Coulrophobia

This is from the "You think I tell everything on this blog but I don't. See, I'll show you" file. If you'd actually prefer to know less about me than you already do, go ahead and skip this one. Desperate blog times call for desperate blog measures...

From Columbia News:
Although there are no official statistics, some experts believe that as many as one in seven people experience some level of coulrophobia, as fear of clowns is clinically known. Symptoms can include shortness of breath, irregular heartbeat, sweating, nausea and overall feelings of dread.

From USA Today:
Study: Kids fear clown paintings more than hospitals
What do British children fear more: A hospital, or clowns?

Turns out it may be the latter -- or at least, paintings of clowns. A state-funded survey indicates that, while children generally don't find hospitals frightening, a painting of a clown on a hospital wall is very, very scary to many. A survey of 250 children found they all disliked clown paintings, according to The Telegraph, with even teenagers saying the paintings were "scary."

I find myself more in the "I Hate Clowns" camp (which has a store with anti-clown merchandise. This image is a t-shirt for sale there. I think I need one.):
From I Hate Clowns:
There are people in this world who dress up and act like clowns; I don't like these people. I am not clownophobic (or to be politically /scientifically correct, coulrophobic). I do not fear clowns. Really. I don't. They are just not nice people. They scare little kids, they cause neurosis in some adults, they have big floppy feet, they try to fit too many of their kind in a car, I could go on and on.


So at lunch yesterday, Jean mentions this news story about how many kids dislike/fear clowns. Mundane Jane says she doesn't know of anybody who's afraid of clowns. True confessions: I am one of the seven who does not like clowns (or really anyone who dresses up and covers his/her (who knows?) face up so I can't see who they really are). I think I have more of the "feeling of dread" than the rest of the list of symptoms. I'd say my feelings are more healthy dislike than fear, but clowns are creepy. And, no, I can't name one real-life episode in my past that caused that. So now I'm pretty sure that MJ will seize her chance to bring out her red rubber nose and greasepaint. She strikes me as someone who might have a clown suit handy, you know?

On the bright side, now I have a blog post. And then one clown story led to another clown story and MJ gave me all kinds of ideas on how to work in past comic episodes (coming soon: rogue hamster) to today's blog needs. Thanks, MJ. I bet we'll have crowds clamoring to go when they find out what we talk about at lunch.