27 July: Sneezing

On this date in 1981 Donna Griffiths of Pershore broke the record for the longest recorded sneezing fit. She’d started sneezing 194 days earlier on 13 January. She finally stopped sneezing on 16 September 1983. 10 things you might not know about sneezing.

1. Why do we sneeze? Sneezing is a reflex action which occurs when an irritant enters the nose. While nobody sneezes as much as Donna Griffiths, it is common to sneeze twice or three times in a row – which simply means your nose didn’t completely get rid of the irritant the first time around and has to have another go. Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia have suggested another reason for sneezing which might explain why we sometimes sneeze for no apparent reason – it’s to re-set our noses, a bit like re-booting a computer. 
2. Some people sneeze when they look at a bright light, or if the sun is in their eyes. About 57% of people, to be exact. There’s a posh name for this phenomenon, too – Autosomal Cholinergic Helio-Ophthalmologic Outburst, or “ACHOO syndrome”, and it’s thought to be genetic.
3. Another word for sneezing is sternutation.
4. Because it’s a reflex action, it’s impossible for a person to sneeze in their sleep, although waving something irritating under a sleeping person’s nose may cause them to wake up and sneeze. While it’s an involuntary action to close your eyes when you sneeze, it’s a myth that if you sneeze with your eye open your eyes will pop out. It’s also a myth that your Heart stops when you sneeze. The rhythm of the heartbeat can change, but it doesn’t stop.
5. When you sneeze, air is moving more than 100 miles an hour through your nose. The spray from a sneeze travels around three to five feet. A single sneeze can produce up to 40,000 droplets, which are so tiny that they can stay airborne for a few minutes. That’s one way of catching a cold and the reason why you should sneeze into a tissue.
6. The characteristic noise of a sneeze is caused by air being forced through the nostrils. The word for a sneeze in many languages imitates that sound - The English word is "achoo," the French "atchoum," Italian "hapsu," Japanese "hakushon," and Swedish "atjo."
7. In ancient Greece, they believed that a sneeze was a prophetic sign from the gods. In the story of Odysseus, for example, his wife Penelope, says that he and his son would be out for revenge if he were to return. At that moment, their son sneezed loudly and Penelope was delighted, believing it to be a sign from the gods. That belief survives in parts of Greece today in the form of a response to someone’s sneeze - "bless you and I am speaking the truth". The custom in English is to respond “bless you” when someone sneezes. There are a couple of theories regarding the origin of this. There was an old belief that a person’s soul was located in their nose and a sneeze meant their soul temporarily left their body. Another is that sneezing was an early symptom of bubonic plague and so the words “God bless you” was a response to protect people from falling ill, and/or to save their soul if they did. Saying “God bless you” when somebody sneezed was recommended by Pope Gregory VII.
8. In some cultures, sneezing is thought to be lucky, unless you sneeze at the same moment as someone else or if you happen to be in India, where a sneeze at the start of a piece of work foretells that it won’t go well, so should a sneeze happen, it would be customary to take a short break for a drink of water before continuing. 
9. In China, Vietnam, South Korea, and Japan, there’s a superstition which says that when you sneeze, it means someone is talking about you. One sneeze means they’re saying nice things, two means someone is thinking of you and three in a row means someone is in love with you.
10. Humans aren’t the only animals which sneeze. If you have pets, you’ll know cats and dogs do it, too. African wild dogs use sneezing as a form of communication, for example when considering as a pack whether or not to hunt. You might not know, however, that chickens and Iguanas also sneeze.

Killing Me Softly

Sebastian Garrett is an assassin. It wasn’t his first choice of vocation, but nonetheless, he’s good at it, and can be relied upon to get the job done. He’s on top of his game.

Until he is contracted to kill Princess Helena of Galorvia. She is not just any princess. Sebastian doesn’t bargain on his intended victim being a super-heroine who gives as good as she gets. Only his own genetic variant power saves him from becoming the victim, instead of Helena. 

Fate has another surprise in store. Sebastian was not expecting to fall in love with her.

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