Frazz by Jef Mallett for August 28, 2013

First comment: I don’t know how to whistle. And I don’t go around trying.(Great strip Jef, I’m going to save and share yesterdays!)

I worked with a fellow who whistled tunelessly all day. It sounded like a steam leak, and drove everyone nuts.

many people can whistle. some people can whistle through their teeth. others can whistle with fingers in their mouths. while others can whistle through their nostrils.

And then there was the woman who complained about the new guy in the office. He was always whistling dirty songs.

Then there’s my Mother-in-Law, she “whistles” by exhaling and inhaling through pursed lips To her it sounded good! It made makes my flesh crawl! It’s like fingernails on a blackboard!

Actually, Cardinals do have different whistles. There are three near my home that I can identify by the different songs they sing, and on a trip south [I’m from Ontario] through Tennessee and Florida I could hear regional variations.

Ravens can spot another raven a mile away and know if it is a “friend” or stranger! (Berhnd Heinrich, author of Mind of the Raven)

I could whistle tunes from my throat as a kid, but it all changed when I hit ‘the age of acne’….

We had a mockingbird singing at midnight outside our bedroom and my husband sang back at it. There was a brief moment of silence as it considered, and then it sung his tune back at him. Yeah, we were pretty thrilled (to say the least. It was a very cool moment.)

My dear departed Dad whistled beautifully. I miss it.

vwdualnomand: I can whistle by curling my extended tongue and blowing through it. More women than men can curl their tongue, but I have never heard one whistle that way..Meowlin: “Put your lips together and blow” does not get a whistle – it is more of a pbbbft. The only way to get a tone that way is with a brass instrument between a cornetto and a tuba.

That would be Big Rapids High School, Big Rapids, Michigan, from which Jef (and I) graduated.