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| LIFE IN SOLERA | DECEMBER 2024 | 23 Thi & Tha By the Solera Ghostwriter do You knock on wood for good luck? The good luck associated with wood probably comes from pagan times when trees were worshiped and believed to contain the spirits of gods. For instance, since lighting so often strikes trees, the oak was believed by some ancient cultures to be the dwelling place of the god of lighting and thunder. To touch a tree or rap on it was a means of summoning the spirits within to come forth and provide the person doing the rapping with protection from evil. Bad luck walking under a ladder? A ladder leaning against a wall forms a triangle, the symbol of the trinity and the mystic number three. It was once believed that to walk through the triangle would be to defy the trinity and become susceptible to the devil's ploys. Why Golf Links? The word links comes from an Anglo-Saxon word hlinc meaning slope. Since the earliest golf courses were situated on grassy sloped — that is, gentle rolling land — they were called golf "links." Have you ever laid an egg? The egg, is this case, is actually a zero score, which is sometimes called a goose egg or duck egg. The phrase was used as early as 1863 to describe a player who has failed to score any points in a cricket match. With time, the phrase came to mean almost any sort of failure. What is the deal with the dragging chain under gasoline trucks? As a truck rolls along the highway, it is possible for a large charge of static electricity to build up on the surface of the truck as a result of the interaction of the truck's tires and the pavement. There is a possibility that this much electric charge could, under the right conditions, cause a spark and ignite the gasoline. By dragging the chain along the ground, any built-up charge will flow harmlessly down the chain to the ground. Not everyone agrees that the chain offers this much protection, but that is why it is there.