9/04/2003

Phobias (part 3): The Final Entry

Continuing to peruse the list of phobias I notice one I have when I get on a plane...no, not fear of flying, but Autodysomophobia "fear of one that has a vile odor." Here is one that is popular in D.C. and now in California: Politicophobia- fear or abnormal dislike of politicians. And if you need to "borrow" money from someone, look for a Plutophobic (fear of wealth). It also seems that many people I meet each day have Phronemophobia- fear of thinking. You know who you never see at the DMV? People with Macrophobia- fear of long waits. Look, there is even a fear of watching movies that have Oprah in them Porphyrophobia, officially listed as "fear of the color purple." What's this: Parthenophobia- fear of virgins. First of all, how do they know? Second of all it sounds like a good pickup line: "Excuse me, I have this fear I was hoping you could help me with..."

Some fears must come in pairs, that is, if you have one you probably have the other. For example, if you have Peladophobia (fear of bald people), you probably have Phalacrophobia (fear of becoming bald), and you probably don't watch Star Trek Next Generation or Kojak. Also, if you have Barophobia (fear of gravity), you should have Basophobia (fear of falling). I assume these people just live in outer space.

And now (drum roll) for the truly strange phobias:
Anthophobia- Fear of flowers (because they are so dangerous?)
Aulophobia- Fear of flutes (I would think tubas are more scary)
Lachanophobia- Fear of vegetables (I understand about brussel sprouts, but really...)
Papaphobia- Fear of the Pope (it must be the big hat)
Apeirophobia- Fear of infinity (what does this even mean?)
Finally, there were two entries that totally threw me for a loop, I'm not even sure they were not meant to be jokes. Does anyone know what these mean?
Walloonphobia- Fear of the Walloons (what is a walloon?)
Zemmiphobia- Fear of the great mole rat (versus the regular mole rats?)

That's it for my exploration of phobias. Hope you enjoyed it. There is one thing I know that neither I nor all of you have: Cyberphobia or Logizomechanophobia- fear of computers. Unless I have to put in a Microsoft patch (aaaah!!)