Charles Reichblum

Biography:

Charles Reichblum, nicknamed "Dr. Knowledge," has built one of the largest collections in the world of fascinating facts and stories that serve as a source for his Knowledge in a Nutshell book series. Reichblum served as news and sports director of WJAS, Pittsburgh, and taught college journalism. He founded a news service, Century Features, which syndicated interesting facts to newspapers and radio stations worldwide. His real love is finding, researching and writing facts, stories, and quotes that are surprising, amazing, relevant, enlightening, educational, and entertaining that make learning fun. He fulfilled his lifelong dream of creating the Knowledge in a Nutshell series, and says one of his greatest thrills from his books is when readers say, I didn't know that."

Past Shows:

	Superstitions
	Friday February 13, 2004

Charles Reichbloom (website), the author of the Knowledge in a Nutshell® book series, discussed the origins of various superstitions. A number of "bad luck" superstitions such as Friday the 13th and stepping under a ladder, stem from religious connotations, he said. Seeing a black cat cross, got its bad rap, because during the Middle Ages, witches were thought to be able to assume the form of a feline, said Reichbloom, though he noted that to the Egyptians cats were considered lucky. Reichbloom also delved into good luck superstitions. A rabbit's foot is considered lucky because rabbits multiply so rapidly, thus the foot is a token of fertility. The tradition of knocking on wood comes from Indians he said, who would touch trees to ward off bad luck, because trees were struck by lightning and thus connected to the Sky God."We're afraid to defy these superstitions," said Reichbloom, because people would rather not take a chance, and that is why many of these traditions have lasted ... More
Host: George Noory