[We interrupt our regularly scheduled catchup book reviews for this very quick digression inspired by my friend Beth, who blogs at I Didn’t Have My Glasses On.]
Yesterday I referred here to something I consider the ultimate in scary: a pack of soft spoken but terrifying kindergarten teachers. [Think about it: they fearlessly face down feral, free-range five-year-olds on a daily basis, usually without resorting to profanity or industrial strength tranquilizers. Sooooo scary!]
Beth, while acknowledging they are her tribe, felt there might be things even scarier. Clowns? Dentists? Zombies? Or…
Please help us resolve this burning issue.
What’s your scariest nemesis? (Caves? Public speaking? The Dark? Really big hairy spiders? Being mistaken for a Republican?)
And also this (at most quietly smoldering) issue?
What is the plural of nemesis?
Barb Taub 
Doctors’ receptionists – not that we have to face them these days as we are not allowed to set foot in the surgery. Now we can avoid the icy glare, but still have to get past that ultimate in receptionist power – phone triaging.
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Haha! Try to get past the triage when it’s in another language. There I was, in Italy on Thanksgiving, holding up my hand (on which I’d just done my level best to remove one fingertip) and the lady on the other end of the line was asking politely if I’d like to embrace the hospital. I asked her if that might get a bit messy, and we agreed I would hold off on coming to the hospital.
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I can never unsee that barb!))
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Scarred for life? Sorry about that…
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Clowns and spiral staircases. Won’t go near either. 2. Nemeses. 🙂
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A truly terrifying combination!
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Umm, I don’t really want to see this … 😉
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Being splash bombed in the swimming pool – always seem to attract those who insist on doing this.
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That sounds awful. Er… Care for a dip?
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In my case, my garbage collector. If I am not ready with the garbage within a fraction of a second that he rings the bell, the look on his face…shudder.
Nemesises sounds lovely…but it plain ol’ nemeses, I suppose.
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In my case, I think it’s neme-sissies…
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Anyone with a mechanical skill, especially those armed with acronyms when they explain my ‘problem’. 2. New classrooms – all those faces turned and staring like so many unsanguinated vampires as the teacher exhorts them to ‘give Geoffrey our big welcome.
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“It’s not cheap, but I’m sure the government will buy it.”
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I can´t even say the word or type it. It starts with r and ends with t. Just typing that will give me nightmares. Give me a zombi dentist clown any day!!
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I’m completely with you on that. I still have to sit down and breathe deeply whenever I think of the rodent my daughter kept as a pet. Sometimes, she would kiss it.
I’ve never been quite the same since.
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The crowd. I have been agoraphobic for 6 years…
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I’m so sorry. That must have been so difficult for you.
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Sssssnakes!!!! Which is hilarious because I was a camper, a wilderness camper. I was in their territory. People who camped with me learned very early on that my hysteria could have physically painful side effects to those around me.
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The first day we were in Australia, someone casually mentioned that it had 90% of the world’s most deadly snakes and spiders. I wanted to head for the airport immediately.
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Which is exactly why I will never visit Australia. New Zealand on the other hand doesn’t have any snakes.
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I’m in! Meet you there?
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I do not like CLOWNS! Except for Emmett Kelly. Maybe the plural is nemeses?
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Even Emmett doesn’t get a pass. Clowns are just SO wrong…
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Ha, well, now that you mention it “being mistaken for a Republican”. But my big fear is anything medical…doctors, especially. Medical procedures, hospitals…things like that freak me out. And, sadly, I have a deep (and well-earned) mistrust of doctors.
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Even the ones who aren’t zombie clowns?
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Yes, even those! Ha!
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Plural of nemesis? Bit like octopus… octopusses, right? So nemesis…. nemesisisis. Now, the scary thing – walking into a full room of strangers – on my own. Something, in times gone by (like around sixteen months ago) I would do often. And, scarily enough, am yearning to do again… soon….please!!
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At the moment, I still get incredibly nervous at the sight of people gathered together…wondering if they really have all been vaccinated, not trusting anyone without a mask.
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And yet there are many around, and in crowds, and shouting… at football matches. it’s not that I dislike football (well actually, it bores me beyond) but why is it allowed? Japan has the right idea for the Olympics – no shouting/whistling/cheering. Just polite clapping. As long as they don’t clap with such vigour it makes them breathe heavily on the person in front of them. Sorry, going completely off topic here. By the way, facing a group of more than one on a walk and I pretend to knee to fasten my shoelace and hold my breath until they’ve passed. I reckon I use up around ten extra calories that way – the getting back up, I mean!
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We have all these new fears… I wonder how many of them will torture us for the long run? We’re in Florence, and the Hub would love to explore more of the restaurants. But even though restrictions have been lifted, I can’t handle the thought of anything but a well-spaced outdoor table.
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Judith, great idea for avoiding the unmasked populace while out walking. I’m going to do that. And of course the getting backup is an extra calorie burn — win, win!
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Win, win, Kassandra – I can vouch for it – it says so on the Fitbit watch thingy, I borrow from my daughter. Of course being seen bobbing up and down like that by various oncoming groups one could get a reputation for being very eccentric. But hey-ho, these ae strange times all round. lol
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“ one could get a reputation for being very eccentric”—especially if your shoes don’t have laces!
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Which mine don’t, but hey, sometimes that velcro needs adjusting. And I’ve been called things waaaay worse than eccentric!
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Way worse than eccentric, Kassandra?
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Hahaha – I once had shoes ( as a child in the olden days) that had black buttons for fasteners, and my mum used a button hook:
“A buttonhook is a tool used to facilitate the closing of buttoned shoes, gloves or other clothing. It consists of a hook fixed to a handle which may be simple or decorative as part of a dresser set or chatelaine. Sometimes they were given away as promotions with product advertising on the handle.”
Not sure where it came from but it had Freeman, Hardy and Willis on the handle. (Freeman, Hardy and Willis was a major chain of footwear retailers in the United Kingdom.)
Saying no more!!
Sorry, keep going off at a tangent – giddy after yesterday’s event
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I’m secretly envious of my granddaughter’s trainers…velcro closing, glittery, pink and purple, and they light up when she stomps. Why can’t I ever find those in a size 6?
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“Zombie Clown Dentist” LOL.
Mine is heights. Having my teeth drilled by a zombie clown dentist on the edge of a cliff… pure terror.
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Heights aren’t a problem for me. Dentists, even on solid ground with no interest in a red nose or brainssssss… [shudders]
(Worst gif EVER!)
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Oh my, that clips. Eeeek! Lol
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Snakes and heights, in that order. I justify the latter by saying that I have vertigo. The snakes…well that doesn’t need justification, as far as I’m concerned.
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The highs and lows of life!
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I’m afraid of confined spaces. No submarines for me!
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For me it’s caves. All that earth pressing down, and somehow never enough air…
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Hats off to Beth! I love her blog. Give me 50 preschoolers and I’m good. A single bat in the house is terrifying.
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This may sound a little nuts but one of my biggest fears is butterflies- don’t know why. I just have always had a problem with them. Also scared of ghosts even though I don’t believe in them (until it’s night time and ghosts start sounding like they could be real)
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I totally get the ghosts, especially if you had bad experiences. But I’m so sad about the butterflies.
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