Acchoooo! How loud do you...

...sneeeeeze? It is a natural reflex that must not be prevented. Manners comes in the way and we try to control the decibel level. Sometimes we cannot, esp. during a cold. Once when I was traveling in a bus to a place called Kumbakonam with our cricket club team to play in a tournament. I was in the back row. When we almost reached the destination.... Achhhooooo! The driver stopped the bus and all passengers were curiously turned their heads back towards the source of the sudden and loud noise, bewildered. They must have thought that something had fallen off the bus or something! That was real loud, even higher than the noise of the engine! That was the beginning of a cold attack and I was to suffer for the next 7 days. But it did not affect my performance on the field (in hot and humid conditions) and we finished runner-up in the tournament. Even now, sometimes when I sneeze, the steel utensils in the kitchen vibrates!! Excuse me!

[They say, if you treat a cold it will stop in a week. If you don't, it will go away in 7 days.]

And there is another friend of mine who probably sneezes with the least noise - "tsee, tsee", almost like a whisper!

This is funny Dinu, I was just thinking (after sneezing) that mine are events probably recorded on near-by earthquake sensitive Richter machines! I once sneezed in a room full of open windows and frightened a neighbor boy who was walking by so badly that he ran the rest of the way home!

I do remember in college the professors would become started and stop talking or the co-workers across the building ( a large one ) who thought was funny to call after I sneezed and say: "bless you". In addition to being loud, which they are - mine are very unusual sounding - they start low and then go often ramp up into this "whine" (almost like a cat in a bandsaw as was once so indelicately described to me).

In school we were not allowed to sneeze, so we conditioned ourselves to a very quiet sneeze. My father would always get mad at me, and say let it out, you have to let it out... to this day, I cant let them out...

ROTFTI? You all are so funny.
Yjamls for making me laugh here in my aloneness...Kitty-O
actually awoke from his cat nap and gave me "the look".

My son has a loud, low cvoice, and even though he is 22 yrs old,
I still jump when he lets out one of his loud statling ones.

But, you feel so GOOD when you DO let it! And I DO believe it helps one to get over whatever you have quicker!

I have one of those funny, squeaky little noise sneezes. Self-taught out of self-consciousness as a teen. Go figure. Occasionally one sneaks up on me and gets out before I can stifle it :)

I forgot to add that my ACHOOOOs have made babies and children shake their bodies for that half a second in fright and the window panes crackle. Experts say that the sneeze should never be controlled for the sake of 'manners'. You can always say 'excuse me' after the event, isn't it? I have to check the Guinness Book of Records for the loudest sneeze.

Good manners at the cost of your body exploding into a hundred different directions...hmmmmmmmm

probably yes and no - there are some sneezes one might minimize - and certain times like a job interview (thus giving the interviewer a reason not to hire you *OMG, another sneezer, we already have Dinu in the "Finance" department - we have our sneezer quota*, might be good not to scare them until after you are hired, but aside from that most sneezes are probably meant to be - perhaps somewhat minimized, but still meant to be.

All joking aside - I wonder if there are cases where sneezes have resulted in discrimination?

I sneeze so loudly sometimes that my horse has bolted and run around her corral for several minutes bucking and snorting. LOL

Once when we were at a meeting for planning and zoning, I stifled my sneeze pretty well and all of a sudden I felt my DH jumping up and down in his seat, looked at him and he had tears streaming down his face since he was laughing so hard at the sound my sneeze made! He ended up making more noise than my sneeze would have made if I had NOT stifled it.

My Father had a sneeze that would end ALL sneezes though. We lived in Taiwan and our maid was named Ashoo. He would first sneeze her name, then Whooshee, then Washoooo, then some other silly word ending his sneezes in a sneeze of Excuseeee me. FOFLMBO remembering him and his silly ways.

We had a young man who lived with us for two years who sneezed a squeek. LOL THAT was the funniest when you consider it came from a boy who was about 6 feet tall!

That was funny, Ponditis. It is even funnier if we try to spell and write the sounds of different sneezes, isn't it? Laughter can be controlled, sneeze, rarely! Once when I was in college and our lady teacher was uttering a silly thing frequently. My friend and I tried to control our laughter to our best by holding our mouths with our hands, the cheeks bulged, tried not to make the vocal cords vibrate.... it ended in a funny explosion which disturbed the entire class!

I have been sneezing all day today and they are certainly NOT what I would call ladylike. LOL Today I think I was following in my Dad's footsteps with the sneezes!

LOL Dinu, Your story is funny too and reminds me of similar things that happened in school. Thanks for the memorys!

So, you want to know what happens when Weezes sneezes? I am a firm believer in letting it out! Cupping your hands around your mouth will contain the shrapnel, but a polite hand in front of the face does not!

I have noticed in the last few years, that the older I get the more consecutive sneezes I have. When I was young, one seemed to suffice, in my prime, two would do, and now that I am getting long in the tooth, three are a minimum. Perhaps I should apply for a grant to study this!

Sounds like a valid scientific thing to study! Good luck on getting the grant and you can study me. I have the same problem of expanding the amount and volume of sneezes as I grow older.

Weezingreens: May we all live long enough to do a dozen sneezes consecutively!

My dad has "sneezing attacks" almost daily. He sneezes 20-30 times in a row. Afterward he has to take a long rest, they really lay him low. Can't figure out what triggers them. As he ages, they become more frequent (he is 74 now).

Considering how weird I feel after three sneezes, I can't even imagine sneezing 30 times in a row! I'd probably need a nap, too! Do you suppose the membranes of our noses dry out as we age?

*Something tickles inside those nostrils! LOL
A colleague of mine can sneeze at will! Many times, just for fun, he obliges to our request, while we go out to our canteen for coffee and emerge into the sunshine, he would look up towards the sun, close his eyes.... there it comes.. ACHOOO... and sometimes the second ACHOOO too as a bonus.

*Many of us utter 'long live' when someone sneezes. Just one sneeze is considered a bad omen when something good is going on in a discussion! The second one neutralizes! I have seen people sneezing 20-30 times in rapid succession, eyes watering.

*Another question. Can someone sneeze with eyes open? Try it, it is difficult!

This thread is so funny! Howie has sneezing jags almost daily; I've never counted them, but I have piped up and said, "the bless-you's have run out!". When he feels a sneeze coming on he'll do this "hebbe hebbe hebbehebbe" sound - just something funny he did once and it's stuck.

My sneezes are on the moderately loud scale -- WaaaaaaaCHOO! We had a cat who hated hearing us sneeze; whenever we did, she'd dash out of the room muttering loudly in her distinctive Siamese voice. That always made it funnier!

Do any of you remember the Carol Burnett Show bit where Tim Conway started talking about the siamese twin elephants that were joined at the trunk? He said that when they had to sneeze they would raise their combined trunk and sneeze "snorkle" or some such silliness. Well it is so funny that I have never been able to watch it and really tell what he is saying because I am laughing too much and he is making all the other cast members laugh so much that they are sliding onto the floor laughing. Funny funny skit that was unplanned by anyone except Tim. FOFLMBO thinking about it.

It is a known fact that when you feel one coming and it cant quite get out, just look at bright lights and it will come out!

In high school I developed a sneeze, which, when I felt a real sneeze come on, I would manage to do a normal one at the begging, but the raise the pitch at the the end to a
high A (do). It was good to aggravate the teacher, bless and her heart, and get a laugh out of my classmates.

In mass yesterday, I was listening, not to the prist the whole time, but counting sneezes of parishioners, and comparing the number to the estimated age of the sneezer.

And it is all of your faults! I love you guys!

LOL, Lavanda! It sounds like we're a bad influence! Both my sons are grown men now, but they would agree with you about looking at a light to encourage a sneeze. It never seemed to work for me!

A WW11 poster from the Ministry of Health here ran

"Coughs and Sneezes, Spread Diseases. Trap them in your handkerchief. Help keep the nation fighting fit"

http://www.wkac.ac.uk/poster/imagebank/Coughs&Sneezes.htm

I remember that rhyme being told to me when I was little but it's rarely heard now.

When I sneeze it's a moderate gasp and "shoooooooo" then a loud, Bless Meee! followed by a sheepish grin. It seems few people say bless you here in Hampshire unless someone in their aquaintance says it often, surprising how these little politnesses catch on in a group.

Baa..... ? a "sheepish" grin????

How punny of you, dahlin !

Oh, Baa, that link is priceless! That's one that ought to resurrect in the form of a wall hanging. As a child, I was taught to say Kazuntite! (I think it is German, and I have to idea how to spell it). I was told it is the same as 'Bless You'. Have we any responses to hick-ups?

In Spanish, they say that when you get the hiccups it is because you have stolen something.

And when one sneezes, you are told "Salud"
which means to your health.

And in English, we say "God Bless You" to ward off the evil spirits. "Gesundheit" is also said around here.

Hiccup here and someone is likely to say BOO!

Or make suggestions of drinking glasses of water upside down, cold keys down backs etc. Funny how no one can ever find a cold key or tell you how to drink water upside down!

I once knew a man that could drink a pint of beer standing on his head, but I think that would be more likely to GIVE you hiccups!

Well, sweet Baa,
I guess if someone hiccupped enough to get you really annoyed, you could put a key in the freezer and wait long enough for it to be really cold....LOL, which by then you would be RILLY annoyed!

That's a great poster and saying!