Do you wink?

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Do you wink?

Poll Results

OptionVotes
Yes, I sometimes wink 27
Yes, I have winked, but only once 20
No, I have never winked 10
Yes, I wink frequently 6


Z S, Thursday, 1 December 2011 21:57 (twelve years ago) link

omg i wink only sometimes

z i cannot imagine u winking

surm, Thursday, 1 December 2011 21:58 (twelve years ago) link

i was sitting in a meeting with the rest of my office today, and someone dozens of layers higher than me on the chain of sadness kept winking. four or five times, at least.

i added in the third poll option (but only once) because that's where i fall. i'm not a winking kind of person. but one time, i said something that pretty much demanded a wink for some reason, and before i knew what was going on, i winked. and it was the total rare-winkers nightmare: the winkee fucking called me out on it. she said "did you just wink at me? are you serious?" and i had to admit that yes, i had winked at her. it was a terrible experience and i vowed to never wink again.

yet other people are winking all the damn time!

Z S, Thursday, 1 December 2011 22:00 (twelve years ago) link

is there a social history of winking out there, somewhere

nuhnuhnuh, Thursday, 1 December 2011 22:02 (twelve years ago) link

did the internet ruin winking or was it "ironic" before that

nuhnuhnuh, Thursday, 1 December 2011 22:02 (twelve years ago) link

maybe it never really was ; )

nuhnuhnuh, Thursday, 1 December 2011 22:03 (twelve years ago) link

I wink all the time, to discretely signify to people I'm with "omg what is this mess" when something funny or ridiculous presents itself.

boxedjoy, Thursday, 1 December 2011 22:03 (twelve years ago) link

ok i have to tell u that some people have a twitch, like bells pallsy

surm, Thursday, 1 December 2011 22:04 (twelve years ago) link

i wink sometimes, but i always immediately feel embarrassed

n/a, Thursday, 1 December 2011 22:04 (twelve years ago) link

I do not wink as a form of communication, but I have shut my eyes independently of one another. does that count?

superb mario bothers (crüt) (step hen faps), Thursday, 1 December 2011 22:05 (twelve years ago) link

hmmm. explain more about this shutting of the eyes independently one another.

Z S, Thursday, 1 December 2011 22:06 (twelve years ago) link

well, actually, no further info is needed, if it's not communicating anything. it's no wink, i de-clay-uh.

Z S, Thursday, 1 December 2011 22:06 (twelve years ago) link

i winked once and was immediately so self consciuos of it i had to make like i had something in my eye

the gas-cramp dilla (pomplamau5), Thursday, 1 December 2011 22:07 (twelve years ago) link

i'm so glad there will be another one-wink vote out there

Z S, Thursday, 1 December 2011 22:09 (twelve years ago) link

no i had to fake several post wink winks as part of the cover up op

the gas-cramp dilla (pomplamau5), Thursday, 1 December 2011 22:09 (twelve years ago) link

I also voted one-wink because I did try it once and felt unclean

superb mario bothers (crüt) (step hen faps), Thursday, 1 December 2011 22:10 (twelve years ago) link

lol

surm, Thursday, 1 December 2011 22:37 (twelve years ago) link

i mean i've tried to wink i think but one time i did it like in a picture and it looked like seriously i was having a seizure

surm, Thursday, 1 December 2011 22:37 (twelve years ago) link

hold on, don't be trying to backpedal and say you've tried to wink, coming across like you're not a winker. you're a Sometimes Winker!

Z S, Thursday, 1 December 2011 22:38 (twelve years ago) link

have winked & fingerpointed at least once a day every day of my life for without exaggeration the past like, 5 years no joke

wil smif, Thursday, 1 December 2011 22:39 (twelve years ago) link

i LIVE to wink

wil smif, Thursday, 1 December 2011 22:40 (twelve years ago) link

wink every day it's cool imo

Sad Banter (p much resigned to deems), Thursday, 1 December 2011 22:41 (twelve years ago) link

o m g

finger pointing is my favorite!

i swear, a handsome guy who winks and finger points, it's like u don't even have to do anything else and i'm yours

surm, Thursday, 1 December 2011 22:44 (twelve years ago) link

i once attempted a sassy broad wink at the mirror but i did see no jane russell winking back at me.

estela, Thursday, 1 December 2011 22:46 (twelve years ago) link

Consider, he says, two boys rapidly contracting the eyelids of their right eyes. In one, this is an involuntary twitch; in the other, a conspiratorial signal to a friend. The two movements are, as movements, identical; from an l-am-a-camera, “phenomenalistic” observation of them alone, one could not tell which was twitch and which was wink, or indeed whether both or either was twitch or wink. Yet the difference, however unphotographable, between a twitch and a wink is vast; as anyone unfortunate enough to have had the first taken for the second knows. The winker is communicating, and indeed communicating in a quite precise and special way: (1) deliberately, (2) to someone in particular, (3) to impart a particular message, (4) according to a socially established code, and (5) without cognizance of the rest of the company. As Ryle points out, the winker has not done two things, contracted his eyelids and winked, while the twitcher has done only one, contracted his eyelids. Contracting your eyelids on purpose when there exists a public code in which so doing counts as a conspiratorial signal is winking. That’s all there is to it: a speck of behavior, a fleck of culture, and —voilà!— a gesture.

That, however, is just the beginning. Suppose, he continues, there is a third boy, who, “to give malicious amusement to his cronies”, parodies the first boy’s wink, as amateurish, clumsy, obvious, and so on. He, of course, does this in the same way the second boy winked and the first twitched: by contracting his right eyelids. Only this boy is neither winking nor twitching, he is parodying someone else’s, as he takes it, laughable, attempt at winking. Here, too, a socially established code exists (he will “wink” laboriously, overobviously, perhaps adding a grimace — the usual artifices of the clown); and so also does a message. Only now it is not conspiracy but ridicule that is in the air. If the others think he is actually winking, his whole project misfires as completely, though with somewhat different results, as if they think he is twitching. One can go further: uncertain of his mimicking abilities, the would-be satirist may practice at home before the mirror, in which case he is not twitching, winking, or parodying, but rehearsing; though so far as what a camera, a radical behaviorist, or a believer in protocol sentences would record: he is just rapidly contracting his right eyelids like all the others. Complexities are possible, if not practically without end, at least logically so. The original winker might, for example, actually have been fake-winking, say, to mislead outsiders into imagining there was a conspiracy afoot when there in fact was not, in which case our descriptions of what the parodist is parodying and the rehearser is rehearsing of course shift accordingly. But the point is that between what Ryle calls the “thin description” of what the rehearser (parodist, winker, twitcher . . .) is doing (“rapidly contracting his right eyelids”) and the “thick description“ of what he is doing (“practicing a burlesque of a friend faking a wink to deceive an innocent into thinking a conspiracy is in motion”) lies the object of ethnography: a stratified hierarchy of meaningful structures in terms of which twitches, winks, fake-winks, parodies, rehearsals of parodies are produced, perceived, and interpreted, and without which they would not (not even the zero-form twitches, which, as a cultural category, are as much non-winks as winks are non-twitches) in fact exist, no matter what anyone did or didn’t do with his eyelids.

Like so many of the little stories Oxford philosophers like to make up for themselves, all this winking, fake-winking, burlesque-fake-winking, rehearsed-burlesque-fake-winking, may seem a bit artificial.

...

Right down at the factual base, the hard rock, insofar as there is any, of the whole enterprise, we are already explicating: and worse, explicating explications. Winks upon winks upon winks.

I never wink, disgusting mannerism that imposes emotional or moral complicity.

Fizzles, Thursday, 1 December 2011 22:48 (twelve years ago) link

I only wink at ppl I know

M. White, Thursday, 1 December 2011 22:48 (twelve years ago) link

winks on winks on winks

wil smif, Thursday, 1 December 2011 22:49 (twelve years ago) link

Consider, he says, two boys rapidly contracting the eyelids of their right eyes. In one, this is an involuntary twitch; in the other, a conspiratorial signal to a friend. The two movements are, as movements, identical; from an l-am-a-camera, “phenomenalistic” observation of them alone, one could not tell which was twitch and which was wink, or indeed whether both or either was twitch or wink. Yet the difference, however unphotographable, between a twitch and a wink is vast; as anyone unfortunate enough to have had the first taken for the second knows. The winker is communicating, and indeed communicating in a quite precise and special way: (1) deliberately, (2) to someone in particular, (3) to impart a particular message, (4) according to a socially established code, and (5) without cognizance of the rest of the company. As Ryle points out, the winker has not done two things, contracted his eyelids and winked, while the twitcher has done only one, contracted his eyelids. Contracting your eyelids on purpose when there exists a public code in which so doing counts as a conspiratorial signal is winking. That’s all there is to it: a speck of behavior, a fleck of culture, and —voilà!— a gesture.

i remember this seinfeld episode

n/a, Thursday, 1 December 2011 22:49 (twelve years ago) link

moral complicity can be fun and cool! like lying to your mom about how late your younger sister came home & winking when she turns her head--classic wink

wil smif, Thursday, 1 December 2011 22:51 (twelve years ago) link

omg such a classic 90210 wink

surm, Thursday, 1 December 2011 22:51 (twelve years ago) link

true, true. xpost

Seem to be mainly subjected to it by boorish oafs of one stripe or another co-opting me into the purblind savagery of their world view.

But there are many winks I suppose.

Fizzles, Thursday, 1 December 2011 22:54 (twelve years ago) link

elbow language, that's good too

Sad Banter (p much resigned to deems), Thursday, 1 December 2011 22:59 (twelve years ago) link

Not to mention elbowing boorish oafs in their winking eye

M. White, Thursday, 1 December 2011 23:13 (twelve years ago) link

what abt people where you cant tell if theyre winking and maybe thats the point

Cooper Chucklebutt, Thursday, 1 December 2011 23:16 (twelve years ago) link

elbow them anyway.

we may wink at venial offences, I suppose. That might be considered a good wink. Tho one person's venial offence is another's bestial transgression, so the complicity is still there, but it seems a happier sort.

Fizzles, Thursday, 1 December 2011 23:47 (twelve years ago) link

wink'er noun

1. Someone who winks

Fizzles, Thursday, 1 December 2011 23:48 (twelve years ago) link

I wink and then I make a "ck-ck" noise between my teeth and my cheek.

rusty flathead screwdriver, Thursday, 1 December 2011 23:52 (twelve years ago) link

Someone once made fun of my winking. They said I don't really close my eye but rather I shove my cheek up so my eye can't be open. I did not revise my winking technique based on this criticism.

not uplifting (Abbott), Thursday, 1 December 2011 23:55 (twelve years ago) link

I wink, but only when I also get to do the exaggerated head movement and opening of the mouth

dayo, Thursday, 1 December 2011 23:55 (twelve years ago) link

I know somebody who claims she can't wink. I think she may have had plastic surgery at one point in her life. shh!

dayo, Thursday, 1 December 2011 23:55 (twelve years ago) link

It took me until I was like 10 or 11 until I figured out how to do it! Maybe it does involve a lot of cheek movement. I don't know. It makes me feel like Popeye when I do it. I think I do it sometimes when I'm trying to scowl at people, which is probably why my students react really oddly when I try to scowl at them. "What are you doing, miss???"

not uplifting (Abbott), Thursday, 1 December 2011 23:58 (twelve years ago) link

Even Homer winks.

Fizzles, Thursday, 1 December 2011 23:58 (twelve years ago) link

But he was blind, why would he need to?

not uplifting (Abbott), Friday, 2 December 2011 00:00 (twelve years ago) link

ITT I say biased and odd things about the visually impaired.

not uplifting (Abbott), Friday, 2 December 2011 00:00 (twelve years ago) link

I sort of can't wink. I mean I can close one eye and not close the other one, but only by forcefully squeezing it shut, I can't nonchalantly close one eye, if I try my other eye closes as well, so it's not really a wink, it's someone looking like someone poked them in the eye, which doesn't really have the same effect.

Fake Eyeball, Friday, 2 December 2011 00:04 (twelve years ago) link

what if your eyeball wasn't fake?

dayo, Friday, 2 December 2011 00:05 (twelve years ago) link

good point

Fake Eyeball, Friday, 2 December 2011 00:06 (twelve years ago) link

incidentally, that wink we do when we wink at minor faults I'd imagine stems from when 'wink' could be used to mean shutting both eyes (Shakespeare use it somewhere?). Which goes to show that people were useless winkers in the olden days.

Presumably c. 18th/19th C they started getting a bit better - maybe looking a bit like Abbott, and only with the 20th C did people learn to nonchalantly drop an eyelid in a masterful fashion with otherwise discomposing their features. (there's a Whig/wink history chime/joke there - whigking? I have got a cold)

Fizzles, Friday, 2 December 2011 00:06 (twelve years ago) link

wish anus to thread

rusty flathead screwdriver, Friday, 2 December 2011 00:07 (twelve years ago) link

But he was blind, why would he need to?

Well, a nod is as good as a wink to a blind 'Oμηρος

Fizzles, Friday, 2 December 2011 00:17 (twelve years ago) link

I only wink ironically. Also finger guns. I'm super awesome.

thejenny, Friday, 2 December 2011 00:41 (twelve years ago) link

finger guns are a crucial part of my arsenal

dayo, Friday, 2 December 2011 00:58 (twelve years ago) link

http://johnbatchelorshow.com/images/-Joe-Biden-appears-on-NBC-007.jpg

thejenny, Friday, 2 December 2011 01:02 (twelve years ago) link

i think i probably wink more than i realize or would care to admit

river wolf, Friday, 2 December 2011 01:36 (twelve years ago) link

Being on the receiving end of a wink, C/D?

Categories:
a. Flirtatious
b. Conspiratorial
c. Lewd
d. Threatening
e. Bells palsy

Sandbox Jesse, Friday, 2 December 2011 01:45 (twelve years ago) link

Actually, make c. Lecherous, not Lewd.

Sandbox Jesse, Friday, 2 December 2011 01:46 (twelve years ago) link

My ex-boyfriend's son called his penis a winker.

Sandbox Jesse, Friday, 2 December 2011 01:47 (twelve years ago) link

Presumably c. 18th/19th C they started getting a bit better - maybe looking a bit like Abbott,

I'll have none of this *shoots Popeye wink-scowl*

not uplifting (Abbott), Friday, 2 December 2011 02:33 (twelve years ago) link

I think winking should involve SOME cheek movement anyway or you look like one of those blinking baby dolls where the blinking mechanism broke in one eye and it's half-closed all the time (if you are familiar with this phenomenon).

not uplifting (Abbott), Friday, 2 December 2011 02:37 (twelve years ago) link

(This is me trying to reassure myself.)
(ha ha)

not uplifting (Abbott), Friday, 2 December 2011 02:38 (twelve years ago) link

I used to but people would just ask me if I was having a seizure so I stopped

if you ain't gonna wash it, i ain't gonna eat it, Friday, 2 December 2011 02:40 (twelve years ago) link

I inexplicably could only wink my left eye until I was about 20.

Everything else is secondary, Friday, 2 December 2011 13:09 (twelve years ago) link

I can't do it convincingly tbh, feel that the rest of my face more than makes up for this deficit though and have a healthy regard for those people who can (similar to that held for those who are good whistlers)

Tony Hart land (Deep in the Tony Hart land), Friday, 2 December 2011 13:17 (twelve years ago) link

Could probably count on one hand the times I've winked intentionally

wrinklepause, Friday, 2 December 2011 13:31 (twelve years ago) link

BTW: receiving a flirtatious wink: Classicest of Classics. And receiving a lech wink is just as Dud.

Sandbox Jesse, Friday, 2 December 2011 13:32 (twelve years ago) link

i can't wink without making a very offputting scrunchy face, so, its probably best i drop a 'never wink' vote

mark_e, Friday, 2 December 2011 13:33 (twelve years ago) link

i winked and finger gunned in class today when someone finally got the right answer
i think this is the only time i wink?

recently deposed application inspector for the (league of women voters), Friday, 2 December 2011 16:59 (twelve years ago) link

http://fallibleblogma.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/jesus_wink-300x233.jpg

Z S, Friday, 2 December 2011 17:04 (twelve years ago) link

Sometimes winker.

Mr. Farmer, Friday, 2 December 2011 17:12 (twelve years ago) link

long-time listener, first-time winker

n/a, Friday, 2 December 2011 17:22 (twelve years ago) link

Who am I kidding. I wink on a fairly regular basis.

recently deposed application inspector for the (league of women voters), Friday, 2 December 2011 17:40 (twelve years ago) link

I am winking as I type this

OH NOES, Friday, 2 December 2011 17:50 (twelve years ago) link

now have 18th Dye's "Can U Wink" stuck in my head

andrew m., Friday, 2 December 2011 18:54 (twelve years ago) link

There are moments when only a wink will do the job and do it right. These are few, but precious.

Aimless, Friday, 2 December 2011 18:58 (twelve years ago) link

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

System, Sunday, 4 December 2011 00:01 (twelve years ago) link

I completely unironically winked at somebody yesterday.

thejenny, Sunday, 4 December 2011 01:51 (twelve years ago) link

trying now out of boredom i question whether i even can wink

є(٥_ ٥)э, Sunday, 4 December 2011 01:54 (twelve years ago) link

when u fingerpoint while winking, do you *snap* the point into place? i do.

Sad Banter (p much resigned to deems), Sunday, 4 December 2011 01:56 (twelve years ago) link

lol yeah

wil smif, Sunday, 4 December 2011 03:05 (twelve years ago) link

I'm never sure if I can wink properly. I'll have to test this with a partner sometime.

Sandbox Jesse, Sunday, 4 December 2011 20:17 (twelve years ago) link

try winking at random strangers in a bar or in the street and ask them if you're doing it right

Julie Lagger, Sunday, 4 December 2011 20:22 (twelve years ago) link

poll results in 18 minutes

you could cut the tension with a knife!!

Z S, Sunday, 4 December 2011 23:43 (twelve years ago) link

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

System, Monday, 5 December 2011 00:01 (twelve years ago) link

63 votes in a sandbox poll o_O might be just me but sandbox still feels like such a pioneering venture for me. It's like Mission to Mars. I miss all the ilx pals that didn't make it. Surprised to actually see 63 people here (of whom 53 sometimes or frequently or one time winked!)

lebateauivre, Monday, 5 December 2011 00:11 (twelve years ago) link

too cuet

lebateauivre, Monday, 5 December 2011 00:18 (twelve years ago) link

without a holster too

lebateauivre, Monday, 5 December 2011 00:18 (twelve years ago) link

omg I want that shirt

dayo, Monday, 5 December 2011 00:23 (twelve years ago) link

found it at a goodwill in 93 or so?
wore the hell out of it in college
put it into the clothing archives for safekeeping
busted it out earlier this year for a airplane related special occasion

my favorite tshirt of all time possibly
no idea where it came from!

recently deposed application inspector for the (league of women voters), Monday, 5 December 2011 00:28 (twelve years ago) link

ll, you should take up winking as a signature gesture, that is a marvellous wink, you've got the wink factor.

estela, Monday, 5 December 2011 08:14 (twelve years ago) link

And the teeth factor!

rusty flathead screwdriver, Monday, 5 December 2011 18:16 (twelve years ago) link

this thread reminded me that there are a few times during "inception" when leo dicaprio is sitting down and talking to people, and mid-sentence he winks in this unconscious, twitchy kind of way. it annoyed me cuz it made me think "i bet leo dicaprio winks like that all the time irl."

reddening, Monday, 5 December 2011 19:10 (twelve years ago) link

i winked today once for real at a person (a you-know-what-i'm-talking-about) and once at the highway while i was singing an alice cooper song in my car.

recently deposed application inspector for the (league of women voters), Monday, 5 December 2011 19:59 (twelve years ago) link

Under My Wheels?

rusty flathead screwdriver, Tuesday, 6 December 2011 14:43 (twelve years ago) link

I sincerely hope it was!

Tony Hart land (Deep in the Tony Hart land), Tuesday, 6 December 2011 14:45 (twelve years ago) link

I have the thing where if I try to wink that eye just stays shut. Not forever or anything but longer than standard appropriate wink-length.

cat fancy, Tuesday, 6 December 2011 15:01 (twelve years ago) link

Pretty sure it was "Billion Dollar Babies", sorry to disappoint

recently deposed application inspector for the (league of women voters), Tuesday, 6 December 2011 15:25 (twelve years ago) link

http://29.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lvg76av7fg1qauuneo1_500.png

mookieproof, Wednesday, 7 December 2011 18:07 (twelve years ago) link

i wink all the time. i would have voted in this poll if i hadn't been too busy winking and having multiple orgasms every second.

souslatablelaplage, Thursday, 8 December 2011 02:40 (twelve years ago) link

whoa, i'm really sorry about your condition!

Z S, Thursday, 8 December 2011 04:08 (twelve years ago) link


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