I too assumed it meant lifting the sides of the tongue upwards to a U shape.
Then I saw a Stupid Human Trick on Letterman, where a woman undulated her tongue front to back, kind of like waves rolling across the surface of the sea. Since I, for one, would be willing to pay cash money to be the object of her tongue, I can’t say that it’s a useless talent.
I can flare my nostrils and wriggle my nose, but I can’t wiggle my ears or roll my tongue. I had fun with the nose wriggling/flaring thing when I was a kid. I had a bunny rabbit costume for Halloween when I was seven.
I can flare my nostrils voluntarily.
I can raise at least my right eyebrow independently.
I can roll my tongue into a “U” shape.
I can also turn my tongue over.
Alas, and oddly, these last two skills have done nothing to make me more popular with chicks.
Nostril flarer, indeed. And as an added bonus, everytime I do, the dimple on my chin comes out. I have no control of the dimple; only of the nosrtils.
Geez! Everyone in your immediate family can flare your nostrils?! The mind boggles. I’d like to be a fly-on-the-wall at Thanksgiving…
Big time nostril flarer here. In fact, in college, I was given a hard time about it. I guess my flaring skills were startling to those who couldn’t…
Nostril flare: check
Tongue roll: Yep, in so many different ways.
Ear wiggle: Oh Yeah, and the fact that I have Willy style ears makes it pretty entertaining.
Eyebrow arch: Yeah, Arching my right eye makes me look like the rock, Arching the left more like Popeye.
Nose wiggle: Just like a masculine Samantha, except with nothing and common and much younger, but other than that just like her.
I for one actually define two different types of eyebrow arching, one of which you have hit on.
The Spock arch is, IMHO, the more sophisticated of the two. It involves a completely independent movement of the eyebrow. Truth be told, I am capable of the Spock arch only on the right side.
The lesser of the two types is the McCoy arch, in which one must essentially lower the opposite eyebrow in order to work up the muscular leverage necessary to get the arching brow to go up. This is what I must do to arch my left eyebrow.
…
I am such a geek.
I CAN
Nostril Flare: Yup.
Tongue Roll: Yup, into a U and upside down.
Nose Wiggle: Yup.
Ear wiggle: Yup.
Eyebrow raise: well, by Knead’s definition, I can do Spock and McCoy, depending on what kind of look I’m going for, but only with the right brow. I can almost pull a McCoy with the left, but not quite.
Nostril flaring - check
Eyebrow arch - no (would love to)
Tongue roll - check
Nose wiggle - not with any real ooomph.
My thing is that I can wiggle my ears, but when I do so, I can do it so my whole scalp moves. It almost looks like my hair is more of a toupee that is moving on my head. Absolutely no useful application, except to make my kids giggle.
I can grab my pinkie with the fingers of the same hand, so it looks like I am holding a random finger in my fist - also useful with the kids, when I ask if they want to see what I found in the garden…more giggles and fun-scariness.
Nostril flare: Yes
Independent eyebrow raise: Yes, and Spock style too.
But Ear Wiggle? Never.
Never underestimate the power of the independent eyebrow raise. I used to use it to silence the Ear Wigglers who would say, “Hey Spoons, let’s see you do this!” (As they wiggled their ears.)
I can flare my nostrils and use that skill to suck in more air when jogging. I can’t stand breathing through my mouth. I can roll my tongue into any position imaginable, but alas, am unable to arch my eyebrows independently. I am double-jointed in the thumbs and can bend my left thumb all the way back into my hand. My nose is an immoble isocoles triangle on my face and my ears share that unfortunate state.
Life is not fair.