Gracious.

[truepenny]

There are over 500 of you.

::waves to everybody::

Since I have to write a synopsis of The Mirador today, and since synopsis-writing is an activity which I both hate and am incredibly bad at, I'm going to issue an open invitation:

Tell me something about yourself.

It's an invitation, obviously--nothing even as strong as a request--so if you don't want to, no harm, no foul. But if you'd like to (and this applies as much to the people I know as the people I don't) ... tell me something. Make it as long or as short, as serious or as goofy as you want. If you are a reader who doesn't have a LiveJournal account, that's totally cool, too--just please remember to sign your comment.

Comments

[eruthros]

I fear geese.

I've been attacked by Canada geese three times: I don't know what they have against me, personally, but I think they must be mistaking me for someone else who committed crimes against geeseity. There are few things in the world quite as startling and baffling as walking along, mellow and not in a hurry, suddenly feeling sharp pinches on the back of your leg, and turning around to see a goose squawking at you, beating its wings threateningly, and nipping at your bum.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

geeseity

Anserity, I suspect, as the adjective is anserine (tho' my fingers really don't want to type 'anser' without a w in the mix; aren't fingers fabulous?). And come to think of it, as you have anserophobia, you probably don't want to know the word for it. Sorry, sorry...

[eruthros]

Thanks to your superior knowledge of goose-related adjectives, I will be able refer to "crimes against anserity" in the future. *g*

I am unaware of an accepted term in list of specific phobias for a fear of geese, but anserophobia certainly sounds plausible. (There is an accepted term for unreasonable fear of birds in general: ornithophobia.)

I don't know that I'd call it a phobia, though, since I don't modify my behavior or have an unreasonable avoidant reaction to geese. I just... eye them dubiously and try not to get too close when I go hiking. Those bites hurt.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

I don't know that I'd call it a phobia

No, I think you're completely right; I was just committing polysyllabicism for its own sake - or, no, let's be fair, because I think there ought to be a word for unreasonable fear of geese, and of the available candidates, this has to be it. In your case, clearly, the fear is not at all unreasonable. As you say, they attack you, and they hurt. (I too have been mobbed by aggressive geese, but that was at a wildfowl centre, and so essentially my own fault; plus I was interposing my body between the anserine mob and a small terrified child, and so it was Heroic, so I don't talk about it. Much. You're right, though: it does hurt.)

[eruthros]

I agree that there should be a word for an unreasonable fear of geese; I googled anserophobia in the hopes that someone else had decided the same thing, but I didn't find a single link. ("Fear of geese," on the other hand, turns up 46 whole links.)

The first time I was attacked, the geese were clearly displacing their anger. I was in a park in late spring, so there were many goslings. A bicylcist zoomed though the flock of geese, between adults and goslings. A few of the adults waddled after him, but after four or five steps it was fairly obvious that they weren't going to catch up, so one of them turned around and bit me instead. My "hey! what did I do?" response did not stop the parental goose from harrying me all the way out of the park.

I admire your heroic rescue of the small child. Anserine mobs. Brrrr.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

This is because geese are scary. You fear them because you are a sensible, rational person.

[eruthros]

That's what I try to tell people! Most of the people I walk or hike with say things like "oh, the cute little goslings" or "I want to get closer and take a picture!" These people have no sense of self preservation.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

There's a reason they're used as watch-animals in whatever Asian country or countries has that practice. It's because they're evil. The Canada geese at the park we went to when I was a kid were the foullest-tempered things in the entire universe.

I enjoy watching geese (although not as much as I enjoy watching ducks), but this does not result in a desire for closer acquaintance.

[(Anonymous)]

Germany used to use swans to guard castles, that's why they all have ponds out front of the castles. When I was a kid, my mother - insane animal lover - picked up a couple of ducks and a goose. That goose made the meanest and most effective watch dog I ever came across. It was pretty decent to me, because I fed it.