{"id":22,"date":"2006-02-13T19:34:10","date_gmt":"2006-02-14T03:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/godammit.com\/archives\/2006\/02\/ventriloquists-dummy-phobia"},"modified":"2006-02-13T22:48:22","modified_gmt":"2006-02-14T06:48:22","slug":"ventriloquists-dummy-phobia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/godammit.com\/ventriloquists-dummy-phobia\/","title":{"rendered":"Ventriloquist’s Dummy Phobia!"},"content":{"rendered":"

There’s nothing better than a weird phobia, don’t you think? While Fear Of Clowns seems pretty common, it’s nice to know that Ventriloquist’s Dummies<\/a> inspire enough dread to be listed in the pantheon of modern phobias. “Imagine what your life would be like<\/strong> without Automatonophobia, Fear of Ventriloquist’s Dummies, Animatronic Creatures and Wax Statues!”<\/strong> challenges the heading on a website offering therapy. Wow, I CAN’T imagine that, but it sounds great.<\/p>\n

At present. I have just three operational phobias: rodents, freeway driving, and midgets. I have a friend whose phobias are jewelry, wigs and mimes. I’ve told him that mimes don’t count because it’s a universal aversion, but he insists on calling it a phobia.<\/p>\n

Not to brag, but I used to be terrified of armlessness. More specifically, I was afraid of people with only one arm. Even more specifically, I was afraid of seeing<\/em> people with one arm, not the people per se. Sometimes I would approach a kid with his sleeves dangling empty, and my heart would freeze. After several close calls, I figured out that kids like to wear sweatshirts with their arms inside against their bodies.<\/p>\n

Obviously, phobias can come and go. I plan to cultivate, if possible, both lutraphobia (fear of otters) and apeirophobia (fear of infinity.)<\/p>\n

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