Thursday, April 06, 2006

Unfashionable? Yes. Horror-Inducing? Not So Much.

Okay, so this is the last post inspired from this past weekend, but I had to bring it up because I thought it was so odd.

Now we all know people have irrational fears. A fear of heights is relatively understandable, and even my silly fear of cockroaches is pretty common (they're ridiculously ugly AND they crawl around, it just makes sense that they're pure evil). I would even understand a fear of obese people, cause god knows when they might get hungry enough to eat YOU.

But sometimes certain fears cross that line. I have a friend back in NY who is afraid of mannequins. Pretty strange considering you can't walk down a street in Manhattan without seeing one, but fine -- I mean, they kinda look like people, but they're not, and maybe that movie Mannequin back in the 80's scarred more people than we may ever realize.

However this weekend I found out that someone I know here in Sydney has a fear of...wait for it...corduroy. No, I'm serious. And not just "oh, corduroy is tacky, I would never wear it", I mean that if someone wearing corduroy were to walk up to him and try to give him a hug he would fling himself into moving traffic before allowing that person's jacket to make contact with him. If it gets too close, the thought of it touching him makes him want to vomit. I saw all of this in action on Saturday night, since we all thought it was hilarious and decided that chasing him around with corduroy was a good time. He even almost dropped an entire case of beer to get away from the big bad corduroy jacket. Do you have any idea how serious this has to be to get an AUSTRALIAN to drop a case of beer?

So yes -- that one definitely crosses my line of stupidity. It's a piece of fabric. Sure it's not really in fashion right now, but acting like you'd be willing to throw yourself off a high-rise before letting it touch you is a bit much, I think.

And would LOVE to hear if you guys know about people with weird fears, cause I find this stuff hysterical.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

i have 2 friends who are soooo scared of FEET. doesnt matter if their clean or in socks or what..if you touch them with ur feet they might throw up!

emla said...

What about the house centipedes? Those things are goddamn terrifying. Somehow, they're worse than cockroaches to me.

But, ultimately SPIDERS are the worst thing on the planet. Especially white ones.

Don't you have some seriously fucking scary bugs in Australia?

Anonymous said...

Fear of wicker. As in furniture that looks like it's made of straw.

Zander said...

Ladies and gentlemen, I think we have a new winner. Wicker? WTF.

In other news, the person I wrote this post about (AND the owner of the 'unfashionable' corduroy jacket have been alerted to the existence of this blog. Fantastic.

miznyc said...

I once met someone who is afraid of cotton balls. Particularly when someone pulls a cotton ball apart. It freaks them out like no other...

Vicki said...

Umbrellas and chalk. Umbrellas - rational because old ladies can be so fucking clueless and nearly take an eye out. Chalk - not as rational but it just feels insanely gross and everytime I see it I think of nails on chalkboard and become paralyzed with fear and can't function.

BTW, I think my friend posted the wicker comment. I'm gonna group wicker and cordoroy in the "Understand Why You Don't Like But Would Never Be AFRAID Of" category. Feel free to throw umbrellas and chalk in there as well.

Cristin said...

I've been afraid of jack-in-the-boxes since I was little. In my defense, though, those muthas are scary. Also, I once made a coworker scream and recoil in fear when I put a hermit crab on her desk.

This isnt a fear, but I have a severe distrust for people who don't eat peanut butter.

Vicki said...

Same goes for chocolate and cheese.