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Short Stuff: Why Spilling Salt is Unlucky · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to the Short Stuff. I'm Josh and
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: there's Chuck and we're doing it by ourselves, doing it
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: in the park, doing it after dark. It's short stuff.
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And you know what, this was a little treat
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: for me because this is one of the old House
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: Stuff Works articles written by Debbie Ronkham, my good friend.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yep, I saw that. When I picked that, I
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: was like, Chuck's gonna love this. Yeah.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: That was a time when we were writing there where
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: I ended up getting quite a few of my friends
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  Speaker 2: freelance jobs, and Debbie was one of them. And we
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: just saw deb at our show in Boston.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Hey, Debbie, so it's good to catch up with her. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: And she did a great job with this because it's
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: not easy to talk about superstitions and keep your wits
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: about you. You can get so scared, yeah, that you
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: are just going to get off track. You might stop
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: writing altogether. But she cloud through and came up with
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: a great article from How Stuff Works about why it's
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: bad luck to spill Because everybody knows it's bad luck
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: to spill salt, but why And then on top of that,
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  Speaker 1: have you ever noticed some people throw salt over their
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  Speaker 1: left shoulder when they spill it. I do. Why would
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  Speaker 1: we do that too.
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  Speaker 2: Here's the thing. I know that superstitions can be regional,
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: and I'm not seeing people in the South don't do this.
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  Speaker 2: But I've never seen anyone do this. I know it's
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  Speaker 2: a thing. I've heard of it, but I never did it.
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  Speaker 2: I don't. Maybe I've never spilled salt. I don't know,
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  Speaker 2: but I've never known people who did it, So it
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  Speaker 2: just wasn't a popular thing for me as like growing.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: Up or now, thrown it over your shoulder.
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I've never seen anyone do this stuff.
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: So, yeah, I do it every time. But it's possible though.
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: That's I guess I want to establish. You've known forever
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: that spilling salt is bad luck at least, right No?
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  Speaker 2: Oh, okay, I mean I've heard about it and seen
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  Speaker 2: it in movies, but it wasn't. It wasn't like a
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  Speaker 2: superstition that was prominent for me for some reason.
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: Okay, but you i'd heard of it, like, this isn't
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: like news to you?
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  Speaker 2: No, no, no, it wasn't news. I was just like,
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  Speaker 2: who does this? And why is everyone spilling salt?
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  Speaker 1: So, yeah, the thing about spilling salt in it being
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  Speaker 1: a superstition? Is it seems to be a really really
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  Speaker 1: old superstition that's been passed down through millennia essentially, and
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: it's still around today, which is kind of funny because
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  Speaker 1: I don't actually consider myself superstitious, but yet I still
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: throw salt over my left shoulder every time I spill it.
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: And I spill a lot of salt.
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: What does spilling salt mean? Like you reach for the
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: shaker and you tip it over by accident.
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  Speaker 1: I do it anytime the salt touches the counter or
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: anything aside from the salt box that I use.
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  Speaker 2: So like, if you're shaking a little salt on food
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  Speaker 2: and some like jumps off onto the counter, that you
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  Speaker 2: will that's considered spilling it.
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  Speaker 1: No, I don't actually know that you mentioned that. This
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: is more I'll grab a pinch out of the salt
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  Speaker 1: box and be salting stuff and if that gets messy
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  Speaker 1: then yeah, okay. It's almost like if I see it
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  Speaker 1: and notice it, then I will I will throw it
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  Speaker 1: over my shoulder, all right.
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  Speaker 2: I love it. I'm certainly not. I mean, I'm the
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  Speaker 2: weirdo that steps on a crack with their left foot.
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: Then has to step on a crack with their right flet.
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: So there's one thing we need to dispense with right
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: out of the gate, because there's it's a well known
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: fact that the word salary is derived from salt sal dare,
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: which means give salt in I think Latin, and that
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: that is how Roman soldiers used to be paid. That
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  Speaker 1: is not entirely correct, but it doesn't seem to be
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  Speaker 1: fully a myth either. Roman soldiers were partially paid in salt,
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: like they got a salt ration every day, or part
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  Speaker 1: of their money their pay, the actual coinage they were
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  Speaker 1: given was given to them to buy salt in part
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  Speaker 1: to buy salt.
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  Speaker 2: Now, we did a great episode on salt. I'm sure
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  Speaker 2: we talked about that. Do you remember what we said then.
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  Speaker 1: I think we said it was maybe even a myth altogether.
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  Speaker 1: I'm not sure.
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  Speaker 2: I don't know.
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  Speaker 1: It's just it's it's ambiguous enough that you can't say
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  Speaker 1: it's fully a myth or it's fully true.
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  Speaker 2: Right. But the idea then, in terms of this episode,
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  Speaker 2: is because salt was valuable, that could be one of
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  Speaker 2: the reasons or one of the origins of it being
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  Speaker 2: bad luck. Because you've just essentially spilled some money.
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  Speaker 1: It's yeah, exactly. That's that's the likeliest and widest held
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: explanation for why spilling salt would be considered bad luck.
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  Speaker 1: All right, what else you can kind of fast forward
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  Speaker 1: a few years to Leonardo da Vinci's painting of the
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  Speaker 1: Last Supper. I think that was in the sixteenth century
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  Speaker 1: that he did that. And if you look very closely,
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  Speaker 1: when Judas is scary out has spilled the salt.
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  Speaker 2: I didn't ever notice that.
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: I didn't either, but I haven't seen it that many times.
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  Speaker 2: I haven't either, now that I think about it. But
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  Speaker 2: it was you know, I grew up in the church,
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  Speaker 2: so it was a prominent painting.
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  Speaker 1: But if you if you mentioned Judas and salt in
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  Speaker 1: the same same breath, he probably would have been like, yeah,
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  Speaker 1: Judas is terrible with salt, and that's why he was
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  Speaker 1: such a terrible person.
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  Speaker 2: All right, fair enough, that could be another you know,
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  Speaker 2: religious connotation for the bad luck.
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  Speaker 1: Well also, though I thought this is pretty interesting. In Christianity,
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  Speaker 1: it's also seen as a symbol of holiness and purity,
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  Speaker 1: which is not just symbolic. It actually does keep food pure.
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  Speaker 1: It's one of the things that salt has always been
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  Speaker 1: used for is preservation, so I thought that was a
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  Speaker 1: pretty interesting extension or expansion or extrapolation.
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah, agreed. Shall we take a break, Yeah, all right,
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: let's take a break. We'll talk about maybe some more
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: background and why we throw it over our left shoulder
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  Speaker 2: right after this.
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: Okay, chuck. So there's been a lot of different myths
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: about salt that has spread out, which kind of makes
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  Speaker 1: sense because salt's been traded all over the world for
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: a while, and it's been valuable, or it was valuable
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: for a very long time. For example, in Slavic mythology,
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: there's a well trod story about a father who has
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: three daughters and he asks them how much they love him,
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  Speaker 1: and the first one says, I love you as much
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  Speaker 1: as diamonds, the second one says I love you as
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  Speaker 1: much as gold, and the third one says I love
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  Speaker 1: you as much as salt. And he says, begone, yeah,
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  Speaker 1: get out, and she's like, why, just stop and think
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  Speaker 1: about what I said, dad, And he said, I said
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  Speaker 1: be gone, and she's begone.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, she goned herself. And it was only till later,
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  Speaker 2: when he's eating something that's not salted that he puts
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: down his fork. The music cue the needle drop happens,
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: and lone tear trickles down his face and he goes,
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  Speaker 2: oh my god, she's the one who loved me the most,
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  Speaker 2: because this food is garbage.
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  Speaker 1: There's an alternate ending too, where the tear strikes the
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  Speaker 1: bite of food he has mid air salts it and
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  Speaker 1: he forgets what he was even upset about.
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: Oh look, I just actually looked up the Judas thing
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  Speaker 2: and there there it is. There's a little thing of
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  Speaker 2: salt spilled over right there It is a wrist.
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: Did you think Debbie Ranka made that up?
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: No? But I just never noticed that had been so funny.
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: I text Debbie and she's like, age, you like that?
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: It totally made that up. There are African folk tales apparently,
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: where salt is a metaphor for wisdom or life trials,
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  Speaker 2: things like that. So if you would spill it then
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: it could be viewed as a misfortune or ignorance for
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  Speaker 2: the protagonist.
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  Speaker 1: Also in Japan, I can tell you firsthand. In Japanese culture,
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  Speaker 1: salt is considered protect okay, especially against from you know,
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: bad luck or evil spirits or whatever. And I was
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: first introduced to this when one day you me had
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: visited her family and later on she opened up her
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: glove compartment and found that there was a prescription bottle
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  Speaker 1: filled with salt that her mom had put in her
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  Speaker 1: glove compartment to drive around with without telling.
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  Speaker 2: Her, for just good luck.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, to keep her protected while she's out thriving, and
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: that's Sweet's.
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: Great, yeah, Or she happened to have some French fries
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: that were a little bland, that's right. So now we're
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: at the point where we can talk a little bit
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: about how to ward it off. Because usually when there's
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: any sort of a bad luck omen there's also an
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  Speaker 2: antidote of sorts where you can combat that bad luck,
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  Speaker 2: and in this case, it is usually a toss over
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  Speaker 2: the left shoulder. And the reasons behind that seemed to
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  Speaker 2: be linked to the fact that supposedly, in many many cultures,
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  Speaker 2: the devil sits over there on behind behind your left shoulder,
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  Speaker 2: waiting for sort of an invitation, and this salt spilling
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  Speaker 2: the salt could be that invitation and then quickly throwing
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  Speaker 2: it over your left shoulder. The devil's like.
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  Speaker 1: That stings, yeah, or if he's small enough, it really
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  Speaker 1: desiccates him.
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  Speaker 2: Right, yeah, right, like a slug right.
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  Speaker 1: So yeah, that's why you use your left because sinister
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  Speaker 1: is Latin for left originally, but it came to mean sinister,
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  Speaker 1: and so that's that's why you're left. In particular, why
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: the devil's on your left shoulder, not just in other cultures,
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: but in cartoons throughout the world.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I never noticed left or right, but I mean
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  Speaker 2: every cartoon have like the Little Angel and the Little Devil,
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  Speaker 2: and I'm sure that they probably put him on the left.
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: Yes, And the brilliance of the Flintstones was that they
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: combined both into one great kazoo. Oh God, I love kazoo.
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  Speaker 1: You dumb, dumb.
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  Speaker 2: He was so good. It was good stuff.
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  Speaker 1: So I guess that. Huh. Oh wait. There's one more
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: thing about about throwing salt over your shoulder, especially if
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: you're a superstitious type. What it does is it relieves
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  Speaker 1: you of a little bit of the anxiety that you
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  Speaker 1: might otherwise have walking around that day knowing that you
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: spill the salt and wondering what bad thing's going to happen.
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  Speaker 1: That just small act of throwing salt over your left
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  Speaker 1: shoulder allows you to just get over it and move
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  Speaker 1: on with your day and that over time, that seeing
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: that that actually helps, that there is some benefit to
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  Speaker 1: doing that just kind of created a positive feedback loop
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  Speaker 1: where more and more people started throwing salt over their shoulder.
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: This is all conjecture, but it makes a lot of sense.
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: Totally love it.
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: I'm going to start doing it. I'm going to spill
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: some salt and throw it over my shoulder.
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: Do not purposefully spill salt. That is really right, We'll
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: just notice it then, O good. All right, Well that
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: means everybody short. Stuff is out.
• 11:02
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• 11:05
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