Balloons

I'm sensitive to loud noises. They literally make me jump!  One example is the sound of a balloon bursting.  As a result, I'm afraid of balloons.  I look at an inflated balloon and imagine the noise it'll make as it bursts.

Back when I was taking dance lessons at the Arthur Murray studio, they had a big sales event where if you bought lessons they'd have a ceremony for you that involved bursting a balloon.  When they had a ceremony for me, I had to go out of the room, which was a bit embarrassing.

I've never been in a hot-air balloon.  It sounds fun.  I did see a three-part film on The Wonderful World of Disney, "High Flying Spy." It was set in the Civil War and involved two Union men and a boy using a balloon to spy on the Confederate armies.  The part I remember is that one of the men said to the boy, "Someday you'll see the face of war, and know it for what it is." In the last episode the boy saw his older brother killed in a skirmish.  So he did see the face of war.

Roger Ebert, the movie critic, had a Balloon Rule:  No movie with a hot-air balloon in it is any good. (The exception is The Wizard of Oz.)