>>>What's the actual assortiment of available exclamations for such occasions? It seems to be that there's actually no choice at all. Anyone I hear utters this one only.
>>
>>Oh my gosh
>>Oh my golly (bit weak in this context!)
>>Oh My Lord
>>Oh Lord
>>My God
>>Oh my God-fathers (for people who want to avoid blasphemy :-)
>>(cockney) Gorblimey (corruption of God blind me)
>>Heavens
>>'kin' 'ell!
>
>So... what's left when you clean out the layers of Christianity? "Ummmmph!"? :)

Well I can't speak for the Arabic world, etc. Maybe Buddhists say "Oh my Buddha!". According to my old war comics, when I was a kid, all the Japanese said "By Shinto!" :-)
>
>>(all worth 100 years in purgatory [ UK - purga-T'RY, US Purga-TORY])
>>
>>:-)
>
>Is that the place where you're fed purgatives only? :)

No, that's in Hell, full of glasses of beer and beautiful women. Trouble is all the beer galsses have holes in them , whereas the women ...