It's Just Not Meant to Be

Standing on the front porch this morning trying to call in our border collie by yelling at the top of my lungs, I thought about how easy it would be just to be able to produce one of those ear-piercing whistles. Some folks just seem to be blessed with this talent, but alas not I.

Most of the cows in our herd have tuned out the vocal rantings of us humans, but a shrill whistle seems to perk up every ear in the freestall barn. While my mother-in-law is an accomplished whistler (not the loud truck-driver sort, but more melodic) she didn't pass that trait on to my husband. And because I am also genetically deficient in that area, our kids are also doomed to sputter out faint tunes as well.

I always wondered if whistling could be a learned talent...or if it was a skill that is simply innate. While thumbing through the Farmer's Almanac I came across an article about this talent. Steve Herbst, a world champion whistler said it's a learned art and goes on to provide tips on technique to improve your abilities. Visit www.almanac.com/extras and hit the amusements link. Let me know if it helps. By gosh if seven dwarfs could whistle is it possible I can improve? Then maybe, just maybe, I can whistle along to the theme song from the Andy Griffin show "the Fishing Hole" without embarassing myself.

And one word of caution to would-be whistlers...they say kissing can hamper your performance by making the lips "mushy". Who'd have thought!