Zeller Cellar Word Fun #9

One great thing about going to the cellar in summer is it’s so cool down here. Let’s open the Silly Sayings box this time. You pick. Aha! What a good pick. “That tickled my funny bone.” This Silly Saying means something or someone makes a person laugh.

Have you ever hit the inside of your elbow and felt a tingling or prickly kind of dull pain? That’s your funny bone! It doesn’t really hurt as much as it feels weird.

Your funny bone isn’t a bone at all. Running down the inside part of your elbow is a nerve called the ulnar nerve. The ulnar nerve lets your brain know about feelings in your fourth and fifth fingers. It’s also one of the nerves that controls some movement of your hand.

(from kidshealth.org)

Most of the ulnar nerve is protected by muscle or fat. However, the section of this nerve right behind the bony bump of your elbow is exposed. There the nerve is protected only by some tissue (called the cubital tunnel), but it’s not protected by fat or muscle. So when you hit your funny bone it hurts a bit and doesn’t tickle or make you laugh. This is the longest section of somewhat exposed nerve in your entire body!

(From WebMD What to Know About Your Funny Bone by Dayva Segal Medically Reviewed by Dany Paul Baby, MD on May 04, 2022)

Fun things to do

1) See if you can locate your funny bone.

2) Gather some sheets of paper. Put the short ends together and tape them to make the papers as long as your arm. Now put the papers on a table or on the floor.

Rest your arm from your shoulder to the tip of your hand along the paper with the palm of your hand facing toward you. With your free hand draw on outline of your arm and hand or have someone else draw the outline for you.

Once you finish the outline, fill in the details of your hand and arm. You can use different colors to add things like

—the ulnar, median and radial nerves

—the arteries

—the humerus, radius and ulna bones

—the lines in the palm of your hand

—the lines of your fingers where they bend. You may have to bend your fingers to see where you could draw the lines   [Note: in a future Zeller Cellar adventure we’ll explore the hand bones.]