You said it was a booger but I say it snot.

While writing yesterday's entry, I was reminded of another, related story that I thought I'd post today - just to record it for posterity.

Not so very long ago, I was having lunch with a friend. As I often like to do, I had some fruit for dessert. While eating, I felt the urge to cough and sort of attempted to do so with a mouthful of food - trying not to choke and/or gross out my lunch date.

Shortly after I began to feel a slight burning high up in the back of my throat. I drank some water. I tried to cough again in an attempt to clear my throat but could not get rid of the tingle. I attributed it to the beginnings of a sore throat.

At the same time, I also noticed that I could faintly smell and taste pineapple. Hmmmm, well there were some pineapple chunks in the fruit salad. Perhaps I was just a little sensitive to the scent and lingering flavor.

All of a sudden I felt the tickle of an urge to sneeze. And then, uncontrollably, at the speed of about 100 mph, a good sized piece of pineapple shot out of my nose like a bullet toward my date and landed across the table.

Perhaps that's why they refer to sneezes as atchoos.


Give it a minute. It'll come to you.