h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Odd this - I know two people who cannot wink - they simply cannot shut one eye at a time (or attempts to do so look like a serious swint with the other eye almost totaly closing).

The first person I knew I called a genetic mutant because of this, now I have met a second I'm not to sure.

So can you all wink? (In real life that is )

Is it a genetic thing or something else?

CH

Hmmmm..... I always assumed everyone could do it. Maybe it is a genetic thing, like being able to roll your tongue!

BTW - I can do both!

You probably shouldn't roll your tongue and wink at the same time...could give off misleading signals.

...or is it that I seem to have more genetic mutants amoung my friends than most?

CH

I've no idea if winking is genetical - but I do know that the ability to roll your tongue is - either to form a tube, or roll it upside down...

...and the reason I know is because I once had a teacher who asked us to check the ability of rolling tongues among family members when trying to explain genetics...

Both my parents and my brother can do it, but I can't... but I *can* wink with either eye, or raise either eyebrow...

Can wink either eye. Left eye is easier. I have astigmatism and things go blurry when I wink my right eye.

Can roll my tongue. My first cousins on my father's side can also roll their tongues. Never asked the other side of the family.

Can only raise my right eyebrow though.

Can also do this.

Yes, I can wink with either eye. And I can also roll my tongue into a tube.

I can wink easily, roll my tongue into a tube and raise my right eyebrow. My left eyebrow can also be raised, but the right one tends to go down a little bit, which makes me look very odd.

Eyebrows, however, was a matter of conscious effort to learn how to do it - particularly with the left one. The rest is just doable.

Winking - Yes, but I had to teach myself how to do it when a wee small thing
Tongue roll - Yes
Eyebrows - No, and I really wish I could

B

You're winking and rolling you tongue and you're worried about your eyebrow making you look very odd

Can wink
Can cross eyes
Wife can raise eyebrow

I was always told that rolling your tongue into a tube was doable depending on wether you had earlobes or not.

Ok. I can roll my tongue AND I have ear-lobes.

Anything else anyone else wants to know?

B

Hmmm no no I can't

Yes Ben, lots! but maybe in another thread





left eye wink
right eye wink

tongue roll

I have found that I can do anything if I work at it. However, I don't know if you could teach yourself to roll your tongue if you couldn't do it anyway, if this is proven as a genetic trait. I think I remember working hard at learning to wink when I was about 7.

Some other things you can get yourself to do with practise are:

wiggle your ears (possibly even individually - that's for advanced students)
raise individual eyebrows
cross your eyes - looking upwards and downwards. (I'm not sure if you can do one up / one down. Haven't tried that!)
vulcan salute (I was amazed that people have trouble with this)
Holding your hand up with all fingers stiff and upright, bend each finger down individually. The index finger is easy, it gets harder the further along you go. Is this easier for people who play an instrument? It seemed that those of us who played the piano had less trouble with this when I was at school.

I can wink and roll my tongue and turn my tongue upside down and raise one eyebrow and wiggle my ears and cross one eye. we need a smiley for that!

Winking - either eye, independently.

Tongue rolling - yes, PLUS I can blow through it and make a whistling sound. I haven't yet met anyone else who can do that (or who even wanted to try...) but I'm sure you'll all have a go right now!

Eyebrow raise - No. Wish I could. How do you go about training your eyebrows?

vulcan salute is easy, but I remember reading that the actrees that played the vulcan queen in the series couldn't do it

I can move my eyes independently, which quite freaks people out if they haven't seen it before.

This was a learned trick that I saw someone else do and decided to do it myself. Not sure why now

Would this be a good time to confess to misreading the subject line

I can certainly do that...

B

with your tongue or your eyebrows?