OK, this is a bit of a random question but this seems like the place I might get a response...

A long time ago when I was a young girl and a big hiccup sufferer I remember watching an episode of Columbo in which someone (could even have been Columbo himself) gets the hiccups. Columbo masterfully asks for a glass of water and describes an infallible method for curing the hiccups involving holding your breath and drinking water (in my head it's a 4 sips, hold your breath for 4, repeat until you have to breathe although I might be suffering a false memory effect). Over time this has become my default hiccup curing method which I proudly tout as "The Columbo Method".

I'm starting to wonder if I'm imagining this though, or whether, if there is such an event, that I'm remembering the method correctly as I've never again seen the episode.

Any ideas? Which episode is it? What is the actual method?

hi brit!
well, you're close.
this occurs in a stitch in crime.
columbo is actually having a sneezing fit. marsha dalton, sharon martin's roommate, has a home remedy for this. she has him drink 7 sips of water, in cadence (rhythmically), and then tells him to hold his breath for 4 seconds. and it works.

i don't see how this could possibly help someone who can't stop sneezing. but i'm sure it would help for hiccups.

It just occeured to me that that part of the scene has a sort of improvised look to it (not because it doesn't sound like a real remedy, just improvised in a general way). I wonder if Peter Falk or Nita Talbot thought that up along the way.

Aw. I'm so disappointed. Well, I was close enough. I shall continue to declare my method the Columbo Method. It works very well and was inspired by if not directly from the show

brit you were definitely close! i had to put the dvd in to check. i also thought that it was hiccups that columbo had.
you keep calling it the columbo method!

I don't remember the episode but I use the method all the time. It is 7 sips of water on swallowing the 7th sip take a breath and hold for 7 seconds. After 7 seconds let breath out slow.

I use this all the time and for some reason never forgot it.

It always works!