Who's Superstitious?

This entry into John Nesbitt's PASING PARADE series covers some common superstitions, like not walking under ladders, crossing your fingers when you tell a lie, never opening an umbrella indoors, and fear of Friday the 13th. Eventually it settles into a meditation on the Flying Dutchman, and how this may have led to the mapping of some of the ocean's main currents.

It's a typical and amusing entry, with its combination of folksy narration and instruction. Nesbitt's series started as a bit on the radio, and for a dozen years was a mainstay of MGM's shorts department. Like many of them it was illustrated radio, with Nesbitt telling the tale, and the performers acting out the details in silence, albeit with occasional sound effects.