Irrational Fears Thread

I have a friend who had to walk up the broken escalator at the DuPont Circle Metro in DC while she was nine months pregnant. This image doesn’t really do justice to how steep it is.

 

There are one or two of those at JFK Airport and, IIRC, another couple at various subway and PATH stops. I guess I could see how they can be unnerving.

 

Back in the day, late 70's in Atlanta, Sid and Marty Krofft (H.R. Pufnstuf among other things) opened a theme park that was completely housed inside the Omni International Hotel, which later became CNN Center.. You started at the top and worked your way down. It was very talent intensive, lots of jugglers and musicians and mimes and puppeteers, which meant that their wage expense was very high and it went bust. It was an extremely cool place while it lasted, though. Anyhow, to get into it, you got on an escalator in the hotel lobby that was seven stories tall. It dumped you at the entrance.

Seven story escalator. It was unsupported. That is, it went from ground level to the top and attached at both ends but there was no support structure beneath it.

 

I absolutely hate that escalator. I never thought I'd see one worse than that, and then I went to Prague and took the Metro there. Longer and steeper. I'm usually pretty good with heights, but I sat down on the tread until I was 15 feet from the bottom.

As for irrational fears, despite the safety record of commercial aviation in this country and my preferred airline, I do get pretty anxious about flying. I was 21 when 9/11 happened, and never had a problem before that, though I had only flown two or three times in my life prior to that. I'm on planes two or three times a month again now, but it's only been the last few trips where I've really been ok with it. It's part of the job, so I deal with it.

I have a recurring nightmare that I'm back at my high school, forced to take some class over because records revealed that I didn't, in fact, pass, and thus have enough credits to graduate. Despite having an undergrad degree, a law degree, and a masters, my arguments to the vice principal (who's name was Robert Banks AND HE ACTUALLY WANTED PEOPLE TO CALL HIM 'ROB!!!') fell on deaf ears.

I think that dream pops up once every six weeks or so.

 

Rode that Arch carriage as a kid. Would not do it now.

 

After the Cypress structure collapse during the Loma Prieta earthquake, I've been particularly observant about parking garages and where the support beams are located. And I don't even live in an earthquake-prone area any more.

 

That escalator was the start of the CNN Center Tour for the seven years NASCAR.com was located there.



That globe at the top cracks me up because there's no Upper Michigan. Apparently the people who painted it didn't actually look closely at a map.

 

@spikechiquet note the above. The horror!

 

In 1991 while I was in the Navy, my grandmother died while I was on temporary duty away from my regular command. I asked to take leave. They said sure, fill out the paperwork, and they'd send it back with me when I returned to the ship. They never did, so I essentially got a week of free leave.
Many times over the years I've had the dream that someone found my paperwork underneath a filing cabinet or something, and I was recalled to active duty for 7 days.
Honestly, at this point I'd think it would be funny and have a blast doing it.

 

Might be fun at sea. Not if they give you shore duty in a war zone!

 

The CNN Center escalator didn’t bother me for some reason, even though it is slightly longer than Peachtree Center (196 feet vs. 190). The DuPont Circle one mentioned above is virtually the same length at 188 ft.

 

Wow. Eyeballing it, thought the new one at Grand Central foe the LIRR would be longer. The new terminal was built under existing Grand Central, 15 stories below.

But looked it up. Slightly smaller at 182 feet long and 90 feet high. It’s a monster. Can’t imagine the chaos when it inevitably breaks down.