1,001 Facts That Will Scare the S#*t Out of You: The Ultimate Bathroom Reader (17 page)

98

FACT :
Exploding Head Syndrome is a rare phenomenon in which a person approaching deep sleep
experiences a loud bang in his head
that sounds like a bomb exploding or similarly loud noise. Though the event seems to originate from inside the head, it is an illusion and does no physical damage to its victim.
Exploding Head Syndrome sounds a lot like a hangover.

“Exploding Head Syndrome,” American Sleep Association, September, 2007,
www.sleepassociation.org
.

99

FACT :
Body Integrity Identity Disorder, also known as Amputee Identity Disorder, is a psychological condition that
causes sufferers to seek amputations for cosmetic reasons
: they want their bodies to match the idealized image they have of themselves as amputees.
Doctors are stumped as to the cause of the disorder. They continue the necessary legwork to arm themselves with the facts before they will go out on a limb and theorize about causation, as they are determined not to come up short and have their efforts cut off at the knees.

“Body Integrity Identity Disorder,” Body Integrity Identity Disorder,
www.biid.org
.

100

FACT :
In April 2009, a Louisiana man was arrested for stabbing his sixty-three-year-old brother
after the two argued over a can of pork and beans
. The victim was treated for multiple stab wounds to his arm and shoulder. The two men had been drinking when the fight began.
Alcohol and beans—always a recipe for trouble.

“Man Allegedly Stabs Brother Over Pork and Beans,” Yahoo News, April 16, 2009,
www.news.yahoo.com
.

CHAPTER 3
Totally
Gross
Anatomy
The Human
Body Exposed

101

FACT :
If you sneeze hard enough, you can fracture a rib. But try to suppress a sneeze and you might
rupture a blood vessel in your head or neck
and drop dead.
If you try to suppress a fart and a sneeze at the same time, you could blow your head off like a champagne cork.

Cameron Tuttle, The Paranoid’s Pocket Guide (Chronicle Books, 1997).

102

FACT :
While pubic lice primarily infect pubic hair, they can also
be found in thigh, chest, and facial hair
, including eyelashes.
How pubic lice might end up on one’s face I will leave to you to deduce.

James G.H. Dinulos, MD, “Lice,” Merck Manuals Online Medical Library, September 2008,
www.merck.com
.

103

FACT :
The human stomach must produce a new lining every day to protect itself from
its own acid
.
Which somehow reminds me of Groucho Marx’s quote, “I don’t care to belong to any club that would have me as a member.”

Matthew Fox, The A.W.E. Project: Reinventing Education, Reinventing the Human (Wood Lake Publishing, 2006).