# Steel Wool- Banana Heebie Jeebies **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 19, 2000, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steel-wool-banana-heebie-jeebies/46350 "2000-12-19T15:11:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2000, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steel-wool-banana-heebie-jeebies/46350/1 "2000-12-19T15:11:17Z")
Am I really wired that weirdly?? I cannot handle steel wool pads with my bare hands. It gives me the SAME weird abrasive feeling in my teeth that I get if I bite into an UNDER ripe banana. ``` I don't lose a lot of sleep over this, but does anyone else have this tactile response? A part of it is mental, Mommy used to admonish me and say, " you know, steel wool can enter your skin and get into your bloodstream and get lodged in your heart". Mom was a barrel of laughs, lemme tell you. ``` No,this is an actual physical response to touching it. It almost makes me shudder to touch them. \ Why? Needlesss to say, steel wool and banana sandwiches are OUT in my home šŸ˜ƒ Cartooniverse ---
**Author:** ![Myron\_Van\_Horowitzski](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de053/32.png) [@Myron\_Van\_Horowitzski](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Myron_Van_Horowitzski)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2000, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steel-wool-banana-heebie-jeebies/46350/2 "2000-12-19T16:10:45Z")
Wet newspaper. Make the hair stand up on the back of my neck just thinking about it. ---
**Author:** ![Egad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Egad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Egad)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2000, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steel-wool-banana-heebie-jeebies/46350/3 "2000-12-19T16:33:14Z")
I get exactly the same thing from touching towels or toilet paper with dry hands. It drives me nuts. Also the thought of biting into a roll of toilet paper is enough to get me going. Although Iā€™ve never actually done that. No, really. ---
**Author:** ![douglips](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@douglips](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/douglips)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2000, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steel-wool-banana-heebie-jeebies/46350/4 "2000-12-19T16:52:25Z")
Etched glass. Any beverage glass with an etched design on it is anathema to my fingers. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2000, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steel-wool-banana-heebie-jeebies/46350/5 "2000-12-19T17:20:31Z")
Biting on foil is my classic tactile bugaboo. ---
**Author:** ![malden](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7bcc69/32.png) [@malden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/malden)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2000, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steel-wool-banana-heebie-jeebies/46350/6 "2000-12-19T19:35:18Z")
Steel wool- nope, nothing there. But I canā€™t stand touching paper when my hands are wet. And when people lick their fingers to turn pages of a book-- donā€™t get me started. That is messed up on so many levels. I canā€™t bear to watch it. My personal hell would probably be to spend eternity in a room full of people reading all my books and licking their fingers every time they turn a page. šŸ™‚ ---
**Author:** ![Zenster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/cdc98d/32.png) [@Zenster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zenster)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2000, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steel-wool-banana-heebie-jeebies/46350/7 "2000-12-19T20:10:21Z")
The very finest gauges of steel wool produce mild sorts of the effects mentioned. Chewing on tin foil is most definitely fingernails-on-the-blackboard time for me. One winner that has not been mentioned yet is styrofoam. Certain grades of it are so dry that just touching it gives me the heebie-jeebies. The real payoff is even _thinking_ about chewing on it. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2000, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steel-wool-banana-heebie-jeebies/46350/8 "2000-12-19T20:22:27Z")
Handling cotton balls does it for me. I have to get my wife to take them out of the aspirin bottles. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2000, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steel-wool-banana-heebie-jeebies/46350/9 "2000-12-19T20:23:31Z")
I canā€™t stand touching flour with my bare hands. Just thinking about it makes me lick my hands. No really. I think ā€œpet skeeveā€ is a good term for these particular things that skeeve (sp?) only some people out. ---
**Author:** ![manhattan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manhattan/32/7_2.png) [@manhattan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manhattan)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2000, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steel-wool-banana-heebie-jeebies/46350/10 "2000-12-19T23:37:19Z")
This is really more of an IMHO thing. Iā€™ll shoot the thread over there for you. ---
**Author:** ![Skelji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b38774/32.png) [@Skelji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skelji)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2000, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steel-wool-banana-heebie-jeebies/46350/11 "2000-12-19T23:48:00Z")
I can drag my nails across a blackboard with no ill effects. (Not that I could _find_ a true blackboard anymore). However, I get the skeeves from touching brown paper bags, or those abrasive-like brown paper towels in commercial bathrooms. Brrrrrrrrr. Steel wool doesnā€™t bother me, but then again, I wear gloves. I use it a lot for wood re-finishing, and thereā€™s nothing like getting metal splinters to make your day. ---
**Author:** ![Rock-n-Rolga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/22d042/32.png) [@Rock-n-Rolga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rock-n-Rolga)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2000, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steel-wool-banana-heebie-jeebies/46350/12 "2000-12-19T23:50:39Z")
ā€œPet skeeveā€ is a hilarious and apt term! Mine are: 1. Biting into strawberries (itā€™s not the taste, itā€™s all those little seeds - eeyyurrch!) 2. Even just the thought of running my teeth over cotton sheets makes me go all shivery. Bleah. Dunno why one would do that with oneā€™s teeth, though. Lawks, Iā€™m loopy! ---
**Author:** ![dragonlady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5f8ce5/32.png) [@dragonlady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dragonlady)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2000, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steel-wool-banana-heebie-jeebies/46350/13 "2000-12-20T01:31:23Z")
My Ex had a ā€œthingā€ about putting wood in his mouth. Those giveaway chopsticksā€¦fergedabowdit. ---
**Author:** ![Totoro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/65b543/32.png) [@Totoro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Totoro)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2000, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steel-wool-banana-heebie-jeebies/46350/14 "2000-12-20T01:36:21Z")
If anything touches my wrists, I get really scared. If I scratch my teeth on glass (like if Iā€™m drinking), It makes chills go up my spine. If I scractch against a wall thatā€™s painted, the same thing happens. ---
**Author:** ![JavaMaven1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/cab0a1/32.png) [@JavaMaven1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JavaMaven1)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2000, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steel-wool-banana-heebie-jeebies/46350/15 "2000-12-20T01:46:23Z")
I really hate handling whole fish. The times I had to do fish in culinary school were torturous. The feeling of those scales are much like fingernails on a chalkboard. Sandpaper gives me the heebie-jeebies, too. ---
**Author:** ![DeskMonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f14d63/32.png) [@DeskMonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeskMonkey)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2000, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steel-wool-banana-heebie-jeebies/46350/16 "2000-12-20T01:53:30Z")
The very thought of barnacles puts a big twist in my knickers. My BF once said something about what it would be like to have barncles growing all over oneā€™s head and I almost flipped out of my skin . . . . bleeeehhhhh. We must have been watching a show about whales or something. I need to stop thinking about it now. ---
**Author:** ![Rasa](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rasa/32/3578_2.png) [@Rasa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rasa)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2000, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steel-wool-banana-heebie-jeebies/46350/17 "2000-12-20T02:23:34Z")
GAH! Etched glass. _shudder_ This one gets me a lot of odd looks. Know those kinda corrugated cardboard drink trays places give you to hold your drinks? OH MY GOD. I canā€™t touch those. I would rather stab myself about the head with an electric eel than handle one of those. I will risk third degree burns and make many trips rather than handle one of those. My friends at work tortured me once by collecting them for weeks and laying them all over my cube. Oyā€¦ On a similar note, silk kinda oogs me out. If itā€™s good quality itā€™s ok. But something about how cheap silk catches on my fingerprints. Eek! God, my teeth are watering just thinking about all that stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Odieman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a87d85/32.png) [@Odieman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odieman)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2000, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steel-wool-banana-heebie-jeebies/46350/18 "2000-12-20T02:25:44Z")
And donā€™t forget frosted gin bottles ::shudder:: sometimes I canā€™t even look at them, let alone handle them. Keiht ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2000, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steel-wool-banana-heebie-jeebies/46350/19 "2000-12-20T02:25:45Z")
The sound made by a wet cloth being wiped across one of those nylon, outdoor-type tablecloths. Gasp! :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Tabithina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f04885/32.png) [@Tabithina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tabithina)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2000, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steel-wool-banana-heebie-jeebies/46350/20 "2000-12-20T02:29:48Z")
Handling raw chicken will get me every time. I used to be able to do this without any problems, until my first pregnancy. I was eight weeks along and my morning sickness was just starting to get _really_ bad. The _feel_ of the clammy skin, and the chicken-blood smell made by stomach do cartwheels in my throat. I love to _eat_ chicken; I just canā€™t get the stuff into the pan without feeling queasy. Urp. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steel-wool-banana-heebie-jeebies/46350.md?page=2)