# What seemingly innocuous things can you just NOT look at? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 27, 2010, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-seemingly-innocuous-things-can-you-just-not-look-at/551714 "2010-08-27T20:44:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 11
**Author:** ![Klytus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Klytus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Klytus)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2010, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-seemingly-innocuous-things-can-you-just-not-look-at/551714/201 "2010-09-08T19:55:50Z")
Forgot to mention that my ex-wife had an irrational revulsion to the sound of smashing a head of lettuce to get the core out - she would say “Can’t you hear it cry out in agony and despair?” She also couldn’t stand the sound of peeling the out leaves from a head of lettuce. If you did it while she was in earshot, her face would twitch uncontrollably as if she was on the verge of a seizure or something. After the lettuce was “dead” she was OK to eat it and all that. But when it came time to “kill” it and “prep” it, she **always** left the room, and I had to tell her when it was “safe” to come back in. ---
**Author:** ![KaylaLynn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/58956e/32.png) [@KaylaLynn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KaylaLynn)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2010, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-seemingly-innocuous-things-can-you-just-not-look-at/551714/202 "2010-09-09T01:00:27Z")
On Summer nights, slugs crawl all over my porch to dine on catfood leftovers, and I near retch. I know I can kill them with salt, but dead ones creep me out 100X more than the live ones. ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2010, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-seemingly-innocuous-things-can-you-just-not-look-at/551714/203 "2010-09-09T02:32:02Z")
I don’t think slugs count as ‘innocuous’ though. I think they’re right up there with spiders and stuff in terms of “things lots of people think are yucky.” ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2010, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-seemingly-innocuous-things-can-you-just-not-look-at/551714/204 "2010-09-09T02:53:11Z")
Baby stuff. The blankets and bibs and such with the lovingly drawn little duckies and bunnies and cows jumping over the moon. Babies have to grow up to be humans in a world that just isn’t like that and never will be. It’s the biggest, sweetest, well-meaningest lie since Christianity. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2010, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-seemingly-innocuous-things-can-you-just-not-look-at/551714/205 "2010-09-09T14:30:20Z")
> [@Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](#): > > Parking garages, of the multi-story variety. They always look as if they’re on the verge of collapsing from all the weight that’s on them. Thanks. Now I’ll be freaked out by parking garages. :mad: 😉 Actually, I do get a little squicked out by one particular highway bridge. I used to have to commute on a surface street that was heavily-trafficked, and ran directly underneath the Washington Beltway. It was stop-and-go, particularly near the highway, and I would frequently be stopped by traffic lights while under that overpass. I was always very nervous, sure THAT was the day the bridge would finally collapse and bury me in the rubble, to be found days later once they’d cleared everything out, but just a bit too late to save me. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2010, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-seemingly-innocuous-things-can-you-just-not-look-at/551714/206 "2010-09-09T14:37:56Z")
> [@Beware\_of\_Doug](#): > > Baby stuff. The blankets and bibs and such with the lovingly drawn little duckies and bunnies and cows jumping over the moon. Babies have to grow up to be humans in a world that just isn’t like that and never will be. It’s the biggest, sweetest, well-meaningest lie since Christianity. Yes. Especially baby books - ‘look at the cow, and the farm, and the farmer milking the cow. and there’s wild animals! Look, a leopard with spots and a tiger with stripes! Ooh, a book about the ocean! Do you see the whale, and the lobsters, and all the pretty fish? And here’s a book, look at all the pretty butterflies! A mourning cloak, a monarch, a luna moth…’ Baby books concentrate on life as it used to be in the past. I’m afraid when our baby grows up, the natural world would have changed, drastically. He will go to a zoo to look at the last lemurs and tigers. I find that so sad, that I really cannot look at those books any more. Just give baby a cell phone and an iPod to play with. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2010, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-seemingly-innocuous-things-can-you-just-not-look-at/551714/207 "2010-09-09T16:05:46Z")
If I had a baby, which I’m not about to (surpriiiiise!!!), s/he would get plain layette, handmade toys, and [McGuffey’s First Reader](http://books.google.com/books?id=fJUAAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=mcguffey+first+reader&hl=en&ei=kgWJTMmqLY-LnAeGpICXCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CDQQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false). ---
**Author:** ![dtzulu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3d9bf3/32.png) [@dtzulu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtzulu)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2010, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-seemingly-innocuous-things-can-you-just-not-look-at/551714/208 "2010-09-09T18:27:41Z")
The one thing people do that I cannot stand to see is someone picking/blowing/digging in their nose… NASTY! ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2010, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-seemingly-innocuous-things-can-you-just-not-look-at/551714/209 "2010-09-09T20:43:35Z")
> [@dtzulu](#): > > The one thing people do that I cannot stand to see is someone picking/blowing/digging in their nose… NASTY! That does NOT fall under “innocuous” as I think everyone would agree that’s gross. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2010, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-seemingly-innocuous-things-can-you-just-not-look-at/551714/210 "2010-09-09T21:15:31Z")
> [@Klytus](#): > > Forgot to mention that my ex-wife had an irrational revulsion to the sound of smashing a head of lettuce to get the core out - she would say “Can’t you hear it cry out in agony and despair?” She also couldn’t stand the sound of peeling the out leaves from a head of lettuce. If you did it while she was in earshot, her face would twitch uncontrollably as if she was on the verge of a seizure or something. After the lettuce was “dead” she was OK to eat it and all that. But when it came time to “kill” it and “prep” it, she **always** left the room, and I had to tell her when it was “safe” to come back in. Reminds me of a short I saw a long time ago. It was essentially just a film of some lady doing her gardening, but any time she pulled a carrot or cut a weed there would be blood curling screams going off. In the end the whole garden was sobbing and wailing as the lady dusted herself and went back inside. It was equal parts corny and horrifying. ---
**Author:** ![sbrina921](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7ea924/32.png) [@sbrina921](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sbrina921)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2010, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-seemingly-innocuous-things-can-you-just-not-look-at/551714/211 "2010-09-10T15:52:41Z")
shrimp, especially cocktail shrimp- they’re so insecty ---
**Author:** ![senpai71](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7993a0/32.png) [@senpai71](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/senpai71)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2010, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-seemingly-innocuous-things-can-you-just-not-look-at/551714/212 "2010-09-10T17:01:38Z")
> [@Beware\_of\_Doug](#): > > If I had a baby, which I’m not about to (surpriiiiise!!!), s/he would get plain layette, handmade toys, and [McGuffey’s First Reader](http://books.google.com/books?id=fJUAAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=mcguffey+first+reader&hl=en&ei=kgWJTMmqLY-LnAeGpICXCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CDQQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false). Ooh, that book is good! My 4 year old daughter learned to read using a 1950’s era Dick and Jane book, which was almost as good, especially with the pictures of 50’s domestic bliss (including Mommy getting Daddy a drink after he comes home from work in his nice hat… I hate people cracking their knuckles. Hate, hate, hate. What if they pulled a finger off? Also, those photos (or worse, videos) where someone’s mouth is superimposed over a still photo. Also, little girls with long hair - like, really long, so it falls over their face. I thinkl that’s just a remnant of my issues with The Ring, which gave me nightmares… Also (and this is probably the weirdest one) the smell that comes from a TV - you know, the warm, slightly burny, electrical smell. ---
**Author:** ![may\_be\_ignorant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c5a1d2/32.png) [@may\_be\_ignorant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/may_be_ignorant)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2010, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-seemingly-innocuous-things-can-you-just-not-look-at/551714/213 "2010-09-11T17:20:21Z")
> [@FuzzyOgre](#): > > Migrating tent caterpillars. > > You need to drive very carefully down a highway covered with them, and their crushed bodies have the most ugh-some odor. > > The remains are a green greasy mushy trail, quickly covered by the millions of others marching. Oh, and the spray? It coats the wheel wells of your vehicle, the tires and everything else that it splashes, including getting bits on you when you wash it off. You get to smell it all over again. > > Want photos? yes ---
**Author:** ![Gymnopithys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/fbc32d/32.png) [@Gymnopithys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gymnopithys)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2010, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-seemingly-innocuous-things-can-you-just-not-look-at/551714/214 "2010-09-11T19:59:33Z")
Close-up of mouth and mustache or eye of a documentary commentator. Little girl dressed entirely in black by their mother. ---
**Author:** ![LAV25](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/97f17d/32.png) [@LAV25](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LAV25)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2010, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-seemingly-innocuous-things-can-you-just-not-look-at/551714/215 "2010-09-12T03:01:34Z")
Wood, or especially any sort of rough cardboard in my mouth. Like when a cardboard milk carton doesn’t open the way it’s supposed to, and there is all sorts of cardboard fluff on it? Get me a glass, no way I can drink from that. Also, I get acrophobic in deep water. Not afraid of the sea monsters or whatever, just all kinds of panicky over how far down it is to the ground on the bottom. ---
**Author:** ![bahimes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e36b37/32.png) [@bahimes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bahimes)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2010, 10:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-seemingly-innocuous-things-can-you-just-not-look-at/551714/216 "2010-09-14T10:30:04Z")
> [@Fried\_Dough\_Ho](#): > > > [@salinqmind](#): > > > > Migrating tent caterpillars do not count as ‘innocuous everyday things’, they are full-out GROSS things that squick people out! > > Well now I _do_ want to see a picture! I googled them and they don’t look any worse than any other caterpillar so I’m curious what is so gross about them. Seriously can’t be worse than those hideous Jerusalem crickets! Those things are frigg’n aliens, I swear! They are not nasty, gag inducing creatures alone or in pairs. It is the sheer mass of thousands of them creeping across a road or sidewalk, that when smashed, leaves a slimy grey-gren deposit on EVERYTHING. Even my dog, the carrion roller, curls his nose and rushes the other way. ---
**Author:** ![Imago](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/85e7bf/32.png) [@Imago](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Imago)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2010, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-seemingly-innocuous-things-can-you-just-not-look-at/551714/217 "2010-09-17T01:18:10Z")
Baby sloths are cute, pomegranates, shrimp and lobster are tasty, there’s nothing gross about teeth, eyes or feet and I love having my shoulders rubbed. There’s also something nerdily adorable about octopi and squids (and, for that matter, WWIAFTM). I let spiders crawl all over me if I’d outside reading a book or something, I pass all the anti-grossout requirements to go to embalming school… But the smell of certain aerosols makes me WISH I WERE NEVER BORN. Bug-killing spray and oven cleaner are the worst, I gag at the very thought of them. ---
**Author:** ![MsChilePepper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3bc359/32.png) [@MsChilePepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsChilePepper)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2010, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-seemingly-innocuous-things-can-you-just-not-look-at/551714/218 "2010-09-17T23:52:02Z")
There’s a certain kind of silk fabric that gives me the willies. Not the nubbly woven silk noile stuff, that’s OK; it’s the smoother (not satiny) stuff that feels almost sticky when you run your fingers across it. **shudder** ---
**Author:** ![KaylaLynn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/58956e/32.png) [@KaylaLynn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KaylaLynn)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2010, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-seemingly-innocuous-things-can-you-just-not-look-at/551714/219 "2010-09-19T05:15:45Z")
> [@OpalCat](#): > > I don’t think slugs count as ‘innocuous’ though. I think they’re right up there with spiders and stuff in terms of “things lots of people think are yucky.” Yes, I get your point, and likely my aversion to seeing dead fish in the supermarket would also fall under the “not innocuous” heading.😃 How about OLIVES? They really disturb me, and the pits are also gag-worthy. For some reason, I don’t “trust” them. Maybe it’s the eyeball connection. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![IaMoDiNaRy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@IaMoDiNaRy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IaMoDiNaRy)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2010, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-seemingly-innocuous-things-can-you-just-not-look-at/551714/220 "2010-09-23T00:01:24Z")
Okay, I’m very saddened by the fact that I can relate to many of the things posted here. Here are a few of the things that seriously ick me out… 1. Feet + Dashboard = :eek: 2. Dry, cracked, crusty, nasty feet in sandals… I have to restrain myself from actually asking some people why on earth they would expose us to such foulness. Go get a pedi or put your damn shoes back on! How can they stand having those things on the end of their legs. It always makes me wonder what other areas of hygiene they’re neglecting and then I’m even more grossed out. 3. Yogurt has got to be one of the grossest things in the world! ACK! Actually anything edible with that consistency makes me gag. Any kind of “cream” sauce is nasty to me. 4. NyQuil or any other medication in that thick liquid form. I’ve tried to overcome my disgust, desperate for cold relief but my throat closes up of it’s own accord and absolutely refuses to let it pass. 5. Guys with long fingernails or even sort of long fingernails. It just looks disgusting and wrong to me. They should be short and neat (NOT gnawed off!) Dirty fingernails are gross, too! NO EXCUSE for that… 6. clown dolls - they stare evilly at me and I just know in my heart that they mean me serious harm… I just know it ! Isn’t there a name for this, the fear of clowns? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-seemingly-innocuous-things-can-you-just-not-look-at/551714.md?page=10) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-seemingly-innocuous-things-can-you-just-not-look-at/551714.md?page=12)