"Fear of Being Stuck in My Mind."

I'm still stuck on the latest New Yorker. There's a great little article by Nick Paumgarten, about elevators, that didn't seem all that promising, but is actually quite good.

I learned this: "Loading up an empty elevator car with discarded Christmas trees, pressing the button for the top floor, then throwing in a match, so that by the time the car reaches the top, it is a ablaze with heat so intense that the alloy (called, 'babbitt') connecting the cables to the car melts, and the car, in a fireball now, plunges into the pit: this practice, apparently popular in New York City housing projects, is NOT ADVISABLE."

Later in the article - a man with elevator phobia is quoted thusly: "I don't have a fear of dying in an elevator, or of the elevator losing control - I have a fear of being stuck in my mind."

I understand.