My mother’s best advice: learn to raise one eyebrow at the world | Life and style
When I was about 10, my mother mentioned something to me about the advantage of being able to raise one eyebrow. I can’t remember quite how she put it – I think she described it as an actor’s trick, a useful skill for conveying inner thoughts. We both spent a couple of minutes trying to lift one eyebrow without the other following it. Neither of us could manage it. It was harder than Mr Spock made it look, and possibly not so much an acting skill as a genetic predisposition, like being able to roll your tongue. I don’t think my mother meant this as advice – she didn’t expressly say, “If you want to get anywhere in this life, you gotta be able to raise one eyebrow.” But for some reason, on this occasion, I took her assertion to heart. I spent hours practising raising one eyebrow in the mirror. It’s an immensely frustrating business, trying to isolate the muscles needed to hoist one brow from all the others controlling your forehead. Had I …
