# 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:** 6
**Author:** ![Perciful](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b38774/32.png) [@Perciful](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Perciful)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2010, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-seemingly-innocuous-things-can-you-just-not-look-at/551714/101 "2010-08-31T00:37:46Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > True, but I think it’s generally fairly common for people to say they don’t like looking at dog crap. Most people wouldn’t see that as innocuous because it smells offensive and comes out of another creature’s backside. > > It’s not like saying you hate looking at ears because they skeeve you. Since when is anything on here not meant to skeeve? There are more threads I won’t click on, than click on. I made that mistake once and now anything with holes in it well, makes me queezy. I’m sorry if stepping in dog poo was too over the top for anyone. I stepped in a fresh wad of chewing gum today and was sticking to the sidewalk the whole way home. I had a feeling it was gum but was too afraid to look until I got home. ---
**Author:** ![FrigidLizard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3bc359/32.png) [@FrigidLizard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FrigidLizard)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2010, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-seemingly-innocuous-things-can-you-just-not-look-at/551714/102 "2010-08-31T00:46:22Z")
> [@LegsAkimbo](#): > > I can barely look at an anchor as seen through water (it’s fine above water or on land)–this used to be nearly phobic for me when I was younger (near a swim raft, etc.–must be traditional anchor shape), now it just gives me the shivers. Maybe I drowned in a past life and that was the last thing I saw before lights-out. Brrr. For me, it is fallen trees submerged at the shallow edges of lakes. There is something so morbid about looking down through water to see dead tree branches. The effect for me isn’t to bad standing on the shore, but in a raft or canoe looking directly down causes me to hyperventilate if I can’t manage to psych myself up properly. I was also nearly phobic about this at a young age, and managed to reduce it to just being creeped out as an adult. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2010, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-seemingly-innocuous-things-can-you-just-not-look-at/551714/103 "2010-08-31T00:53:56Z")
> [@Perciful](#): > > It’s not like saying you hate looking at ears because they skeeve you. Since when is anything on here not meant to skeeve? There are more threads I won’t click on, than click on. I made that mistake once and now anything with holes in it well, makes me queezy. I’m sorry if stepping in dog poo was too over the top for anyone. I stepped in a fresh wad of chewing gum today and was sticking to the sidewalk the whole way home. I had a feeling it was gum but was too afraid to look until I got home. [/QUOTE] It’s not that it was over the top, or that it was TMI to read about. It’s just out of place in a thread that’s supposed to be about things that most people aren’t skeeved by. Many people are skeeved by things like shit or vomit or bodily functions so it wouldn’t be an interesting thread if we just listed those things. ---
**Author:** ![Eats\_Crayons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/278dde/32.png) [@Eats\_Crayons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eats_Crayons)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2010, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-seemingly-innocuous-things-can-you-just-not-look-at/551714/104 "2010-08-31T03:04:14Z")
> [@Perciful](#): > > Since when is anything on here not meant to skeeve? There are more threads I won’t click on, than click on. I made that mistake once and now anything with holes in it well, makes me queezy. Oh, for Pete’s sake! Get a dictionary and look up the word “innocuous” already! Here is the thread title again, paraphrased: “What really mundane things that no one in their right mind thinks is icky, grosses you out but no one else?” Do you understand? If someone answers “smiling babies give me the creeps and I must look away”, that is in line with the thread. If someone answers “cat vomit”, that is NOT in line with the point of the thread. “Pink yarn seems obscene to me and the sight of it triggers my gag reflex” fits the intention of the thread. “Feces” does NOT. Anyway, my answer to the OP: Some scrathing sounds. Finger nails on a blackboard never bother me at all. Freddy Krueger’s glove of knives screeching on a lead pipe don’t merit a twitch. Clawing at wood is not a problem. Sandpaper on concrete I won’t even notice. But dry hands on paper makes me want to scream like a loon at midnight. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2010, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-seemingly-innocuous-things-can-you-just-not-look-at/551714/105 "2010-08-31T03:10:53Z")
Crap. I screwed up the quoting in my last post and it’s too late to edit… ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2010, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-seemingly-innocuous-things-can-you-just-not-look-at/551714/106 "2010-08-31T03:51:23Z")
> [@Perciful](#): > > I’m sorry if stepping in dog poo was too over the top for anyone. I stepped in a fresh wad of chewing gum today and was sticking to the sidewalk the whole way home. > > I had a feeling it was gum but was too afraid to look until I got home. It had nothing to do with being over the top, it was just that it didn’t fit with the point of the thread. ---
**Author:** ![Yorikke](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yorikke/32/4335_2.png) [@Yorikke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorikke)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2010, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-seemingly-innocuous-things-can-you-just-not-look-at/551714/107 "2010-08-31T05:54:42Z")
When someone has a tiny bit of food on their face, I almost gag. Joe ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2010, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-seemingly-innocuous-things-can-you-just-not-look-at/551714/108 "2010-08-31T12:51:08Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > Pictures. commercials or threads/stories about animal abuse. That fucking commercial with the woman singing that goes on for about 10 fucking minutes makes me change the channel. Sarah MacLachlan- the siren of animal Holocaust videos. ---
**Author:** ![Perciful](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b38774/32.png) [@Perciful](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Perciful)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2010, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-seemingly-innocuous-things-can-you-just-not-look-at/551714/109 "2010-08-31T13:07:17Z")
Making eye contact with hookers and homeless bums. It burns. ---
**Author:** ![Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ce7236/32.png) [@Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mona_Lisa_Simpson)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2010, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-seemingly-innocuous-things-can-you-just-not-look-at/551714/110 "2010-08-31T13:58:38Z")
> [@Eats\_Crayons](#): > > Anyway, my answer to the OP: Some scrathing sounds. Finger nails on a blackboard never bother me at all. Freddy Krueger’s glove of knives screeching on a lead pipe don’t merit a twitch. Clawing at wood is not a problem. Sandpaper on concrete I won’t even notice. But dry hands on paper makes me want to scream like a loon at midnight. Agreed. And scraping paint off a window, for instance painted Christmas scenes and fake snow and things. The dry scraping is enough to make my spine tingle but the ever present fear of hearing the blade go squuuuuueeeeeep! on glass makes me practically panic. Once I was in my car, with the windows rolled up, in the centre lane, watching someone do that in a store nearby and I started to get jumpy. Im still shuddering thinking about that. Dry hands on paper. Our floor doctor is well into his 80’s maybe early 90’s. His hands are old and dry and papery. Listening to him/watching him turn chart pages is 16 kinds of horrible. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2010, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-seemingly-innocuous-things-can-you-just-not-look-at/551714/111 "2010-08-31T14:50:09Z")
People licking their finger and turning the pages of a book. GAH! ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2010, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-seemingly-innocuous-things-can-you-just-not-look-at/551714/112 "2010-08-31T15:30:25Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > People licking their finger and turning the pages of a book. GAH! This is another of the long list of reasons I don’t do libraries. ---
**Author:** ![Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2010, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-seemingly-innocuous-things-can-you-just-not-look-at/551714/113 "2010-08-31T15:35:22Z")
> [@OpalCat](#): > > > [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > > > People licking their finger and turning the pages of a book. GAH! > > This is another of the long list of reasons I don’t do libraries. Nuh-huh, boogers on the pages is why owning a book is preferable to the library. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2010, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-seemingly-innocuous-things-can-you-just-not-look-at/551714/114 "2010-08-31T15:36:32Z")
Well, I don’t like looking at people doing it, but it doesn’t actually stop me from going to the library. If I didn’t have a library card, I’d probably go broke from too much book reading. (And my apartment would overflow!) ---
**Author:** ![Philster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/13edae/32.png) [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2010, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-seemingly-innocuous-things-can-you-just-not-look-at/551714/115 "2010-08-31T15:37:43Z")
A Praying Mantis. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2010, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-seemingly-innocuous-things-can-you-just-not-look-at/551714/116 "2010-08-31T15:47:34Z")
As I’ve posted a million times in the past: Wooden ice cream paddles. If someone else is eating ice cream with one, I have to stop what I’m doing and get them a spoon. They totally gross me out. ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2010, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-seemingly-innocuous-things-can-you-just-not-look-at/551714/117 "2010-08-31T15:53:08Z")
> [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](#): > > > [@OpalCat](#): > > > > This is another of the long list of reasons I don’t do libraries. > > Nuh-huh, boogers on the pages is why owning a book is preferable to the library. Well I said there was a long list. Boogers is another, but the biggest one for me is all those people reading the books while sitting on the toilet. ---
**Author:** ![Tamarin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc79bd/32.png) [@Tamarin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamarin)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2010, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-seemingly-innocuous-things-can-you-just-not-look-at/551714/118 "2010-08-31T16:34:50Z")
This thread is making me feel so much better about my collarbone phobia. I was going to describe it, but i got all dizzy and nauseated just thinking about the way to phrase it and had to look a way from the screen. Urk. God help me if I ever run into Callista Flockhart in person. Her collarbones would send me screaming straight into the psych ward. My husband thinks its hilarious used to try to touch my collarbone or his own just to gross me out…until I found out about his aversion to cotton balls. ---
**Author:** ![Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2010, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-seemingly-innocuous-things-can-you-just-not-look-at/551714/119 "2010-08-31T16:57:37Z")
> [@Tamarin](#): > > My husband thinks its hilarious used to try to touch my collarbone or his own just to gross me out…until I found out about his aversion to cotton balls. Homer Simpson: I’m not afraid of anything! Marge: :: growls:: … Sock puppets! Homer: Sock puppets! Where??? AAAAAAH! :: runs off :: ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2010, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-seemingly-innocuous-things-can-you-just-not-look-at/551714/120 "2010-08-31T17:39:14Z")
> [@Philster](#): > > A Praying Mantis. How about katydids? Grasshoppers are pretty gross, too, spittin’ tobaccy juice all over… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-seemingly-innocuous-things-can-you-just-not-look-at/551714.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-seemingly-innocuous-things-can-you-just-not-look-at/551714.md?page=7)