Lecture, revisited (or, Peer Education)

at the bar (paraphrased):

I learned in class this semester why I can't do shots. One of the classes I'm taking this term is called Dysphagia, which means swallowing disorders, so I get to spend a semester learning about swallowing (cool, huh?). There are a bunch of different stages of a swallow, the part you do in your mouth and the part in your throat and the part in between. So there are two main types of oral preparatory stages: the tipper swallow and the dipper swallow. Most people use a tipper swallow, where you hold whatever's in your mouth on top of your tongue and then push it straight back when you're ready to swallow. But 20% of normal healthy young people, and this number increases with age, do a dipper swallow, where you hold whatever it is under your tongue until you're ready to swallow, and then dip down with your tongue tip and move it back. And that's what I do! which i never knew before, because i never knew that such a thing existed. So it makes perfect sense that I can't do shots, because I hold the alcohol under my tongue before swallowing it, and that just doesn't work out. It's nothing I'm doing wrong, I'm just physiologically indisposed to taking shots. (or, if you prefer to think of it this way, i'm part of a perfectly healthy swallow-related minority.)

i told my professor the story of this mini-lecture after class this week, prefaced by, "Can I share something completely ridiculous with you?"