About Cecil’s report on shimmy eyes, I have to say I don’t think there’s anything with shimmying eyes. I’ve been doing it since I was in grade school. It’s a weird sensation. I used to do it when I was embarrassed to avoid looking someone in the eyes. It would blur everyone’s face. I didn’t know my eyes were moving.
Then one day someone said “What the heck are you doing with your eyes!”. I looked myself in the mirror and thought “Cool!”. My eyes get tired when I do it to long, though.
It’s just a quirk. I’m sure everyone could come up with something weird they can do, like bending fingers 90 degrees backward, pointing their feet behind them, putting their feet behind their head…but enough about myself
Yep, just when I thought I was special, everybody can do the vibrating eyes trick. Next time you’re in the parlor doing it, try this one. Cross your eyes, keep one pointed at the bridge of your nose and the other do a http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_262.html loop with the other as the one stays fixed.
Another eye-shimmier checking in here. We should start a club or something.
Hey Momotaro, are you saying that you can actually see your eyes wiggling in the mirror? I’ve tried, but when I’m doing it everything’s too out of focus for me to be able to see the effect. Between that, the fact that (until now) I believed I was the only person in the world able to do this, and the fact that I’ve never owned a video camera, I’ve never had any way of knowing what this actually looks like when I’m doing it.
I do it, too. Out of boredom as a kid, I’d even cross my eyes and then do it. (Two for the price of one!) I can also “swing” my eyes (so that my vision seems to swing from left to right, like a swing) but I’ve never had someone watch me do that one to see how it looks to others.
I never knew it could be a bad thing! Never even considered it. I also have a bit of an inward turning eye (it’s barely noticeable) so I now wonder if somehow the two are related.
