> Mi "Break a leg, but not someone else's. I have no idea what that means." ke

That comes from all the traditional theatre superstition. (There's a LOT of it.) Wishing somebody good luck is very bad in the theatre, because it only calls attention to that person from the Bad Luck Demons or whatever. It's also a very common concept in many peasant societies; for example, there are cultures where you are expected to commiserate with a new mother about how ugly, stupid and downright nasty her baby looks. That way, the bad luck thinks "Oh well, nothing for me to do HERE, I'll just go look for somebody else to inflict woe on."

Saying "break a leg" before a theatrical performance is the same thing. You wish the actor the worst possible luck, because that way the bad luck will stay away and everything will go as planned.

Brunnen-"make sure you really DO live in one of those cultures before you try telling a new mother those things, though"G