"You're hair's all messed up. Don't you ever comb it?"

"No. I'm doing it for the hockey team."

You call up Cambridge City Hall. You demand to talk to the mayor.

"Excuse me, your honor, but I was wondering if you could repave all the sidewalks in Harvard Square by November 11, when Harvard hosts. Yale at Bright Center?"

Click. No luck.

You dash to Store 24. Between the day-old donuts and empty coffee cups, you find a box of rabbit's feet.

"Excuse me, can I have 10 more boxes? It's for the hockey team."

Black cats walk down Mt. Auburn Street and you run the other way. You steal a bunch of ladders from JFK St. and hide them in the basement of the Union, so that no one can walk under them.

You feel relieved, eager for the hockey season to begin. You hope that the jinx moves away from Cambridge and to Cornell, St. Lawrence, Boston College and Michigan State. Stay away from Bright Center this year.

If the Crimson makes the Final Four at Minneapolis this spring, you want to be there. Just like when you were at that frozen Game last November in New Haven.

Is it too much for you to ask?