Here are a few examples of things that always seem to go wrong:
1 After your hands become coated with oil or grease, your nose will begin to itch and at the same time, you'll have to go to the restroom.
2 If you dial a wrong number, you never get a busy signal and someone always answers.
3 If you lie to your boss and say you were late for work because you had a flat tire (AmE)/tyre (BrE), then you can be sure that the very next morning you actually will have a flat tire/tyre.
4 If you change queues or traffic lanes, the one you were in will always move faster than the one you are in now. This also works in supermarkets.
5 When your body is completely wet from bathing or showering, the telephone rings or someone knocks at the door.
6 The probability of meeting someone you know increases dramatically when you are with someone you don't want to be seen with.
7 A woman who meets a man that you want to impress will always meet the man when she is not wearing makeup and is not wearing her best clothes plus her hair is a mess.
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<o:p>OH ya... one more real-life example... If you write something in italki, there is a good chance that your account may be de_____________. :)</o:p>
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<o:p>Keep smiling...</o:p>
One place where Murphy's Law is verifiably true:
In most cities, it is more likely to rain on weekends than on weekdays. On the east coast of America, for instance, there is 22% more rain on average on Saturdays than on Mondays. This has to do with the fact that factories are often closed on weekends. This does two things that both increase rain. It reduces the amount of heat released by cities, meaning that cities become less powerful as local high-pressure areas, making it easier for storm systems to enter the city. In addition, particulate pollution will climb through the work week, peaking on Friday evening and staying high on Saturday before dropping on Sunday. These particulates seed the rainclouds, making rain more likely.
https://www.nature.com/articles/29043
When I go on a trip, it often rains. It's sunny in the morning but it starts to rain around lunch.
When I go up outside from the exit of the subway and start to walk, it starts to rain.
It's true.
When I cook for my mother, my sister in law often comes and eats it. In the morning, in the afternoon, in the evening, on week day, on the weekend, whenever it is, she comes. Does she have a dog nose? She lives 15 minutes walk away from my mother house. I live an hour by train away. So I visit my mom all the way to feed my sister in law.
Cas...
You wrote, "I wonder if some of it is superstition."
Sure, whenever something happens to us we tend to believe that it only happens to us, or happens to us more often than it happens to other people. So, it would be easy to become superstitious - you're quite right.
BTW, Sudeep was referring to the poem by Homer called the O.......y.
NB: italki may deactivate a person's account if the person writes the "O....y" word because there have been viruses or malware that have infected italki's website in the past.
Thank you for your good comments.
Sudeep...
Why doesn't your profile show the English spelling of your name?
Chris...
That is interesting. I have never heard that before.
The best way to test the validity of the higher probability of rain on Saturday would be to wash my car on Monday or Tuesday, because as we all know, because of Murphy's Law, whenever we wash our car we can be sure that it will rain shortly thereafter.
Thank you for your great comments.
