fact remains, that as the saying goes, one person’s trash is another person’s useful. In this Year of 13ths, you just never know when the next Friday the 13th may be happening. We’ve had one already, and one is just down the hallway, four days away, waiting to get you, what with the bad luck, and the misfortunes, and the Young Widows playing at the Drunken Unicorn, and the like.
If you’re superstitious—and a recent poll of people calling themselves superstitious showed that a whopping 100% percent of them reported having one superstition or another—then you know that you shouldn’t tempt fate! Use the internet to help you! More helpful than a Nigerian prince separated from his money, Is Today Friday the 13th? can help you answer the really tough questions in life.
These are but a few examples:
The list goes on and on!
Take it from the “crestfallen” so-called gatekeepers of 13: you can never have too much information, no matter how minute, delivered via a variety of technologies over the internet, especially related to the number 13.
Useful?
As a description, as a gauge, as a reason for being, Useful is overrated.