The British have a reputation in some countries — undeserved, of course — for not being as devoted to personal hygiene as we might be. At least now we have an excuse. We have seen Alfred Hitchcock’s film Psycho and for perfectly understandable reasons we are afraid to go into the shower.
Professor Joanne Cantor of Wisconsin University says she has found hundreds of women who can no longer shower after seeing the murder scene in Psycho, and men who tremble at the sight of water on hearing the soundtrack to Jaws.
If Professor Cantor had extended her research beyond the world of horror, she would have found that hundreds of fathers who work in banking are reluctant to employ a new nanny after watching Mary Poppins, and that many residents of Notting Hill have chosen to board up their houses after seeing the film of the same name, rather than have Julia Roberts dropping by unexpectedly.
And remember that mild chest pain is most probably a touch of indigestion. Unless, of course, you’ve been watching Alien.