Um...I Think I Like My Way Better

I have a nearly foolproof method for stopping hiccups: Before the fifth or sixth hic--before the bout has really taken control--I say out loud, "I do not believe in hiccups, therefore I cannot have them." This almost always works for me. I learned it from my father-in-law, for whom it also almost always works. According to my husband, we are the only people for whom this works.

Whether or not the "belief treatment" for hiccups works for anyone besides me and Jim's dad, however, I'll still stick with it over this poor man in Columbia who tried to scare the hiccups out of his nephew with decidedly tragic results:

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) - A man in northern Colombia tried to startle his nephew from a bout of the hiccups by pointing a gun at him, but accidentally pulled the trigger and killed him, police said Tuesday.

The distraught uncle then turned the Smith & Wesson .38 special on himself and committed suicide, said Lieut. Orlando Valderrama, a policeman in Barranquilla, 700 kilometres north of Bogota.

Not good. Not good at all.