The Book of the Bizarre: Freaky Facts and Strange Stories (58 page)

QUIVERING THUNDER

The extreme dread of thunder is called brontophobia. For brontophobes, the boom and crash of thunder has a demonic quality. Often found in people suffering from a psychoneurosis, brontophobia can also be associated with a person, often a person in a position of authority, and the fearsome thunder is their expression of disapproval.

CONSPIRACY OF BEARDS

Pogonophobia is the fear of beards.

TOO MUCH ECHO

Cenophobia is primarily a morbid fear of empty rooms, but also encompasses a fear of large halls, auditoriums, and edifices with high ceilings.

MELON HEADS

Many lifelong residents of Kirkland, Ohio, grew up listening to tales of melon heads, a strange race of local mutants. Local legend has it that these people, known for their oversized, bulbous craniums, are the result of a physician's bizarre experiments on children suffering from a debilitating disease called hydrocephalus. This condition causes large pockets of water to form in the brain, and Dr. Crow was hired by the U.S. government to investigate and care for children with the disorder. Instead, he performed twisted operations on his patients, injecting their brains with more water and exposing them to radiation. Many children died, and the remaining victims mutated into wild, vicious creatures. One day they attacked the doctor, ripped
him to pieces, and ate him. Then they unleashed themselves on the woods around the crude hospital they had been imprisoned in. The story goes that the melon heads roam the woods in packs, terrorizing humans and animals alike.

THE NUMBER THIRTEEN

Triskaidekaphobia is a morbid fear of the number thirteen or the date Friday the thirteenth.

In early Christianity, the number thirteen was considered unlucky because it was the number of persons present at the Last Supper, and Friday unlucky because Christ was said to have been crucified on a Friday.

BRAIN-EATING AMOEBAS