It's going to be a bit of a strange year for Friday the 13ths.  First of all, there will be three of them.  Now that's not especially weird--it happens every few years--but it's the first time since 1984 that they'll be spaced precisely 13 weeks apart.  It's also the last time until 2040 that we'll have three of them in a leap year.  I got all this information from a story on the USA Today website, which featured some words from one Dr. Tom Fernsler of the University of Delaware, a math professor (naturally) who's earned himself the nickname of "Dr. 13."  An interesting tidbit from the good doctor, and bad news for the phobic: the 13th of the month is actually more likely to occur on a Friday than any other day of the week--688 times in a 400-year period.

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