It pays to increase your word power. Honestly, though, your mileage may vary with these three:
"Triskaidekaphobia" -- fear of the number thirteen.
"Paraskavedekatriaphobia," or "Friggatriskaidekaphobia" -- fear of Friday the Thirteenth.

It's Monday morning. Let's be careful out there.

Liberty
Photo by Cholin. Copyright by the image provider and SXC.hu, HAAP Media Ltd.

"... (I)t is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren, till she transforms us into beasts.
"Is this the part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we disposed to be of the number of those, who, having eyes, see not, and having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation? For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst, and to provide for it.
"I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of experience. I know of no way of judging of the future but by the past. And judging by the past, I wish to know what there has been in the conduct of the British ministry for the last ten years to justify those hopes with which gentlemen have been pleased to solace themselves and the House.
"Is it that insidious smile with which our petition has been lately received? Trust it not, sir; it will prove a snare to your feet. Suffer not yourselves to be betrayed with a kiss.
"Ask yourselves how this gracious reception of our petition comports with those warlike preparations which cover our waters and darken our land. Are fleets and armies necessary to a work of love and reconciliation? Have we shown ourselves so unwilling to be reconciled that force must be called in to win back our love?
"Let us not deceive ourselves, sir. These are the implements of war and subjugation; the last arguments to which kings resort...."

Patrick Henry (1736–99)
The “Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death” Speech (1775)

"THE CRISIS
"I.
"THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.
"Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.
"What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value."

Thomas Paine (1737–1809)
First printing, the Pennsylvania Journal, December 19, 1776

Excerpted from the Project Gutenberg online edition
Writings of Thomas Paine — Volume 1 (1774-1779): the American Crisis
Conway, Moncure Daniel, Ed. (1832-1907)

Plate (No.783):
"Continental Army Rifle Corps 1778-1779"

Available from the Company of Military Historians

http://www.military-historians.org/company/plates/images/US.htm#rebel

"The seal of the Company of Military Historians commemorates the founding of the United States Army.
"On June 14, 1775 the Continental Congress resolved 'That six companies of expert riflemen be immediately raised in Pennsylvania, two in Maryland, and two in Virginia.'
"These '...remarkably stout and hardy men, many of them exceeding six feet in height, clad in hunting shirts and armed with a rifle-barreled gun, a tomahawk... and a long knife...' were the first United States Regulars."

"The earliest known portrait of Washington, painted in 1772 by Charles Willson Peale, showing Washington in uniform as colonel of the Virginia Regiment."

Washington was not immune to one of the consequences of promotion -- a bigger budget to track. Marvin Kitman, author and television critic, is remembered by many as the co-author, with George Washington, of "George Washington's Expense Account."
Mr. Kitman has nevertheless expressed a preference for being remembered most as the author of Kitman's Law:
"On the TV screen pure drivel tends to drive off ordinary drivel."

Michael Yon, 2006.

Major Mark Bieger cradles Farah, a child fatally wounded in a car bomb blast in Mosul.

Michael Yon. May, 2005.

See "Join The British Army"

"... Eventually, George gave up hope of subduing America by more armies. 'It was a joke,' he said, 'to think of keeping Pennsylvania.' There was no hope of ever recovering New England. But the King was determined 'never to acknowledge the independence of the Americans, and to punish their contumacy by the indefinite prolongation of a war which promised to be eternal.' ...
"His plan was to keep the 30,000 men garrisoned in New York, Rhode Island, in Canada, and in Florida; other forces would attack the French and Spanish in the West Indies.
"To punish the Americans the King planned to destroy their coasting-trade, bombard their ports, sack and burn towns along the coast (like New London, Connecticut), and turn loose the Indians to attack civilians in frontier settlements.
"These operations, the King felt, would inspire the Loyalists; would splinter the Congress; and 'would keep the rebels harassed, anxious, and poor, until the day when, by a natural and inevitable process, discontent and disappointment were converted into penitence and remorse' and they would beg to return to his authority."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_III_of_the_United_Kingdom

A certain likability attaches to the way Ibis Communications has monetized history lessons.

"Take your tea and shove it.

"George Hewes was a member of the band of 'Indians' that boarded the tea ships that evening. His recollection of the event was published some years later. We join his story as the group makes its way to the tea-laden ships:

"'It was now evening, and I immediately dressed myself in the costume of an Indian, equipped with a small hatchet, which I and my associates denominated the tomahawk, with which, and a club, after having painted my face and hands with coal dust in the shop of a blacksmith, I repaired to Griffin's wharf, where the ships lay that contained the tea. When I first appeared in the street after being thus disguised, I fell in with many who were dressed, equipped and painted as I was, and who fell in with me and marched in order to the place of our destination.' ..."

http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/teaparty.htm