Fear: Up Your Nose!

Halloween is rapidly gaining on my favorite holidays (the ones where I get to stay home) , mainly because it allows people, if they so choose, to err a little on the sexy side of the corporate dress code. I expect Halloween will recede back to it's spot near Arbor Day when my doorbell is ringing all night, but for now, bring on the naughty witches, etc.

In honor of my currently favorite holiday, I decided to take a hopefully fun look through "Fear News", a subcategory that's prolific this month. I found this article from Timesonline.co.uk about scientific research into curing phobias with nasal spray! Who knew our own personal boogiemen were, literally, boogiemen?

The only hole I see in this theory is that one of my greatest anxieties as a child was the salty, medicinal crap that gushes out of your sinuses into the back of your throat when you use nasal sprays. Whaddaya got for that?

I also love the commenters at the end of the article, discussing a product called Liquid Trust, which, in my single days, we called "Zima." According to the product website, you spray it on with your cologne, and it makes others trust you. Sorry, Fred Thompson, there's no info on how it interacts with Aqua Velva.

I also found the obligatory Halloween article about phobias, this one from the Appalachian Times. I encourage you to read it, these are always lots of fun, you can list your favorite phobia in the comments. My favorite were the arachibutyrophobics, who fears peanut butter sticking to the roof of their mouths. People who are afraid of peanut butter sticking to their fingers, like my son, Liam, need another name. See more phobias at Phobialist.com. Make up fun hybrids, like Philema-phallophobia. Here's a quick phobia joke: Doctor asks Psellismophobic* patient, "What's wrong with you?" Patient:"I'm afraid I can't tell you."

Sky News has a story on Celebrity Phobias. Christina Ricci is afraid of gerbils and houseplants. That scratches her off the guest list for most of my parties.

This is supposed to be a fun holiday, so I will lay off the politics, except to say that while perusing the phobia list, I noted that there was no phobia for war. Anyone know why?

Have a Happy Halloween...IF YOU DARE!!!!!!

*Fear of stuttering