NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – Did you know that neckties and sitting with your legs crossed can be dangerous to your health?

These are just some of the examples from Encyclopedia Paranoiaca – a list of everything we may want to avoid – compiled by Henry Beard and Christopher Cerf.

Cerf joined The Couch on Monday, and said he thinks America is becoming a nation of fear.

“Henry and I began to notice that every day we would hear some fear mongering report saying that something we thought was great for us was actually bad for us, or something we thought was terrible for us, might be good for us,” he said.

“There were so many contradictory things, we thought people might need an encyclopedia to keep it straight.”