A while back you put down an anonymous writer who asked, “How come when you hold a chopstick in your teeth and pluck it, the TV screen shimmies? Nothing else shimmies.” You ascribed the effect to heavy metal poisoning. Well, Cece, I think you dismissed the question prematurely, without trying it. This effect does occur and results from a vibration of the eyes (connected to the tooth bone) at a frequency near that of the vertical scan rate on the TV, producing a visible modulation effect of shimmying, speaking vernacularly. The other objects in the visual field may appear slightly fuzzy, but they don’t shimmy. Chopsticks are fine, but if you want to see the effect more clearly, vibrate your jaw or head with an electric vibrator using different speeds while viewing TV. Hope this shakes you. Find that letter and apologize. –Jim Salter, Dallas
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I hope you can explain something. I was looking in the mirror the other day without wearing my glasses, which I occasionally use because I’m nearsighted. I noticed that things that were far away, even when reflected in the mirror, were blurry. When I put my glasses on and looked in the mirror again, everything was in focus. I found this strange. I thought everything should have been in focus without my glasses, because the mirror was close to my eyes and so (I thought) were the reflections. I guess that’s why people don’t use mirrors for vision correction, huh? –Kirsten Munson, Santa Barbara, California
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): illustration/Slug Signorino.
