The lady who draws blood at my doctor’s office is leaving for a job closer to her aging parents. As she labeled the empty vials for my samples, I wanted to let her know she’d be missed.

“I hope that the new person will be as good as you’ve been at finding veins on the first try,” I said.

As soon as the words were out of my mouth, a sense of foreboding comically settled on us both. She looked at me. I looked at her.

“I just jinxed you, didn’t I.”

She laughed. “Let’s hope not.”

She found a vein in the crook of my arm.

“A little poke,” she warned and slid the needle in. The vial remained empty.

She adjusted the business end of the needle several times, trying to find a sweet spot in the vein. Still nothing.

“I’m so sorry,” I told her. “This is my fault.”

“No,” she said. “It’s entirely my fault.”

Whose ever fault it was, she eventually had to withdraw the needle, get another one, select a different vein, and try again. This time, there was success.

The belief that saying something positive will cause a negative outcome is widespread.

In the theater before a performance, it is considered bad luck to wish someone good luck. To avoid being responsible for a disaster, the correct thing to say is break a leg, the idea being that this will have the opposite effect and bring about a good, accident-free performance.

Though not specific to the theater, Germans take break a leg a step further (so to speak) and say
Hals und Beinbruch (neck and leg break), meaning break your neck and leg. There is evidence that during World War I, German pilots said this to each other before flying a mission.

Professional dancers don’t say break a leg, but rather a French word that can be politely translated as crap.

In Russia, hunters tell each other Ni pukha ni pera (neither fur nor feather), meaning you won’t get anything. The reply to this is a suggestion to go to a very hot place.

In the sports world, it is thought that mentioning something good will prevent it from happening. The most common form of this is the announcer jinx.

If a baseball commentator mentions a potential no-hitter or if a football commentator says something positive about a field goal kicker just before a kick, guess who is blamed if a batter gets a hit or the kicker misses.

Some announcers make it clear that they don’t believe in the jinx and will say whatever they want. If there is a hit or a kick is missed, it has nothing to do with what was said or not said.

Despite my comment to the lady who drew my blood, I don’t believe that good things can be jinxed by mentioning them. I don’t believe it. I don’t.

Nonetheless, the crook of my arm is sore, and I wish I’d kept my mouth shut.

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