Sneezes are a little grosser and more complex to read about than yawns.

Reading about sneezing hasn't caused me to sneeze, not even once - sneezing doesn't seem to be instantaneously contagious. (However, I've yawned about ten times. Why would the word sneeze trigger yawning? and nose blowing????)

There's a really gross photo in Wiki of a guy sneezing, a few hundred droplets of mucus etc hanging in mid-air. The article speaks of sneezing contributing to the spread of disease, which I wouldn't argue. However, on the bright side, one might consider sneezing a way of spreading immunizations. More pleasant to inhale that flu vaccine than to receive it by needle. And you know the sneeze immunization is for the local, current virus, whereas the injected vaccine may be defending against last month's flu in Buson, South Korea.

The article also mentions sneezing can occur with sudden exposure to bright light. My father-in-law was a physician, and he called this phenomenon 'sun allergy'. He stated 'some people have sun allergies' which would seem to suggest that some don't.

Too bad there aren't Guiness World Record staff around when you need them. I think my dad could win the record for the largest number of consecutive sneezes, like a full half hour of non-stop sneezing. I read in the paper once that women are more likely to experience solitary sneezes, while men are more likely to sneeze several times in a row. Since I read that, I've noticed it to be generally true.

The Wiki article lists lots of stories and superstitions about sneezing. It also gives a fancy word for sneezing called sternutation. (Does anyone remember the fancy word for yawning? Tsk! Pandiculation. I had to look for it just now in last night's post.) However, I just found the Merriam-Webster.com definition of pandiculation: 'a stretching and stiffening especially of the trunk and extremities (as when fatigued and drowsy or after waking from sleep).' It doesn't mention yawning. Thefreedictionary.com does, though.

By the way, the Blogger spell check does not like sternutation. Merriam-Webster.com does.