this post was submitted on 10 Dec 2025
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Mildly Interesting
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This is for strictly mildly interesting material. If it's too interesting, it doesn't belong. If it's not interesting, it doesn't belong.
This is obviously an objective criteria, so the mods are always right. Or maybe mildly right? Ahh.. what do we know?
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This started in World War I as a basic safety precaution. Some soldiers sitting in the dark on either side of the front decide to have a smoke. When the first one lights his cigarette, the enemy across the field sees the match light. While the second man lights his smoke, the enemy grabs their rifle and takes aim. When the third man lights his, the enemy fires.
What if the first soldier has all three cigarettes in his mouth and lights them all at the same time? Haha checkmate, Athiests!
Fascinating. Thanks for the share. Lessons in everything.
Wouldn't he aim and shoot the second (or first) one he can see. Instead of following the match to where the third is? The third could be either side of the first or second.
I can't speak to the mindset of people who are superstitious. I'm just repeating what the alleged basis for the superstition was.
I could be missing something, but not getting shot sounds to me more like good than bad luck.
It's being the third person on the match who gets shot, thus why three on a match is bad luck.