» Foot in Mouth Syndrome

Just a few weeks ago, actually...
Before the professor had arrived to class one afternoon, a friend and I were chatting with a few of the other students. I forget exactly what the conversation was about, but at one point we were teasing someone else for a previous incident in which they'd been particularly shocked at something or the other - “We thought you were going to have a seizure!” as one of us cleverly put it.

“Yeah, we thought we were going to have to put a spoon in your mouth to keep you from biting off your tongue!” I added, thinking I was being, if possible, Even More Clever.

“It's actually very hard to pry apart someone's jaws to do that, you know,” said my friend. And continued, completely nonchalantly: “I've had to before – for my mother ...” [who has multiple sclerosis... a fact which I had *known* before, but somehow had managed to completely slip my mind...]

I haven't stopped cringing since.
(Fri 23rd Apr 2004, 1:33, More)