Toren Atkinson’s Absolute Blog

Pick your favourite fear:

Asymmetrical things- Asymmetriphobia
Things to the left side of the body- Levophobia
Bowel movements: painful- Defecaloesiophobia
Bridges or of crossing them- Gephyrophobia
Bullets- Ballistophobia
Burglars, or being harmed by wicked persons- Scelerophobia
Chinese or Chinese culture- Sinophobia
Color yellow- Xanthophobia
Cooking- Mageirocophobia
Criticized severely, or beaten by rod or instrument of punishment- Rhabdophobia
Defeat- Kakorrhaphiophobia
Deformed people or bearing a deformed child- Teratophobia
Dining or dinner conversations- Deipnophobia
Dirty, being dirty or personal filth- Automysophobia
Englishness- Anglophobia
Erect penis- Medorthophobia
Everything- Panophobia, Panphobia, Pamphobia, or Pantophobia
Flutes- Aulophobia
France or French culture- Francophobia, Gallophobia or Galiphobia
Friday the 13th- Paraskavedekatriaphobia
God or gods- Zeusophobia
Greek or Greek culture- Hellophobia
Handwriting- Graphophobia
Kissing- Philemaphobia or Philematophobia
Knowledge- Gnosiophobia or Epistemophobia (stop reading if you’ve got this)
Mice- Musophobia, Murophobia or Suriphobia
Mirrors or seeing oneself in a mirror- Eisoptrophobia
Names or hearing a certain name- Onomatophobia
Needles- Aichmophobia or Belonephobia (Marlo?)
Objects, small- Tapinophobia
Ocean or sea- Thalassophobia
Opinions- Allodoxaphobia
Otters- Lutraphobia
Peanut butter sticking to the roof of the mouth- Arachibutyrophobia
Puppets- Pupaphobia
Railroads or train travel- Siderodromophobia
Relatives- Syngenesophobia
School, going to school- Didaskaleinophobia
Sharks- Selachophobia
Single: staying single- Anuptaphobia
Slime- Blennophobia or Myxophobia
Snow- Chionophobia
Stairways- Bathmophobia
Standing upright- Basistasiphobia or Basostasophobia
Step-mother- Novercaphobia
Tyrants- Tyrannophobia
Undressing in front of someone- Dishabillophobia
Ventriloquist’s dummy- Automatonophobia
Waits, long- Macrophobia
Wealth- Plutophobia
Wet dreams- Oneirogmophobia
Words, long- Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia or Sesquipedalophobia.

In a furtive ceremony held two days ahead of schedule in order to pre-empt violence, the United States transferred “sovereignty” to Iraq. About 140,000 American troops remained in the country, with no mechanism in place between the two countries to govern the troops, and 150 Americans stayed on in Iraqi ministries as advisers. [New York Times] Of the 2,300 construction projects promised by coalition forces, fewer than 140 were underway at the time of the transfer of power. Observing that “a state of war is not a blank check for the president,” the Supreme Court ruled that both foreign prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay and so-called enemy combatants held in the United States can use the American legal system to challenge their detention. Four American soldiers were charged with fatally pushing an Iraqi off a bridge in January for breaking a curfew. President Bush’s approval rating fell to its lowest point, 42 percent. [New York Times]

More than 2,100 Florida residents were found to be wrongly included on a list of ineligible voters. [Miami Herald] Nine members of the House of Representatives asked the United Nations to monitor the November elections.

The FDA approved the use of blood-sucking leeches for medicinal purposes.

A good source of anti-coagulants, or so I’ve heard

The Cassini spacecraft orbited Saturn and transmitted the first pictures of the icy rings circling the planet, and [New York Times] the Hubble Space Telescope discovered a hundred new planets orbiting stars in the Milky Way. [BBC]

Jeez I remember not so long ago we didn’t have any proof of other planets.

Experts warned that witches’ broom disease and frosty pod disease could devastate chocolate supplies in coming years

The only words in that sentence that made sense to me were ‘chocolate’ and ‘years’

Female rice farmers in Nepal were plowing their fields in the nude to please the rain god. [Associated Press]

Well, I’m off - I’ve got a rain god outfit to start sewing, but fast!

Satomi, Yvonne and I went to the Leaky Heaven Circus yesterday and it was really fun and wunderbar. I recommend you look into it and catch it while it’s still going. It goes to Sunday I think. http://www.leakyheaven.com
I went to their website and on the front page was the poster but it was cut up and rearranged so rather than try to figure it out I just clicked on the image and looked for an address inside the site. I found Leaky Heaven Performance Society 600 Campell Ave but it turns out that was wrong so we spent some time trying to find a poster or make calls to get the proper info. We found postcards in a community center that had the real address - 1500 block of Williams St - and when we got there it was sold out, but there was a waiting list that one could be added to, so we had our names added even though she said “it’s not looking too good.” We waited for a while and then they called out 6 more people on the waiting list, then another 6, then another 3 and so on and so on until finally we got in. So, despite my rushed research the day before, we got to see a fantastic circus, complete with madcap monkey shines, rockillicking revelry and haughty high jinks. I donated some extra money after the show was over.

We played D&D tonight and then Anghold and I went over to Ursula’s to play poker. Somehow I ended up with everyone’s money at the end of the night (even though everyone’s money was Ursula’s, and I didn’t get to keep it). I made some bold dealer plays - whatever the term is when the dealer calls what’s wild and how many rounds of how many cards are dealt - but most of my overtures were brutally frowned upon.