I know for sure that learning helps keep me young. Not as young as I'd like to be though. I wish I could run as fast and jump as high and pedal uphill like I could in the olden days when I was under 60 years old.
I wondered if you were tricking us into thinking the Black Belt thing was untrue. (I didn't fall for that one.) Now I wonder if there are some people who have more than three nipples.
I can't wiggle my ears independently, but I can do something that I've been told most people can't do:
Ooooo. I can do that too. Are we both a rarity? Or just long-lost cousins?
Final test: what about the thing where you make your tongue curl up at the sides, like a tube? Apparently that's another genetic gift. I feel like this thread could be turning into some kind of Star Wars reveal. Are you actually my father/sister??
YES! I can do the tongue curl--even to the point where the sides meet each other at the top. Someday I will perfect the technique to the point where I can use it as a straw for drinking milk shakes. To answer your final question, I'm probably not your father or sister, but our matching finger and tongue dexterity is unimpeachable DNA proof we are related somehow.
Jeez, Gregory, I had never heard of the fingers thing -- but then, maybe I've led a sheltered life. I tried it, and found I could sorta-do it, tho' any pretence to elegance is marred by digits bent by arthritis. OTOH, I can do the tongue-as-a-tube trick, which our granddaughter who loooves Dad Jokes reckons is a hoot. Who knew, eh?
On other matters: I can whistle the first few bars of the Overture of Brahms' Violin Concerto in D Major, until I run out of breath when the tempo increases. Not so's to make anyone forget Isaac Stern, of course; but that same granddaughter likes my version, sweetie that she is. (And as you may know, it's very hard to whistle when riding a bike.)
Oh, and here’s a commonality. I used to be a prodigious whistler when I was younger, something I picked up from my stepdad. I dropped it a few decades ago but I used to whistle everywhere - jazz standards and classical numbers mostly, biking or walking or taking a shower.
One of the many odd things that’s happened in my recovery these past few weeks is that my whistler suddenly came back, my lip is strengthening, my vibrato is back, and suddenly I’m whistling everywhere I go again. And I get stuck with mantras - after three or four days straight of singing Porter’s You’re the Top I moved on to a more soulful version of People, the Streisand song from Funny Girl. It’s a part of my past I’d totally forgotten about.
suddenly I’m whistling everywhere I go again
Great stuff, Scott! Good on ya, mate, as they say Down Unda. (Or, "One never knows, do one?" as Fats Waller used to say -- so I'm told.)
Looking forwrd to a performance in May! You have time to prepare a program plus encore.
Gregory - further research may freak you out even more. Apparently, medical studies suggest that up to around 5% of us will be blessed with a supernumerary nipple. I understand that this is marginally off-topic from cycling but hey, learning keeps us young.
I love the endless discoveries of Wikipedia.
Of course, if it was the flappy ear thing freaking you out, then - disregard, as you were. I agree, it's pretty weird. 🙃
1 month ago