“My college campus has a magic statue. It's a longstanding tradition for students to rub its nose for good luck. My freshman roommate really believed in the statue's power and insisted on visiting it to rub its nose before every exam....Studying might have been a better idea, she flunked out at sophomore year. The fact is, we all have little superstitious things that we do....If it's not believing in magic statues, it's avoiding sidewalk cracks or always putting our left shoe on first. Knock on wood....Step on a crack, break your mother's back....The last thing we want to do is offend the gods.”