[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Researchers at Cambridge University in England have identified a new > phobia - "financial phobia" - which they believe afflicts 9 million > people in the UK. And I am one of them!! Sufferers describe how > they feel almost faint at the thought of opening a bank statement or > a bill ( I am exactly like this), and also how the phobia started > after some financial trauma. In my case, this was being a student > and going to the cash machine (ATM) ONE day after my grant had > arrived -- which was supposed to last me for three months -- and > being told I already had an unauthorized overdraft, meaning I had > already spent my next three months' worth of money before I had even > got it. And then getting letters from Barclays Bank charging me 15 > pounds per letter to tell me about the overdraft. . . I spent three > years like this, and it has definitely affected me. Even now, if I > know I have money in an account, if I have to use an ATM, I stand > there shaking, waiting for that same old horrible message to appear, > or a hand to reach out and grab me because I still owe Barclays money
There is a Firesign Theatre bit like this...he goes to the ATM (in the not-too-distant future) and finds he is, like $12 in the red. The machine then sees that he is wearing a vintage "White Brains On Toast" T-shirt and snags it away, incidentally putting him in the black by a few bucks. Think it is on "Eat Or Be Eaten". RR
