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Sneezing

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rjoubert

rjoubert

Programmer
Oct 2, 2003
1,843
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It's amazing how many people say "God Bless You" or "Bless You" when someone sneezes. Why are we blessing someone for spreading their germs around? I ask that rhetorically, since I am guilty of saying that myself.

I've heard that people in the old days were fearful that your soul was attempting to escape when you sneezed, and saying "Bless You" would force it back in. Has anyone heard of any other origins?

I'm also curious to know what is said, if anything, across the pond (in European countries) when someone sneezes.
 
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I sense some BOFHness coming out.

"That time in Seattle... was a nightmare. I came out of it dead broke, without a house, without anything except a girlfriend and a knowledge of UNIX."
"Well, that's something," Avi says. "Normally those two are mutually exclusive."
-- Neal Stephenson, "Cryptonomicon"
 
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A sneezing usergroup meeting in a sealed room, oh like a server room, with Halon extinguisher system ... classic La Travaglia

Paul
------------------------------------
Spend an hour a week on CPAN, helps cure all known programming ailments ;-)
 
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If you don't like "bless you" why not use "gesundheit"? That response to a sneeze is fairly common in the U.S. (at least where I grew up in So. Cal.).

Tracy Dryden

Meddle not in the affairs of dragons,
For you are crunchy, and good with mustard. [dragon]
 
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Because I'm not German?

Only the truly stupid believe they know everything.
Stu.. 2004
 
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If we all followed what people in So. Cal. do and say, we'd all be toting around surfboards and ending every sentence with "Dude!
 
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Be less violence in the world though dude. Awesome !

Only the truly stupid believe they know everything.
Stu.. 2004
 
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less violence"??? Isn't So Cal where commuters take road rage to the extreme, by toting handguns?
 
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Proberbly yes, but unlikely to be the surfing, dude type people, the're too out of it to shoot straight...

Only the truly stupid believe they know everything.
Stu.. 2004
 
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I thought the "Bless You" comment was the result of the belief that sneezes were the body's attempt to throw off demons. Has anyone else heard this theory? I'm a bit surprised not to have seen it mentioned.

Aside: With which hand was it most appropriate to cover one's mouth while sneezing? Why?

Tim :)



[blue]_______________________________________________________
"Although many figures are strange, prime numbers are truly odd."[/blue]
 
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Silent,

Yes, I have heard of that, though I don't know from where.

I've heard of another reason why you shake with the right, its because you wipe with the left... or maybe its you wipe with the left so you shake with the right... Anyway, the same would seem to apply here, that you should sneeze into the left because you shake with the right.

****

Additionally... anyone know why the gentleman should walk on the left and the lady on the right? From what I've been told this is because houses in the old days (1700/1800s?) hand a jutting top floor so there was a slight overhang over the sidewalk. Add to it that people flushed their toilet by throwing it out the window into the street... The gentleman walked on the left so if anything were to fall from the sky above it would soil him and not his lady because she would be safely under the overhang.

I'd be interested if anyone else had heard of this...
 
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==> anyone know why the gentleman should walk on the left and the lady on the right?
Wouldn't that depend on which side of the street, and which direction you're walking? I was taught that the gentleman should walk on the outside, closer to the street, regarless of whether that be left or right. That makes more sense to your explanation, because it works on both side of the street and in both directions. Additionally, that allows the gentleman to block any mud being splashed from the street.

I've also heard that a gentleman, if carrying a sword, would always walk on side that puts himself between the woman and his sword. That way, his sword would not bang against the woman.

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CC,

I've heard that as well - the man walks nearest the danger, be it a splash of mud or being hit by a car.

I've also heard Lunatic's version of protecting the lady from dung flung from the filth floor... although I suspect both wished they'd walked faster past her.

Tim

[blue]_______________________________________________________
"Although many figures are strange, prime numbers are truly odd."[/blue]
 
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As for covering your mouth with your hand when you sneeze...recently I've heard that you should actually cover your mouth with the crook of your elbow. If you cover with either hand, then touch a doorknob, a refrigerator door handle, shake someone's hand, etc...you're leaving your germs for others to pick up.

Although I guess covering with your hands is ok, as long as you're at least covering your mouth with something. I've seen people not cover up at all, spreading a nice mist of germs...that's just plain nasty!
 
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I've also heard that a gentleman, if carrying a sword, would always walk on side that puts himself between the woman and his sword. That way, his sword would not bang against the woman."


The reason that many countries drive on the left and not the right. e.g UK is that, with most people being right handed, you could fend of an attacker with a sword approching from the other direction.

Of course that also may be an urban myth....



Only the truly stupid believe they know everything.
Stu.. 2004
 
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I've heard that too Stu.

Jousting of course is 'driving' on the left.

Fee

The question should be [red]Is it worth trying to do?[/red] not [blue] Can it be done?[/blue]
 
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StuReeves said:
That way, his sword would not bang against the woman
Click to expand...

(sound of Murgle biting his tongue.....)

How can you tell if a Systems Engineer is an extrovert? - He looks at Your shoes when he talks to you.
 
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Stu,
Great vision of people approaching each other on the road with lances out the car window! [bigsmile]
 
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HI, i am Scott. I am new to this group.

I have heard a few stories as why you say "God Bless you" after somebody sneeze. One is that your heart stops when you sneeze, and that people say "God Bless You" because god started your heart again. I have also heard that it started in the old days, when people thought sneezing was your soul trying to get out, and that god stop you soul from leaving. Don't know if any of these are true.
As for as why men walking on the left, i have also heard a few different stories. It was common for the men to wear there swords on the left hand side of there body, and if they walked on the left side of the women they would not hit them. I was told by my dad when i was younger that the man walks on the side that the street is on,that way they can push the women out of harms way.
 
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