About 15 years ago I was hit by a car while crossing the street - it messed up my left knee and broke my leg right below the knee. Lately, if I do a lot of walking, it hurts right below that knee, I think in the same place where my leg broke. Is it possible for an old break in a leg to start hurting years later? There are two screws in my leg bone at that point, if that makes any difference.

Since we are on the subject of hiccups, do other people have hiccup triggers? I know of one for myself-- eating bread or certain kinds of crackers if I haven't eaten or drunk anything else for several hours.

My mother gets them if she doesn't drink, or doesn't drink enough, or waits too long to drink, while eating anything. Mine seem much more random.

It seems to me that my 10th grade biology teacher explained the physiology of hiccups somewhere along these lines: the lungs and diaphragm get out of sync and both expand at the same time, which is what forces the air out in the little hic, so whatever cure you're using only works if/when it manages to get them back into sync. I have no confidence that I've given an accurate recount of his explanation, as that was more than 20 years ago.

That's how I understood the process to work. The diaphragm is an automatic muscle, so it's hard to consciously "reset" it.

I know of one for myself-- eating bread or certain kinds of crackers if I haven't eaten or drunk anything else for several hours.

That is my hiccup trigger. Once, when I was in high school, I came home late (I was not out drinking) and was hungry and ate several slices of bread. And got the hiccups. My mother, to this day, is convinced I was drunk despite no other evidence. I told her about the bread thing and she thought I was craxy!

Of course, this is the same woman who was convinced that I was hanging my coat on the plastic hanger she used for her coat instead of the identical hanger next to it that I was supposed to use for my coat because I was trying to send her a subliminal message that I hated and disrespected her. I was 25 at the time.

I'm the same way with bread -- I always assumed it was just some weird me thing!

That's how I understood the process to work. The diaphragm is an automatic muscle, so it's hard to consciously "reset" it.

Yeah. I think any resetting is going to happen with the lungs. That's why holding your breath works sometimes (and drinking, or drinking upside down, eating sugar, or whatever), but only if, when you resume breathing, you're doing it at the right point in the diaphragm's cycle.

I always assumed it was just some weird me thing!

Guess not!

The Minnesota Purity Test

Were you able to watch "Fargo" without rewinding to catch bits of dialogue?

Heh. Of course.

Have you ever heard an "Ole and Lena" joke?

Bunches and bunches from my grandfather.

Do you know how to pronounce Shakopee?

Of course.

Do your daily meals consist of breakfast, dinner, and supper?

Yes! (At least it did when I was a kid.)

When you see moonlight on a lake, do you think of a dancing bear and sing "From the land of sky-blue waters... Hamm's, the beer refreshing, Hamm's, the beer refreshing?"

Hee!

(My mom's side of the family is from Minnesota.)

I am 39.7% minnesota pure. I think lower %s means you're more pure.

Does your town have an equal number of bars and churches?

Heh. My college town actually had one more bar than church. Very scandalous.

I guess I am 100% not Minnesotan. Step-dad is 100% though. And a lovely person.

Is it possible for an old break in a leg to start hurting years later?

I think arthritis hits old breaks.

Bread is my hiccup cause almost every time.