Fright Factors

Rating rides is, of necessity, strictly subjective. One man’s shaken is another man’s stirred.

Some people are horripilated by heights, others daunted by the dark. Some actually dig dangling upside down; others enjoy being swizzled like an ice cube (“In a spin, loving that spin I’m in . . . “).

Basically, though, there are two categories of fright, physical and psychological, affecting two subspecies: the Essentially Chicken-Hearted (ECH) and the Basically Otherworldly Oriented (BOO). Within these categories, rating is from 1 (a slow stroll in a well-mown park at high noon) to 10 (unequivocal dementia).

Caveat: In the real world, butterflies are free; in Southern California, they’ll cost you.