A new co-worker sneezed yesterday. I heard “kchew” three times in a row, and it sounded so delicate - almost like a hiccup - that I started laughing. She said, rather defensively, that she thought it was a pretty ordinary sneeze.
Then another co-worker caught me laughing, and put me in my place: your sneeze, she said, is the funniest one I’ve heard. My sneeze? Well, I guess you would describe it as a whole-hearted, full-blown sneeze. But I have to admit that sometimes it sounds like I’m going to have a storm of a sneeze, but then nothing happens, it sort of piffles out.
So I looked up sneezing on the ‘net, and found the following article. So here it is, the latest personality indicator. Don’t laugh; it’s nothing to sneeze at!
Patti Wood, spokeswoman of Benadryl, the creator of “The Achoo IQ Quiz”, who is also a body language expert, combined a sneezing survey of 547 people with three months of “observational” analysis. Her survey showed that even though nearly half of us believe their sneeze is spontaneous, most people have a specific sneezing style that closely matches their personality.
- Trumpet Sneeze - These people expel air almost completely through their mouths with a loud, “OOOH.”
- Internal Sneeze - Nothing really comes out except an odd “ump” noise. It’s a wonder their eardrums don’t explode.
- Big Bad Wolf Sneeze - They huff and puff before sneezing, as if they could blow the whole house down.
- The Tease - They capture our attention and may rivet an entire room in place as they go “aahhh ahhhh,” with only a tiny little anticlimactic “achoo” at the end.
- Freeze Tag -The sneezer’s whole face and body freeze, perhaps for several seconds, as the sneeze builds up internally. It suddenly explodes out, animating the entire person.
- Hand as Handkerchief -These sneezers let it go right into their hand. This is really annoying if they then offer their hand for a handshake.
- The Coughing Sneeze - This is a series of coughlike sounding sneezes close together without a breath.
- The Shout-it-Out Sneeze -This giant sneeze is so loud it can be heard in the next country.
- Cartoon Sneeze -This sounds like a little kid sneezing. Also known as the dainty sneeze.
- The How High Can You Count? Sneeze -The sneezer that keeps sneezing one right after the other until he begins to look like Count von Count from “Sesame Street.”
- Spray Gun -This sneezer makes you wish you were carrying an umbrella and wearing a raincoat.
