Hi again, Brave Souls,
What are you afraid of? We hear this phrase all the time,
usually from someone trying to convince us that some risky
activity is really fun and safe. Like bungee jumping or
insulting a motorcycle gang. Everyone is afraid of something.
If we have any sense, anyway. Some fears are probably universal,
like the fears of falling, disease or death. Many of our fears
are based on good sense and logic.
The more interesting fears - and the funniest ones - are the
irrational fears, like the fear of round surfaces. Carried to
the extreme,this fear can also make people run from bald-headed
men and pearl-bedecked women. Sometimes,though,irrational fears
can bring good. Did you know that Thomas Edison was afraid of
the dark? Sigmund Freud might have had something to say about
Edison's desire to make an electric lamp, but Freud had
surprisingly little to say about his own phobias,which included a
morbid fear of ferns and a fear of travelling by train.
Maybe it is the coming 00 year, but the overall fear level
seems to be rising. Lately it seems that EVERYTHING is going to
cause the end of life as we know it. There is an industry out
there that feeds on and actively promotes fear. Have you noticed
all of the fly-by-night Y2K outfits that have suddenly sprung up?
I just got a flyer from one the other day. It starts out
describing the computer problems that may occur at the end of
1999, getting more and more irrational right up to the point
where they want to sell you stuff. Then they get really clear
again. Their product line is mostly survival foods, propane
stoves, flashlights and portable generators. If civilization
really ends, what are these folks going to do? Refine their own
gasoline? Make their own flashlight batteries? What people
should really be worried about is that these crooks are
extracting piles of cash from folks who don't know any better.
SUNFUN Thanks this week to our fearless friends and
contributors: Sylvia Libin He, Jerry Taff, Timothy McChain,
Kerry Miller, Laura Hong Li, Fumiko Umino, Sue Yan, Caterina
Sukup, Peter Adler, Lou Masaru, Karen J. Crooker, David Zach,
Beth Butler and especially my lightning fast editor, Carol
Becwar.
It's funny that we should be talking about fear this week;
various problems have put me very far behind schedule and I was
really afraid that I wouldn't be able to get this edition of
Funnies out on time. I suppose we could call that FUNIPHOBIA,
but there are already too many fears in the world.
Have A Fearless Week,
--:-)-----:-)-----:-)-----:-)-----:-)-----:-)-----:-)-----:-)--
There are only two forces that unite men: fear and
self-interest.
- Napoleon Bonaparte
Famous Fearless French Guy
--:-)-----:-)-----:-)-----:-)-----:-)-----:-)-----:-)-----:-)--
AFRAID TO GO TO WORK?
--------------------
I suppose we've all felt that way at some time or another,
but Linda Worrall in Nelson, New Zealand had more reason than
most. It was the postage stamps.
Worrall, who works as a mail sorter, is terribly afraid of
spiders - arachnophobia. Like the exceptionally poisonous
arachnid called a "katipo," currently featured on New Zealand
stamps.
Just seeing the life-sized spider on the stamp gives Worrall
the shakes. Which makes life a little difficult if you are in a
room with tens of thousands of these stamps.
"It's hard for people to understand but it's so real,"
Worrall said in an interview.
The postal authorities have given her a week of special
leave, but she's not too optimistic about the outcome. Worrall
has tried counseling before without success. Of course, she may
be even more afraid of losing her job this time. (AP)
[ Hope she has the problem licked by now... ]
--:-)-----:-)-----:-)-----:-)-----:-)-----:-)-----:-)-----:-)--
AN IMPERFECT TEN...
----------------
The top ten fears? I thought you'd never ask:
1. Spiders
2. People/social situations
3. Flying
4. Open Spaces
5. Confined Spaces
6. Vomiting
7. Heights
8. Cancer
9. Thunderstorms
10. Death
--:-)-----:-)-----:-)-----:-)-----:-)-----:-)-----:-)-----:-)--
GIVING FEAR A NAME...
------------------
Psychology textbooks typically list more than 150 different
phobias. Some of these are quite well known, like claustrophobia
(fear of enclosed or small places). Then there are the rest...
You get the impression that some of the doctors just love to find
oddball phobias - it's a quick way to get a study into print, for
one thing. The following are actual medical terms for real fears
from various medical texts:
- Batophobia - Fear of heights or being close to high
buildings
[ Does Batman have something to do with this? ]
- Chemophobia - Fear of chemicals or working with chemicals
- Sinophobia - Fear of Chinese, Chinese culture
- Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia - Fear of long words
[ Naturally! ]
- Blennophobia - Fear of slime
[ "Hey, Ghostbusters, I've been blennoed!" ]
- Aibohphobia - Fear of palindromes
[ Palindromes are words or phrases that spell
the same forward as backwards - like
Aibohphobia ]
- Chaetophobia - Fear of hair
- Peladophobia - Fear of bald people
[ OK, imagine for a moment the person who has
both Peladophobia AND Chaetophibia. ]
- Decidophobia - Fear of making decisions
[ The modern manager's disease ]
- Politicophobia - Fear or abnormal dislike of politicians
[ Was that fear or loathing? ]
- Chromophobia or Chromatophobia - Fear of colors
[ "It's a black and white case of
Chromatophobia, doctor!" ]
- Cyberphobia - Fear of computers or working on a computer
[ Brought on by Windows 98? ]
- Athazagoraphobia - Fear of being forgotton or ignored or
forgetting
[ What was that fear again? ]
- Vestiphobia - Fear of clothing
[ A psychological basis for streaking? ]
- Epistemophobia - Fear of knowledge
[ A surprisingly common fear, judging by the
morons we run into every day. ]
- Macrophobia - Fear of long waits
[ Doctor, that macrophobic patient has been
waiting here for over two hours... ]
- Octophobia - Fear of the figure 8
- Hellenologophobia - Fear of Greek terms or complex
scientific terminology
[ It's all Greek to me! ]
- Papyrophobia - Fear of paper
[ Very common at tax time. ]
- Peniaphobia - Fear of poverty
[ Also common at tax time. ]
- Arachibutyrophobia - Fear of peanut butter sticking to the
roof of the mouth
- Pteronophobia - Fear of being tickled by feathers
- Mythophobia - Fear of myths or stories or false statements
[ Of course, this isn't a true fear... ]
- Siderodromophobia- Fear of trains, railroads or train travel
- Triskadekaphobia - Fear of the number 13
- Venustraphobia - Fear of beautiful women
- Alektorophobia - Fear of chickens
[ So, someone who has Alektorophobia is
REALLY chicken? ]
- Metrophobia - Fear or hatred of poetry
[ There was a young metrophobic
Who hated to hear any verse
He took a job as a critic
Which made matters very much worse ]
- Phobophobia - Fear of phobias
- Panophobia or Pantophobia - Fear of everything
--:-)-----:-)-----:-)-----:-)-----:-)-----:-)-----:-)-----:-)--
HOW THESE THINGS GET STARTED...
----------------------------
Sometimes, great fears start from truly innocent causes.
Recently in Jamaica, there was a voodoo scare prompted when a man
using a public toilet suddenly heard religious music as he went
about his business.
Fearing that he was the victim of a voodoo curse, he quickly
alerted his neighbors.
After much anxiety, someone looked into the pit under the
toilet and discovered a very wet musical greeting card, quietly
tinkling out "Silent Night." (Reuters)
--:-)-----:-)-----:-)-----:-)-----:-)-----:-)-----:-)-----:-)--
Picture your worst fear. Now don't. Doesn't
that make you feel better?
--:-)-----:-)-----:-)-----:-)-----:-)-----:-)-----:-)-----:-)--
© 1999 by Bill Becwar. All Rights Reserved.
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