you feel it welling up inside you, this delicate tingling, as if your every nerve were firing at once. you want to group for the newspaper, your homework─anything─but you no longer control your body.
these seconds of helpless anticipation seem like an eternity, but then the spell is broken. you crash forward, your muscles contracting like a fist, and you can't even see that people are running away from you because something has forced your eyes shut.
and then it's over. you relax. your head is clear, your body under control.
i am talking, of course, about sneezing. i come from a long line of sneezers. my father sneezed, and his father and his father's father before him were all men for whom a blat from the nose was every bit as bracing as a plunge into the snow following a sauna.
this involuntary reflex known as the sneeze is not one of the burning mysteries of our time, but i'd like to tell you about some superstitions that have sprung up around sneezing and also let you know what's actually happening when you sneeze. finally, in the interests of social harmony, i'll tell you how to sneeze safely and politely.