Granny grows horn

[bananas]

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_2335990.html

Granny grows horn

A Chinese grandmother has a five inch horn growing out of her forehead.



The horn curves downward and looks like the stalk of a pumpkin, reports the Yangcheng Evening Post.

Granny Zhao, 95, of Zhanjiang city, Guangdong province, says it first appeared three years ago.

"At first, it was only a mole, but it gradually grew and became like a horn," she said.

<snip>

[Redstone]

1. Hey, if she's 95 and can still be horny, that's something.

Redstone

[bananas]

2. LOL!

[habitual]

3. ah that's nothing, I saw a man just today

in a press conference with Tony Blair. I forgot his name, but he had 2 horns growing out of his head!

[mike_c]

4. nah-- it looks like soft tissue....

It's a gall.

[kestrel91316]

7. Plants get galls. It's a neoplasm of some sort, let go way too long.

[soothsayer]

5. holy moly!

[panzerfaust]

6. Basal Cell or Photoshop

Either would seem more likely than an actual horn

[FloridaJudy]

8. Nope. It's a "cutaneous horn"

Rather uncommon, but not really rare: most are benign.

http://www.emedicine.com/derm/topic90.htm

[supernova]

9. There was a French woman

in the 19th Century who had one bigger than that in the exact same spot, middle of the forehead. A cast of her head is in the Mutter Museum in Philidelphia. I only know this because there was a documentary about the Mutter collection on Discovery recently.

[GreenPartyVoter]

10. I would so have that sucker removed!

[supernova]

11. I would too, GPV!

Blech to having that alien limb growing out of my forehead.

There's a WebMD (professional side) article about them linked above. But oddly, it doesn't say that they normally recommend exicising these horns. It says that you biopsy because some of them can be squamous cell carcinomas, but not removing them?

edit: squamous cell carcinoma, not basal cell carcinoma

[GreenPartyVoter]

13. Yeah, you would think they would recommend it!

[Orrex]

12. At what point does someone say "I should really have this looked at", I wonder?

As a general rule of forehead, if the horn extends into my line of sight, I'm definitely going for a consultation.

[Dogmudgeon]

14. She could be poor

China is still a developing country. Granny Zhao probably fell through some of the bureaucratic cracks.

Now if she was in America ... People for the Ethical Treatment of Horns would have stepped in already!


(This guy has horns, too!)
--p!

[My Good Babushka]

15. At 95

If I started to grow a horn, I'd say "why not?" I never had one before, and I'm beyond giving a sh*t. Let 'er rip, or sprout, or what have you.

[Occulus]

16. Awwwww. Punkinhead.

(My roommate and I were watching the Sci-Fi channel recently and they were having a "Pumpkinhead" marathon.

We got silly and started saying "Aww, Pumpkin" every time the commercials showed.

I guess you had to be there.)

[Orsino]

17. If the Republican War on Science continues...

...this sort of thing will get you hanged as a witch.