The "sticking out your tongue" phenomenon

Have you ever noticed that some people stick out their tongue when they are working on something that requires hand-eye coordination or intense concentration? My dad is the king of this. As far back as I can remember, everytime my dad had that hammer in his hand, he would pound those nails with is tongue sticking severely out of his mouth; sharp, shiny, and tense.

As a child, I thought this phenomenom was uniquly my father's. You know, just one of those quirky things about him. But now that I think about it I am sure it isn't. I mean, I've seen other people do it when they're hammering, and I know I've seen people do it when they are trying to thread a needle.


Still, there is something unique my dad's use of the concentration tongue. He doesn't only use it when he is working, you see. My brother, sister and I are quite familier with dad's other use of that tongue. You see, when my dad got angry, and I mean really pissed, at one of us kids, in leu of yelling, or sometimes in conjuction with, he would take a deep breath, stick out that tongue to the corner of his mouth, and push up his glassesinwith his index finger in an extreame measure of controlled concentration. This was probably an attempt to keep himself from beating the shit out of us when we probably would have deserved it. We saw this tongue when he caught us lying about feeding the neighbor kid mud in a bottle and telling him it was chocolate milk, when he found out about the slurpee fight in the kitchen by noticing the stains on our popcorn ceiling, and when he discovered the remnents of the mini-fires we started in the backyard.

The really funny thing was, after my dad got that laser surgery on his eyes, he still followed the same procedure, complete with the finger pushing up the glasses that no longer existed. Granted, we were older then so he didn't have as many opportunities to get quite as pissed, but thanks to my brother, I was still able to witness the phenomenom from an adult perspective. My dad came home one evening and found out Andy had thrown a little get together involving him and about 100 of his friend's closest friends that was not authorized by my dad, probably involving events that were not authorized by the state of California for people my brother's age. When my dad found out, I think he just about did everything in his power to not pick up my brother and throw him out of the house... through the window.

Out comes the tongue, and, up goes the finger, shoving an invisible pair of glasses up the bridge of my dad's nose. It wasn't until later that I noticed the humor in the situation. I guess, then, I was as used to seeing it all my life as he was of doing it. But later that night, as I replayed the scene in my head, I couldn't help but laugh at the image. (In fact, I can't stop laughing now as I think about it). (or, for that matter, again as I edit this.) But if you could just see my dad, tongue firm out of the spit-dewed corner of his mouth, forehead wrinkled in fury, and that index finger poking at his forehead....

Oh. My. God. My tummy is so sore from laughing. I wonder if you even get it or if this is one of those "you had to be there" moments. Oh well. I know that there are a few of there reading this that have been there...

Today, I was hammering the back of our new entertainment center, and, low and behold, my tounge was sticking out of my mouth. Sigh. Thanks, dad.