Cool human body tricks

As I mentioned on Monday, I’m pretty impressed with the human body. I mean, you live in your skin your whole life, but you totally take all the innard goings-on for granted (well, at least I did). And that’s when you’re just going along your everyday life, putting the coffee on, taking a shower, doing whatever you do all day, reading a book or watching television, then hitting the sack.

But there are times when your body does something weird — or doesn’t do something it’s supposed to do. That’s when you kind of do a self-assessment and think, “Huh? What’s going on?”

Here’s an odd example. Ever been in the dentist’s chair, getting your chompers inspected, and you just can’t resist itching your nose? No kidding — suddenly your nose is just begging to be itched. Well, mine does. My dental hygenist, after confiding in me that he’d always wanted to be a hobo (but that’s another topic for another day), said that it’s because your facial nerves are so close together that when your mouth’s getting mucked around with, it triggers the itchy nose nerve.

And then there are the things you can do to purposely mess with your body. No, I’m not talking drugs. This is a G-rated blog. I mean those crazy things you can do to amaze your friends and neighbors:

1. Amazing floating arms. Stand in a narrow doorway (like a pantry). Press the backs of your wrists against the door frame as hard as you can for a minute (or maybe 30 seconds if you’re weak). Then step away from the doorway, letting your arms fall limp to your sides. Except they won’t. They’ll “float” up away from your body. I’m ahem years old, and this cracks me up every single time.
2. Sticky fingers. Put your hand on a table so your fingertips are on the surface, but not your palm. Curl your middle finger under until the middle knuckle is on the table (see photo). Lift your index finger off the table. Put it down. Lift your pinky finger off the table. Put it down. Lift your ring finger off the…what? You can’t? Weird.
3. Resistance is futile. Find an assistant for this one. Stand up and put your arm straight out to your side. Ask your assistant to push down on your wrist using only two fingers. You resist. Should be pretty easy. Then put a small stool or stack of books under the foot on your sticking-out-arm side. Put your foot on it (your feet should still be side-by-side). Repeat the arm process. Your assistant should easily be able to push your arm down now. Cool!

I know there are more funky human body tricks out there — send me your best! I’ve got work to do and there’s no better procrastination than crazy human body tricks. Except napping, of course.