Maybe everybody can, and it’s just that some of us once yawned while reading and noticed that, as sometimes happens, we’d sprayed saliva onto the page; and we select few then took the next step to delibererately recreate this function so we can do it at will. Silently. To people sitting in front us us.
In elementary school (some 20 years ago), gleeking was the fashionable way of attacking your classmates without spitting on them. Being able to gleek with good distance was a sought-after talent, and there was no greater joy than being able to gleek on someone in the middle of a class while the teacher had his or her back turned. You can’t hear someone gleek the way you can hear them spit.
And, thanks to you, I find myself trying to see if I can still do it, and consequently am now wiping off my monitor.
He can hit me, sitting across the table from him at our favourite mexican restaurant. And he’s enthused about doing so. Then he hits his father, then his brother, then, perhaps, a random passerby. Perhaps the waiter, as well, in lieu of a tip.
If you even utter the word “gleek” aloud, he appears as if from nowhere, showing off his gleeking abilities.
Fortunately for most of us, the word “gleek” isn’t a terribly common utterance. I’m a little concerned about this thread somehow attracting his attention, though. He would most certainly gleek all over it.
I had a friend who could do this on command. He used to gleek on people standing in line at Cedar Point (just some amusement park on Lake Erie, for those who didn’t know). Can anyone explain how it’s done?
Well my ignorance has been fought for the day. I’ve always thought it was “gleeg”.
I’m another of the folks who can do it rarely and randomly during a yawn, but not at whim. A childhood friend of mine was quite talented at it. A true salivary artist.
I used to be able to, but I just tried, and didn’t get much other than my bottom lip.
Tongue hard against the roof of the mouth, then a strong muscular contraction of that, uh, bottom of the tongue bit where it attaches your tongue to the, um, floor of your mouth. Some tensing of the jaw is involved.
So basically, tongue up and out of the way, and a press-forward contraction of the undertongue that normally is out of sight. It used to spray fresh saliva straight up and out over my bottom teeth.
Jeez, I’m glad no one’s home to see me practise this.