Tuesday, February 1, 2011

phobias





As a post script to my last scripted post. Even though it was about spider sex—an amusing topic to ponder on a cold winter's evening—it may have given you the willies.

According to another essay by David Quammen from the same aforementioned collection of such, you may have arachnophobia. It seems that some people are born with an innate fear of spiders, while others may have a fear of snakes (ophidiophobia), while others are born with neither. But curiosiously, we humans are not born with a fear of both groups. It's either or neither but not both. It's genetic. You cannot help it.

So, if you are arachnophobic, and even the topic of spider copulation creeps you out, here's a bit of adult snake-logy that you might enjoy instead. Once again, it comes from Quammen:

"A male snake has two penises, which the experts call hemipenes, one for left-sided mating and one for right."

Talk about being ambidextrous.

-Quote from "The Boilerplate Rhino" by David Quammen

No comments: