Tuesday, January 13, 2009

People are Weird About Taphophobia

Have you ever heard of taphophobia (or taphephobia)? Neither had I until I recently saw a news story about more and more people being buried with their cell phones. Can you believe that? For those of you like me, you probably have no idea what I'm talking about. Taphophobia is the fear of being buried alive. Apparently this used to happen a lot in the yesteryears because doctors were pretty bad at correctly diagnosing death. Yeah. Think about that for a minute. My previous biggest fear was being burned alive by lava. Now it's being buried alive. If I'm buried alive with my cell phone, I guess I could call someone. Or I could check the Drudge Report every half hour for breaking news. On the other hand, if I really am dead, there is a good chance that not everyone will find out. I'll just have to record an out-of-office message that says, "Hey. You've reached me, but I am dead. I'll return your call on my next trip to life. Have a great day." But seriously, it seems that some people are burying their loved ones with cell phones so they can call the phone and still hear that person's voice. How comforting.