Fran Dando, a 21-year-old children’s worker from Hastings, East Sussex, has a very odd fear.  Lots of people are afraid of spiders and snakes, but how many people can you name that are afraid of bananas?  That’s right, Fran Dando is a bananaphobic, and like a lot of phobias, her unusual fear stems back to an incident in her childhood.

No, she wasn’t horrified by a gun-toting, genitals-flashing banana man, and she didn’t endure a childhood trip to the banana museum that ended in a Charles Nelson Reilly-led sing-along.  Her torment springs from the actions of her brother.  “It began when I was seven and my brother put a banana in my bed as a joke,’ said Ms. Dando.  “I felt his horrible, slimy thing underneath my body.  I was frozen in panic and hyperventilating.  Ever since then, if I see one the same feeling comes back.”

Unfortunately for Ms. Dando, her 2-year-old son Harrison’s favorite food just happens to be bananas.  Still, she’s able to cope with her fear long enough to feed her son.  “I have to use a blanket to pick them up and put them in the trolley and then when I am at home I have to wear rubber gloves and use a tea towel to open one and give it to him.”

Tags: bananaphobia, unusual phobias, unusual fears, woman is afraid of bananas, Fran Dando, bananaphobic, Hastings, East Sussex, psychological traumas, fear of bananas

I’ve never had a problem eating food from a gas station.  Just two weeks ago, I ate a couple of hot dogs purchased from a gas station.  They were delicious.  That’s not the first time I’ve eaten gas station food, and I doubt it will be the last.  There’s nothing like a fun food novelty. […]

Commissioner Roger Goodell gathered 32 NFL owners for one big question.  One of the league’s most wanderlust-stricken franchises is looking to move again.  The Oakland-Los Angeles-Oakland Raiders, tired of gutting it out in a run-down stadium, were once again looking for greener pastures.  Only the Miami Dolphins refused to cooperate.  With a vote of 31-1, […]

In 2006, an injury to Dallas Cowboys starting quarterback Drew Bledsoe opened the door for an undrafted free agent by the name of Tony Romo to take the helm of America’s Team and lead the Dallas Cowboys to an early playoff exit.  Bledsoe went from starter to afterthought in a season.  Now, the circle continues […]

For 89 years, Oscars has never had a major mistake.  The last few Oscars might have had a few flubs, but at least they never got the most important category of the night wrong.  Well, that’s now changed, all thanks to OG Bonnie and Clyde legends Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway.  When Faye Dunaway called […]

Tom Brady has been wildly successful, if controversial.  He’s the first quarterback ever to win five Super Bowls and only the second player to do so after Charles Haley.  Unlike Haley, Brady won all his Super Bowls with the same team, the New England Patriots.  The only thing that seems to be able to stop […]

Ben Affleck, no matter what you might think of him, is a talented actor and director.  He’s got the goods, but he’s smart enough to know when he’s in over his head.  All along, since he took on the mantle of Batman, he’s had his eyes on writing, directing, and starring as the Caped Crusader. […]

In May, students for the for-profit American College of Education were running into some problems.  Their access to email accounts and course information was locked down by Google, who had disabled their accounts.  The reason why?  A fired IT worker for the American College of Education locked the school out of their Google cloud account. […]