Revision:
Although I am generally rational, I am superstitious. I never walk under ladders or put shoes on the table. If I spill the salt, I go into frenzied calisthenics picking up the grains and tossing them over my left shoulder. As a result of these curious activities, I’ve always wondered whether knowing the roots of superstitions would quell my irrational responses. Superstition has it, for example, that one should never place a hat on the bed. This superstition arises from a time when head lice were common and placing a guest’s hat on the bed stood a good chance of spreading lice through the host’s bed. Doesn’t this make good sense? And doesn’t it stand to reason that, if I know that my guests don’t have lice, I shouldn’t care where their hats go? Of course it does. It is fair to ask, then, whether I have changed my ways and place hats on beds. Are you kidding? I wouldn’t put a hat on a bed if my life depended on it! [or . . . on it.]