Have you ever had a bad case of the hiccups?

When I was young, whenever I had the hiccups, people would say it was a sign that I was growing. Well, considering I am pretty short in stature, I'm not sure how true that assumption was. Hiccups always seem to come as a surprise. Whenever it happens, I find myself racking my brain for home remedies to make them go away.

Why do we get hiccups? What should you do to get rid of them, especially if it happens when you are speaking?

Here is a great article I ran across in The Chicago Tribune titled "How to Get Rid of Hiccups."