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BS: Okay, what spooks you???
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Subject: BS: Okay, what spooks you??? From: Bobert Date: 14 May 12 - 07:50 PM Let's get real here... Everyone gets spooked by something... Black cats... Dark alleys... Creepy old farm houses... So here's your opportunity to let it loose... It's okay... I promise... Just let it out... B~ |
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Subject: RE: BS: Okay, what spooks you??? From: wysiwyg Date: 14 May 12 - 07:56 PM Luminol. On TV, luridly splashed. Old memory/PTSD gets going, before I can stop it. ONE year the kids had inadvertently tracked/ground some glow-in-the-dark PlayDoh into the stairway carpet, on their shoes' soles... as I found out after finally asking someone hesitantly if they were seeing it too. Well, we finally figgered it out. NOW it's funny, but THEN.... faint spots before the eyes.... when I 'd go up to bed in this big ole house with all the scary hallways and doors where people can hide so easily... Back then I did not know that a black light is required with Luminol, so I thought our house had an old investigation deeply embedded in the carpet, still glowing at night. Or maybe..... and SAD plus PTSD spells Terror. Great book title, that-- I claim copyright. ~S~ |
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Subject: RE: BS: Okay, what spooks you??? From: SINSULL Date: 14 May 12 - 07:57 PM A jewelry box in my bedroom which plays Lara's Theme when the bottom drawer is opened. Last week it started playing in the middle of the night. I got up and found the bottom drawer open. Okay, maybe the cats, maybe a vibration from the street. So I put it back, drawer closed and against the TV so it couldn't open again. Next day I came home from work to hear the box playing again. It hadn't been moved and the drawer was shut - but it was playing. A bit creepy. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Okay, what spooks you??? From: Little Hawk Date: 14 May 12 - 08:02 PM The thought of Spaw in the shower. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Okay, what spooks you??? From: Wesley S Date: 14 May 12 - 08:08 PM Heights. And President Mitt Romney. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Okay, what spooks you??? From: Rapparee Date: 14 May 12 - 10:57 PM Bobert ol' pal, I can't talk about it. Okay? |
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Subject: RE: BS: Okay, what spooks you??? From: Ebbie Date: 14 May 12 - 11:17 PM Heights. One of the most frightening memories I have is of 20 years or so ago when I pulled a stunt that I would never have done had I known it would haunt me. I had gone with my sis and brother in law to central Oregon to the Crooked River Ranch. While they went to the chapel for a Sunday service I went walking. On the way back, not wanting to come back the same way I had gone, I looked around to see what my options were. In front of me was a horse pasture ringed with electric/barbed wire fence. It had rained lightly and I didn't want to slide on my belly under the bottom rung so I eyed the only other option: Stepping across a 500-foot chasm (WAY below was the Crooked River which over the last thousand years had cut its way). Now this was Central Oregon- high desert country- so there were no fence-post holes- Fences are attached to a creche made of boards and filled with large rocks. This creche was situated absolutely, positively on the edge of the chasm to keep horses from attempting to cross. I reached out and checked the board on this side. Firm. I reached across and checked the board on the far side. Firm. If I put one foot here with one hand there and then the other foot there and the other hand there, then with one final step I'd be across the fence and inside the horse pasture... I did that. And to this day I shudder at the thought that for some seconds I was hanging above the chasm. Makes the hair rise on my neck. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Okay, what spooks you??? From: Bert Date: 14 May 12 - 11:39 PM 'Twas years ago, I was cycling with me skinnan' and we were going to Bradwell(sur la mer) Youth Hostel one Friday night in early autumn. It was dark and misty as we rode along the deserted country lanes. We would hit an occasional patch of fog and the air turned suddenly warm. It was the most spooky feeling. We looked very carefully into the empty fields around us, expecting to see Old Shuck jump out at any moment. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Okay, what spooks you??? From: JohnInKansas Date: 14 May 12 - 11:39 PM It's been a l-o-o-o-n-g time ago, but I do recall one night, lying in bed (in Army housing) in Arizona and gazing upward in the dark, when I suddenly perceived that I saw "stars." After verifying that the wife hadn't suddenly discovered some unknown offense and taken unforseen action, having confirmed that she was sound asleep, I began to "study the stars" and found several recognizable constellations, but they seemed to be all in the wrong places. It then crept into my consciousness (what there was functioning at the time to receive any thoughts at all) that - - - there's supposed to be a ceiling up there!!!! Starlight ain't supposed to shine through a ceiling - - - and a roof - - - under the big tree that's outside. The situation, for a while, got downright creepy. For a while, some of the "stars" even seemed to be moving. As it turned out the ceiling really was still there (and the roof and the tree) . There really were little bitty "lights" embeded in the ceiling that had the appearance of stars when the room was sufficiently dark. And there was a very ordinary (if you're in the Army in Yuma AZ) explanation for it all. I've also learned that, if you "stay aware," the accumulated experience of age allows many more of such things to appear far less "mysterious" than when observed by the young (at least by those few youngsters observant enough to even see the mysteries). John |
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Subject: RE: BS: Okay, what spooks you??? From: GUEST Date: 14 May 12 - 11:40 PM Facebook. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Okay, what spooks you??? From: Crowhugger Date: 14 May 12 - 11:43 PM Oops that was me. Found my cookie now. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Okay, what spooks you??? From: JohnInKansas Date: 15 May 12 - 03:28 AM I can certainly see Crowhugger's point, after reading the news yesterday: Forgot to log out Rosa Golijan/msnbc.com Two men robbed an Internet cafe at gunpoint and proceeded to make a clean getaway on a motorcycle recently. One of them got caught anyway though — because he forgot to log out of his Facebook account ... which he'd checked before committing the crime. Basically, two fellas walked into an Internet cafe in Calima — a place north of the city of Cali, Colombia — and used two computers for a while. Eventually they got up, went to the register and proceeded to whip out guns and demand money. They got all the money and proceeded to escape on a motorcycle. After the two men left, an employee in the Internet cafe called the police, who discovered that one of the suspects left his Facebook account logged in on the computer he'd used. They used the information discovered thanks to that to track down his home address, paid him a visit and took him to jail. ._._._. Sure hope it don't scare 'im off from the 'cat too! - or maybe he saw that news bit too, - - - and that's why he had to log back in here???????????? John |
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Subject: RE: BS: Okay, what spooks you??? From: GUEST,Eliza Date: 15 May 12 - 04:14 AM Aaaaaaagh! SPIDERS!!! (And AAAAAAGGGGHHH! AFRICAN SPIDERS!!!!!) |
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Subject: RE: BS: Okay, what spooks you??? From: GUEST,kendall Date: 15 May 12 - 07:01 AM Watching videos of men walking around on steel beams building sky scrapers. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Okay, what spooks you??? From: JohnInKansas Date: 15 May 12 - 07:50 AM One of the things that probably should spook us all a little more than it does is the construction cranes on and around skyscrapers (or at least those skyscrapers more than 3 or 4 stories tall). They fall down and squash innocent and uninvolved people - surprisingly, surreptitiously, and with little or no warning - with disgusting regularity. (Official rankings put them very near the top of the list of hazardous construction equipment.) I try to avoid being remotely close to one, but I'd call that awareness rather than spookiness. John |
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Subject: RE: BS: Okay, what spooks you??? From: Ebbie Date: 15 May 12 - 11:51 AM "They fall down and squash innocent and uninvolved people - surprisingly, surreptitiously, and with little or no warning - with disgusting regularity." JiK, I agree that their existence - and their positioning- is scary but I've never heard of them falling (OFF the building?) and squashing anybody, much less with 'regularity'. Do you have a story on that? |
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Subject: RE: BS: Okay, what spooks you??? From: Zhenya Date: 15 May 12 - 02:48 PM "They fall down and squash innocent and uninvolved people - surprisingly, surreptitiously, and with little or no warning - with disgusting regularity." JiK, I agree that their existence - and their positioning- is scary but I've never heard of them falling (OFF the building?) and squashing anybody, much less with 'regularity'. Do you have a story on that?" I'm in NYC and there have been several incidents of cranes falling in recent years, with a number of fatalities. And the last two days, the NY Times has also had articles about people killed or severely injured by falling tree limbs (or even entire trees). Apparently, it costs less to settle the resulting lawsuits than to hire and properly train enough people to check the trees and take preventative action before this happens. Another thing to be spooked about. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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Subject: RE: BS: Okay, what spooks you??? From: GUEST,sniffy Date: 15 May 12 - 04:16 PM I was somewhere in the midst of Andalucia and went out for a stroll. Without realizing where I was walking I suddenly found myself on the very edge of a viaduct looking down a thousand feet at the valley below. Very carefully, I inched away from the edge (which hadn't been fenced) and thanked my lucky stars that I've always been able to walk in a straight line. The thought of what might have been still spooks me. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Okay, what spooks you??? From: Ed T Date: 15 May 12 - 04:27 PM Thanks to the fear instilled in me by my siblings, snakes. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Okay, what spooks you??? From: Ed T Date: 15 May 12 - 04:31 PM I like spiders and would never kill one-like with most animals I encounter (save being "afeared" of snakes). |
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Subject: RE: BS: Okay, what spooks you??? From: Elmore Date: 15 May 12 - 04:41 PM Fire |
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Subject: RE: BS: Okay, what spooks you??? From: GUEST,Eliza Date: 15 May 12 - 05:20 PM Despite being irrationally terrified of spiders, I too would never kill one, or any living thing for that matter (unless we're talking about eating meat!) I'm a great wildlife supporter. But it's a full-blown automatic phobia, and kicks in before I've even had time to gather my common sense. I despise people like me who scream and get hysterical at the sight of an innocent creature, but there it is. Snakes, rats, scorpions, I've met the lot in my travels and not turned a hair. But....spiders....even the word makes me shake. Silly woman! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Okay, what spooks you??? From: GUEST,Shimrod Date: 15 May 12 - 05:47 PM The warning about cranes reminds me of an incident that I witnessed about 20 years ago. I was working in an office in central Manchester (UK). The office was on the sixth floor of business premises - probably dating from the opening years of the 20th century. Across the street were some equally tall buildings (so the street was rather 'canyon-like'). The buildings opposite were in the process of being refurbished and were covered in scaffolding. One day, just before lunchtime, I was working at my desk when I heard a sort of rumbling roar from outside. At first I thought that it was a lorry going over a pothole - but it went on and on. When I looked out of the window the scaffolding opposite had collapsed and the whole street was full of twisted steel poles. If this collapse had happened 10 or 15 minutes later, I and my colleagues would have been in that street on our way to lunch! Remarkably it turned out that only one person was injured in this event - but the outcome could have been far, far worse. Nowadays I try to avoid buildings clad in scaffolding! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Okay, what spooks you??? From: Don(Wyziwyg)T Date: 15 May 12 - 05:50 PM Heights in a very specific way. I used to go rock climbing as a young man and never felt the least worry three or four hundred feet up a sheer face. One step out on to an expanded metal fire escape above second floor level and I'm a gibbering wreck, and the expanding metal mezzanine floor above the dynamos at our local power station........well, I almost had to get down on hands and knees. Yes, I know it's perfectly safe! Will somebody tell my legs please? Don T. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Okay, what spooks you??? From: Little Hawk Date: 15 May 12 - 06:12 PM Nude photos of the Queen. The more recent ones, that is. I simply can't abide them. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Okay, what spooks you??? From: gnu Date: 15 May 12 - 06:37 PM Which queen? There's millions. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Okay, what spooks you??? From: gnu Date: 15 May 12 - 06:48 PM 16 years old. Cleaning pigeon nests out of eaves on scaffloding three stories up. The cheap bastard had the sections spaced three feet apart to save $ on renting the "staging" as it is known here. Two 2X14s on each piece of staging. We had to swing out and kinda jump to the next section. The 2X14s were NOT anchored and I didn't know that so when I took my second "jump" gravity took over. I hung on... no... CLUNG on and could not let go. I was paralysed with fear. The bastard climbed up and started smacking me on the arse and legs with a 1X3 until I started to climb down. He climbed down, waited for me to get close to the ground and started at it again, hollering at me to go back up or "You'll lose my nerve." I gave my notice at the end of the shift and I am like Kendall... gives me the willies just to look at pics or videos. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Okay, what spooks you??? From: Don Firth Date: 15 May 12 - 09:02 PM Nude photos of myself? Stairs. Particularly long flights of stairs with no handrail. I had polio at age two, and I've had to walk with a leg brace and a pair of forearm crutches ever since. Perfectly rational fear, actually. As long as there is a solid handrail I can hang onto, no problem. But otherwise….. Another one related to that are macho guys who are hell-bent on proving how strong they are. Example: my wife and I were visiting her relatives in Nebraska. We had flown to Kansas City, Mo., and had to take a small, twin engine turbo-prop plane (capacity, 20 passengers) to Barbara's home town. For large airliners, you just walk from the terminal down a fairly short, movable, telescoping hallway and step into the plane. This little puddle-jumper was too small to make use of that kind of facility, so it was up a very narrow and steep flight of stairs—that popped out when the plane's door was opened downward. No handrail other than a very floppy rope! Well, some twenty years ago, I'd had to graduate to a wheelchair, and there was no way I could get up these steps by myself. So the pilot and a member of the terminal's ground crew grabbed my wheelchair with me in it. One backed up the steps and the other hung onto my chair from below to make sure the pilot didn't inadvertently decant me onto the tarmac. About halfway up the half-dozen steps, both of them started to tremble! I'm not that heavy (pretty skinny, in fact, and my wheelchair is a lightweight) and the last couple of steps were downright scary. Not only was I afraid they might drop me, but they were actually afraid they might drop me—although they both would have cut their own throats rather than admit it. You aren't going to find me doing much of THIS sort of thing these days. No elevator? No Firth! Don Firth |
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Subject: RE: BS: Okay, what spooks you??? From: ChanteyLass Date: 15 May 12 - 09:03 PM Heights and enclosed spaces. I have no explanation for either. Been this way ever since I can remember. At shows, I think the best place to watch is the front row of a balcony, but it is only well after intermission that my toes start to uncurl and I stop trying to grip the floor. Even when I watch other people who are up high, my toes curl. Oddly, I have no fear of flying in an airplane. In enclosed spaces, I have to fight the urge to hyperventilate. And don't expect me to step inside a glass elevator. I'll take the stairs, thank you very much. (Usually, though, there is also a regular elevator in the same building.) |
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Subject: RE: BS: Okay, what spooks you??? From: JohnInKansas Date: 15 May 12 - 09:38 PM Zhenya & Ebbie - Crane accidents aren't really much more common than other kinds of construction events, but when one comes down there's usually little warning and it's very difficult to get clear after the fact. As with any construction site operations, there are a lot of hazards for the workers that must be managed, but the sheer length of the cranes means that they can come down quite a long distance from the site. The likelihood of injury at any specific place in the "fall zone" is small, but it's a big zone. Casual gawkers not only expose themselves to at least some risk any time they're in or near heavy construction work, especially if they ignore what's going on and don't recognize what's risky; but they also can distract and/or impede workers who are at much greater risk and must pay attention to what they - and everyone else working there - are doing. You can easily search "crane accidents" to get an idea of how much actual risk is likely. The hazard is not usually limited to things that "fall on the buildings." Since a purpose of most such cranes is to move things onto and off of the building, they nearly always must have a reach that extends beyond the building, and they never "fall straight down." The primary hazard area can be estimated approximately from the height of the crane plus it's "reach" and anything in that zone can be hit by whatever falls. Chicago and New York, within the past couple of years, have had widely published reports of a half dozen or so tower crane collapses that injured people on the streets below and in a couple of cases "crushed" adjacent buildings. Crane designs and construction are generally "safe," but with some types the crane must rely on the integrity of the building it's working on and inspection and certification of the structures is frequently left to "municipal code inspection" or omitted altogether. Erection of the cranes is a very technical job and strict licensing requirements for those who manage it are in place almost everywhere - but "shortcuts" that compromised safety are revealed in nearly every accident investigation. The "capacity" of a given crane changes over time and most codes specify frequent recalculation of how much it's safe to lift, based on things like cable wear but often omitting allowance for the wear on the pulleys that the cable runs through - and frequent cases are found where the one responsible just "wrote down the result" that he was "pretty sure" would be there, or that was "what it had to be to get the job done." If you're really concerned a couple of starting points: Sample 1 Random Photos (including lots of small lifters) tracking site ( I think there's an archive here.) One in NYC 2008 Design News Article For the construction workers, the most common risk is getting fired if (when?) you screw up the numbers or don't do them all. (The numbers aren't really all that simple, although they're "standardized.") John |
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Subject: RE: BS: Okay, what spooks you??? From: Bert Date: 16 May 12 - 01:05 AM Eliza, entomophobia is so common that many authorities now consider it normal behaviour. So don't let it get you down, most people have it, even entomologists. As for construction cranes. I remember way back in the Fifties I went to a Boilermakers meeting and one of our members was really upset that a local company was using non union, untrained welders to build their cranes. Even with the full might of the Boilermakers' union we never did get it stopped. So if a crane falls on your head don't blame me. So, erecting the cranes may be controlled, but building them, Nah! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Okay, what spooks you??? From: Ebbie Date: 16 May 12 - 01:46 AM I used to go high up the Oregon Cascades camping with my oldest brother. Early on, we were traveling on a narrow dirt road- actually a pushed-through road meant to allow firefighting equipment when needed - higher and higher; at each curve only blue sky blazed ahead of us. If we had met anyone coming the other way we would have had to back up for who knows how far. I became terrified. It felt like our camper was on a shelf with nothing below, a shelf that might break off any moment. I finally told Bill. He immediately stopped the truck and told me to get out and look out over the edge. Cautiously I did- and found that far from being a shelf, the ground sloped gently away from us. He said that I wasn't as bad off as he had been when he first started; he said that the first time he went to the edge on his hands and knees. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Okay, what spooks you??? From: scouse Date: 16 May 12 - 05:05 AM America!!! As Aye, Phil. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Okay, what spooks you??? From: GUEST,Eliza Date: 16 May 12 - 11:22 AM I'm glad it's now considered normal behaviour to have a fear of spiders. I must say, the ones I saw in Senegal and Ghana would make anybody's hair stand on end... absolutely gigantic black furry things, and they could give a nasty bite too, as they had a habit of jumping down onto your head. (UGH!). (I always thought fear of spiders was arachnaphobia?) |
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Subject: RE: BS: Okay, what spooks you??? From: frogprince Date: 16 May 12 - 12:22 PM I could just say "height", but my reaction is unpredictable, with no logical consistency. I can't tolerate standing anywhere near the edge of a cliff or building without a railing, which I realize is fairly common; as long as there is an apparently sturdy railing, I'm not bothered at all. Being in a plane, however small, or a hot air balloon, doesn't bother me in the least. But to change a ceiling light comfortably, I need a good stepladder; if I stand on a stool even a foot off the floor, and extend my reach up for any reason, I'm very shakey. We went to the Grand Canyon a few years ago. We walked a just a little way down the Bright Angel trail. I wasn't really panicky, but it made me edgy. The next day we rode down on mules. I found myself leaning over to look down without the least discomfort. My nephew has a boat and parasail. I'm really torn about trying the thing; I really don't know whether I would take it in stride, or stress out to the point of potential heart attack. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Okay, what spooks you??? From: gnu Date: 16 May 12 - 03:58 PM froggy... "I can't tolerate standing anywhere near the edge of a cliff or building without a railing, which I realize is fairly common;..." Common? Indeed it is. It's a survival instinct most commonly found in animals with enough intelligence not to do that. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Okay, what spooks you??? From: Bert Date: 16 May 12 - 04:10 PM (I always thought fear of spiders was arachnaphobia?) Yes if you want to be specific. Entomophobia is kind of an inclusive term and is generally held to include fear of all creepy crawlies. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Okay, what spooks you??? From: VirginiaTam Date: 16 May 12 - 04:39 PM Being ill, growing old and more ill in a strange country. Getting to the point in my decline that I cannot travel to see my kids nor can I afford to pay for them to travel to visit me. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Okay, what spooks you??? From: GUEST,Eliza Date: 16 May 12 - 04:39 PM Ah, that makes it clear Bert, thanks. Have to say, all other creepy-crawlies are fine by me. I've seen all sorts, even poisonous things like scorpions which have a habit of getting into shoes and sandals while you're in bed. (Check before putting on in morning!) But our eight-legged friends....no! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Okay, what spooks you??? From: Bat Goddess Date: 16 May 12 - 06:53 PM Heights. (Can't get past the third rung of a ladder.) Some spiders ("daddy longlegs"-types don't bother me). Centipedes (ugh!). Fire. (Thanks to Life Magazine's pictures of a Catholic school fire -- Our Lady of the Angels -- in Chicago in the 1958.) Once in my kitchen I was accosted by a HUGE brown ugly spider. It was waaaay too big to squish (I don't even want to think about it), so I did what any red-blooded American woman would do -- I grabbed a can of Raid (I usually don't keep this kind of thing around, preferring products less damaging to my health and that of the cats) and sprayed the hell out of it. It fell behind the bookcase...where it is probably (still) mutating into The Spider That Ate Nottingham. I cringe when I think of it. (No way am I moving that bookcase!) Linn |
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Subject: RE: BS: Okay, what spooks you??? From: gnu Date: 16 May 12 - 07:18 PM "where it is probably (still)..." Hahahahaa. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Okay, what spooks you??? From: Jeri Date: 16 May 12 - 07:33 PM There are some things you don't want to squash just because you'd have to call FEMA or throw out a book or something. I was a bit arachnophobic when I was a kid, but somehow managed to grow out of it. I can't think of anything that always spooks me now, although fast, unexpected, unpredictable things can probably spook anyone. The fat dive-bombing fly that hits your face or other area on your head when you're trying to sleep, the wasp that's crawling on you that you manage to recognize milliseconds before you whack it. When I was doing my laundry last week, there was a mouse in a bright corner of the basement, trying to fuse with the architecture. I don't know whether it was lost in the light or had been into the poison, but it was too dazed to try to run away. I had time to get a live trap and nudge the little guy into it. Then I took it to the pond where it probably fed something. It ran from me then, but not with any sort of conviction, so I think it probably didn't last long. Things can startle me, but I don't usually STAY freaked out, and I'm happy being that way. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Okay, what spooks you??? From: Bill D Date: 16 May 12 - 08:13 PM Agreeing with Jeri.... I don't 'like' sudden encounters with bugs, but once I know where they are, I can deal with them. Likewise, I am cautious about heights, but I will climb ladders, trees, roofs and/or walk near canyons as long as I feel in control. Snakes? No problem once I know what & where they are. (I once held an 8ft. 40 lb. Burmese Rock Python as it (she) continuously explored me as a climbing post.) No problems with closed spaces (had an MRI once). I like flying....I LOVE looking down at the world. The only thing I can remember dreading is the idea of being in a traffic accident in cold, rainy or icy weather and lying injured on a street in nasty freezing conditions. I don't dwell on this... it just pops up now & then, and I shudder. I have no idea why. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Okay, what spooks you??? From: frogprince Date: 16 May 12 - 09:29 PM Bill D, in all probability it's because you froze to death, or at least died of hypothermia, in a prior incarnation. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Okay, what spooks you??? From: Bill D Date: 16 May 12 - 10:29 PM Oh, right....a prior incarnation. In Siberia, hunting wooly mammoths, no doubt. I think it may be more likely that I remember my days delivering newspapers at 5AM in 0°F weather. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Okay, what spooks you??? From: GUEST,Eliza Date: 17 May 12 - 05:30 AM My naughty pupils (aged 10) found out my phobia when a spider appeared in the classroom sink. They brought in every kind of rubber spider to leave on my chair, in my drawer, even in the Register. It's a wonder I didn't have a heart attack, the little horrors! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Okay, what spooks you??? From: Green Man Date: 17 May 12 - 07:09 AM The fact that they have all the best weaponry and technology and not one whit of sense about when to stop using them. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Okay, what spooks you??? From: Little Hawk Date: 17 May 12 - 10:16 AM The very mention of things like reincarnation spooks BillD. ;-) He can't help but react accordingly. What spooks me is the thought that a few Americans will still be bitching on Mudcat Cafe about their crazy 2-party political system long after I have left this life behind me. But it doesn't spook me very much... |
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Subject: RE: BS: Okay, what spooks you??? From: Uncle_DaveO Date: 17 May 12 - 10:51 AM Eliza: My naughty pupils (aged 10) found out my phobia when a spider appeared in the classroom sink. They brought in every kind of rubber spider to leave on my chair, in my drawer, even in the Register. It's a wonder I didn't have a heart attack, the little horrors! Which little horrors! Two- or eight-legged? Dave Oesterreich |
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Subject: RE: BS: Okay, what spooks you??? From: JohnInKansas Date: 17 May 12 - 11:11 AM Quite a long time ago, just after some of the nastiest insecticides had been recently banned, the exterminator who made his fourth trip to our house in response to my then-accomplice-living-companion's spider report explained that: "I can't completely eliminate spiders in your house, because they won't allow use of anything that will kill them. The best I can do is maybe get them drunk enough that they'll follow me out to the truck looking for another shot." Even the common "Raid" sometimes only puts them to sleep temporarily, unless can "really soak 'em." For the "inside" kinds most common in our area now, about the only time you see a spider is when one has wiped out all the bugs in one place and is looking for a new place where the food is better. As long as they're happy, they generally stay out of sight - but of course they're still there somewhere. (A bit of encouragement for the squeamish(?)) John |
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Subject: RE: BS: Okay, what spooks you??? From: Mrrzy Date: 17 May 12 - 12:22 PM Edges more than heights. *I* wouldn't have been able to get across that chasm. And knowing it's safe doesn't help, I've frozen when the worst that could happen was I'd get dirty. What helps is having a stick for a third leg - it doesn't have to be a *sturdy* stick, I don't lean on it, I just use it to know where the ground is when one foot is off the ground during a step over or near an edge. The neuropsych of this is interesting, it is also why when you're carrying a cup that is too full, look where you're going, not at the cup. If you look at the cup you will spill it, but if you don't, you won't. Usually. Anyway, central vision ties into the brain part that guides your motion towards something, and peripheral vision is supposed to be tied into the part of your motor system that keeps that motion towards something smooth, but in my case there's weird feedback so that, at an edge where peripheral vision says there is nothing, I can't keep my motions smooth so my brain says Don't Go There and I feel fear AND can't override my brain and go there anyway, nobody tells my legs anything either. So, having the stick gives my motor system something else to be smooth by, so I'm suddenly OK again. Cool stuff, eh! Also, I am not as afraid of mice as my late lamented father, who once jumped up onto a coffee table and immediately back down again as if he hadn't when hosting a dinner party (it was drinks-before-dinner time) with ministers no less... but the way they (mice, not ministers) move gives me the absolute creeps and I feel a physical shiver up my spine as if I were trying to moult or something. It must be a primeval shake-the-bug-off thing. I have a current lodger with a real creep-out about spiders, abundant in our biome... he can be fun out on the porch. Dinner *and* a show! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Okay, what spooks you??? From: Bill D Date: 17 May 12 - 12:26 PM "The very mention of things like reincarnation spooks BillD. ;-) He can't help but react accordingly." Nawwww... what spookes me is being surrounded by those who DO take stuff like reincarnation seriously! Why, who knows what other strange ideas are churning around in their heads! ;>) But since JinK mentions old pesticides, I am reminded of an event when I worked on a special project at EPA during its first year. My partner & I were in Davenport, Iowa to investigate its town 'dump', a story in itself... but we stopped at a little diner in a somewhat seedy area close by. We went in, sat down, ordered something as 'safe' as possible.... and I leaned back and looked UP. The place had a drop ceiling with those panels in a metal framework.... and hanging from many intersecting spots (we counted 18) some right over the grill & food storage area were **Shell No-Pest Strips**. Dichlorvos or 2,2-dichlorovinyl dimethyl phosphate No insect had a chance! A fly that came in the door would probably not get 3 feet. We ate our lunch...'considered' getting the cameras and documenting the place, but the proprietor did not look like the sort who would be amused. Yes, you can still buy essentially the same item today. (Later in the project we did photograph one hanging from the internal mirror in a closed VW Van in 90°F weather.) People who hate 'bugs' seem to be willing to take their chances with chemicals. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Okay, what spooks you??? From: Bettynh Date: 17 May 12 - 01:06 PM Off topic, but... When I moved here (my grandfather's house) I cleaned out the garage of old pesticides and brought them to the local Extension office (they were handling toxic waste at the time). The main ingredient in one insecticide from the 50s? Thorazine (better known as the first effective drug used for schizophrenics). Maybe if you spread it around the garden, you wouldn't care if the bugs were eating everything?? I don't know. Just reporting in... |
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Subject: RE: BS: Okay, what spooks you??? From: Ebbie Date: 17 May 12 - 03:11 PM I rather like household spiders- or at least I'm glad I have help keeping bugs and flies and other varmints under control. Same as with frogs and snakes in the garden. However, if you want/need to get rid of a spider, spray before knocking down the web; much better chance of getting the critter. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Okay, what spooks you??? From: GUEST Date: 17 May 12 - 07:27 PM I've never been a great fan of Jay Leno, I think he's funny as a brick and didn't like the way he elbowed in ahead of Letterman and Conan. But seeing the retropsective on Johnny Carson - who I adored!- it came out that Jay had his manager plant a false story that Johnny was going to quit- during the time Johnny was in mourning for the accidental death of his son. Johnny was so fed up by the fall out he DID quit. Leno is just a first class creep the kind you meet at work, school,in non profits, who acts like Mr. Nice Guy and is a Machievellian sinister crreature. So that's it,minor as it may sound in the scheme of the universe: Jay Leno Stalin bats |
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Subject: RE: BS: Okay, what spooks you??? From: Little Hawk Date: 17 May 12 - 09:45 PM What specific (and justifiable) reason is there for someone else not to take seriously various things that you don't happen to believe in or take seriously, Bill? After all, you don't know their reasons for taking a thing seriously. Oh, you may have some prior assumptions about it, yes, but they are quite likely mistaken assumptions. In any case, you don't know why I or someone else decided to take something seriously...even though you didn't. It's just different from you, but that doesn't necessarily make it "bad" or "wrong". Therefore, there's no real reason why it should "spook" you if they do take something seriously that you don't....unless just not knowing why they do spooks you. ;-) I don't know why you think the way you do. Neither do you know why I think the way I do. And that's just the way life is. We're different. That's a bit of a mystery. And it will remain so. Uncertainty or mystery about such things is not a threat...it's a common and enduring aspect of existence. If it spooks you, then you do feel threatened by it on some level. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Okay, what spooks you??? From: Little Hawk Date: 17 May 12 - 09:51 PM As for spiders, every house has some spiders in it. That's a guarantee. If you can't live with knowing that...then you've got a problem! ;-) I'm always getting rid of their webs and I've taken a great many of them outdoors, wrapped up in a bit of kleenex or sucked them up in the hose vacuum. Despite my efforts, there are always more of them. Fortunately, though, they don't scare me at all, I just don't like the mess they make indoors with their webs and the cast off remains of dead bugs, etc. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Okay, what spooks you??? From: Bill D Date: 18 May 12 - 01:21 PM "What specific (and justifiable) reason is there for someone else not to take seriously various things that you don't happen to believe in or take seriously, Bill?" Why, because I am so reasonable & clever & careful! ☺ Just ask me! "...you may have some prior assumptions about it, yes, but they are quite likely mistaken assumptions. " How could this be if I am so reasonable & clever & careful? It is "mistaken assumptions" that I so diligently joust against! (Damn whirling blades...help me, Sancho!) "And that's just the way life is. We're different. That's a bit of a mystery. And it will remain so. " Ah....now THERE'S a bit of truth....both trivial & profound at the same time. Therefore I both accept it and explore its relevance. "If it spooks you, then you do feel threatened by it on some level? Well, it seems Ronald Reagan made 'some' decisions based on Nancy's conferring with a famous astrologer. I don't need to know why she was 'different' to know it spooked me. *wry grin* What spooks me is wondering how many other aspects of MY life are being affected by the metaphysical whimsys of those who are not as ummm... "reasonable & clever & careful" as I strive to be. Right now, forces are at work in the political system of the US to insert their 'metaphysical whimsys' into the fabric of MY society. Why would I NOT be concerned with the root concepts involved in "taking seriously various things that I don't happen to believe in or take seriously"? This is both a light-hearted game AND a serious exercise, Little Hawk. It just depends on the context. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Okay, what spooks you??? From: Bert Date: 18 May 12 - 01:26 PM Nicely put BillD. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Okay, what spooks you??? From: Uncle_DaveO Date: 18 May 12 - 02:50 PM When I was amatorily pursuing my (eventual) wife (48 years ago), I was bemused by her fear of slopes and heights. There didn't need to be thousands (or hundreds, or even tens) of feet of exposure to spook her. If we went hiking or camping, and she had to descend a slope of say twenty-five degrees (or more, of course), making up an total "exposure" of a foot and a half above the lower, relatively flat level, and even if there were sizable footholds in the rocks, amounting to a staircase down, she would sit, facing the downslope, and "sit" down that little slope. She was not a child; 33 years old at the time. I blessed the fact that neither of the houses we have subsequently owned had a "staircase" with more than two steps. This fear or set of fears stayed with her for quite a few years. But one day I realized that she had just descended about a five-foot thirty-five degree downslope without sitting down! Later I saw her climb a kitchen stepladder to get at dishes in a high cabinet--a behavior that never could have occurred when we were newlyweds. What happened? Damfino. Dave Oesterreich |
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Subject: RE: BS: Okay, what spooks you??? From: GUEST,Eliza Date: 18 May 12 - 03:09 PM My late friend Maureen and her husband had a lovely house, where I was often invited. But they also had an absolutely enormous spider which lived in the skirting boards. They refused to do anything about him (why should they?) and called him Arthur. I spent the whole time in their sitting room screwing my head round to see if Arthur was about. Only twice did he appear, and each time I was out of there like a rocket. The husband used to get very annoyed. He loved Arthur. I didn't. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Okay, what spooks you??? From: Don Firth Date: 18 May 12 - 04:46 PM One good thing about having a resident spider or two around (assuming that it isn't a tarantula or black widow or something of that nature) is that they keep the other bugs down. And you're never really lonesome. . . . Don Firth |
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Subject: RE: BS: Okay, what spooks you??? From: Little Hawk Date: 18 May 12 - 05:13 PM I follow you, Bill. ;-) I think most people imagine themselves to be reasonable, clever, and careful. Many think, as they enter a room, "I am probably the most reasonable, clever, and careful person here". It's fairly natural for the human ego to think that way...although it can sometimes take a dive into self-hatred, in which case it thinks as it enters the room "What a hopeless, miserable failure I am. I hope no one notices it. I must try to cover it up somehow!" Some people bounce back and forth a great deal between one state and the other, depending on how things are going...or how they think things are going. Kind of sad, isn't it? I don't worry too much about whether politicians consult astrological charts. I worry more about the great financial and imperial forces that dangle them on the puppet strings while they are consulting astrological charts. Either way, though, no matter how much I worry about it, I can essentially do nothing about it, and that's worrisome too. Makes for a lot to worry about, doesn't it? And again, it's kind of sad. It would be nice to stop worrying entirely, and just live in the present. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Okay, what spooks you??? From: Little Hawk Date: 18 May 12 - 05:28 PM Eliza, Arthur sounds charming to me. I regret never having had the chance to meet him. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Okay, what spooks you??? From: Bill D Date: 18 May 12 - 07:50 PM "I don't worry too much about whether politicians consult astrological charts." *I* don't worry specifically about that, but as I said, about the human mind-set that allows them to base decisions on ANY unproven metaphysical concepts. This makes them think they have an excuse to foist it on the rest of us. (We can debate all day whether the need to 'foist' came first, or the acceptance of the metaphysical concept.) Thus, like Descartes, I practice doubt and investigate whether a claim hangs together even after doubt. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Okay, what spooks you??? From: GUEST Date: 18 May 12 - 07:58 PM The prospect of either O'Bama being re-elected or Romney elected. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Okay, what spooks you??? From: Little Hawk Date: 18 May 12 - 09:55 PM Heh! Yeah... But, there is no apostrophe in Obama. Bill, I understand your viewpoint perfectly...I once held that same viewpoint myself, indeed it was the very basis of my young outlook onh life...but it just wasn't enough in the long run. So I added some additional viewpoints to it, and some of them concern things which by their very nature cannot be proven (or disproven), and do not provide any empirical or measurable evidence, but can only be experienced in an inner subjective manner. What I experience within my own consciousness is not observable through outer means and it never will be. I don't demand physical evidence for things which lie completely outside the parameters of physical evidence and which are inacessible through sense perception, but are nevertheless experienced in a conscious manner. Philosophical and spiritual and romantic concepts of all kinds are among those things, and we all hold such concepts dear to us, whether or not we ever admit to doing so. Science can't help us with those, because they are not tied to physical evidence of any sort. Philosophy, literature, art, discussion, relationship, music, and direct experience of life itself can. They are things approached through thought, through emotion, through reason, and through inner feeling. They aren't physical, although they resonate within and throughout our experience OF physicality. And they are real...because everyone experiences them as real and very meaningful phenomena (of a non-physical sort). |
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Subject: RE: BS: Okay, what spooks you??? From: Bert Date: 18 May 12 - 11:04 PM But, there is no apostrophe in Obama. But you wouldn't expect an unnamed chicken shit GUEST to know that would you? |
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Subject: RE: BS: Okay, what spooks you??? From: Don Firth Date: 18 May 12 - 11:22 PM Maybe GUEST thinks Obama is Irish....... Don Firth |
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Subject: RE: BS: Okay, what spooks you??? From: GUEST,Eliza Date: 19 May 12 - 10:43 AM Do you mean like the famous Irish millionnaire Aristotle O'Nassis? |
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Subject: RE: BS: Okay, what spooks you??? From: Crowhugger Date: 19 May 12 - 12:30 PM I'm also arachnophobic but only indoors, though with great effort I can kill them with a custom long handled spider killer. Fortunately in my house spiders almost never grow unsquishably big. Eventually I stop shuddering. I'm shuddering as I write this. Yet outdoors they don't bother me at all, I can even have them on my hand to move them out of harm's way. Makes no sense at all. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Okay, what spooks you??? From: GUEST,Boris the Spider Date: 19 May 12 - 01:13 PM You human arachniphobes give me such a pain! You're 10,000 times bigger than us, for gosh sakes! We're terrified of YOU, and we have good reason to be, because a lot of you are arachnicidal maniacs who kill us with no provocation. Why can't you relate to a simple concept like sharing the world peacefully, live and let live? You just eat your food (pigs, cattle, chickens and plants), we'll eat ours (bugs), and we can co-exist with no problems at all. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Okay, what spooks you??? From: gnu Date: 19 May 12 - 02:57 PM Yo, Boris. Stay on yer own web and I'll stay on mine. Yer right. Stay scared a me on accounta I ain't scared a you. Think "termination with severe prejudice" you multi-eyed, multi-legged, hairy-assed motherf***er. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Okay, what spooks you??? From: GUEST,mando-player-91 Date: 19 May 12 - 03:59 PM Mitt Romney Rick Santourum heights and video footage of Joe Mccarthy |
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Subject: RE: BS: Okay, what spooks you??? From: GUEST,Boris the Spider Date: 19 May 12 - 07:10 PM You're the perfect example of an ignorant, know-nothing, arachnid-hating human being without the brains of a fruit fly, gnu. I bet you're an ugly bastard too. I feel sorry for any spiders who are forced by circumstance to inhabit the same general area of this lovely world that you do, and I hope for their sake that a large and heavy tree falls on you, and sooner rather than later. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Okay, what spooks you??? From: LilyFestre Date: 19 May 12 - 09:43 PM Empty halls in a hospital. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Okay, what spooks you??? From: Ebbie Date: 19 May 12 - 10:50 PM sheesh Please don't tell me that we are to be treated with yet another aspect of someone's mind. Boris, go away. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Okay, what spooks you??? From: frogprince Date: 19 May 12 - 11:25 PM Te sound of a distant toilet flushing :) |
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Subject: RE: BS: Okay, what spooks you??? From: Ebbie Date: 20 May 12 - 02:33 AM oh |
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Subject: RE: BS: Okay, what spooks you??? From: frogprince Date: 21 May 12 - 02:05 PM I hope Ebbie will forgive me for that last post. : ) Something just reminded me of one other thing: multi-person public toilets without stall doors. As at the state recreation area near us. A couple of years ago I was compelled to use the dumper there, and found myself sitting with a toddler standing there staring at me. Now I'm farm-raised. So far as peeing goes, I'm just inhibited enough not to stand there and do it in the presence of women other than my wife. But the thought of having anyone, including my wife, watch me go number two makes my hair stand on end. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Okay, what spooks you??? From: GUEST,Blind DRunk in Blind River Date: 21 May 12 - 03:06 PM I flippin' AGREE! And what about number 3, eh? Even flippin' WORSE!!! - Shabe |
