I hope you can help me with this one–most of my friends think I’m crazy. I am convinced my physical presence has the ability to make streetlights burn out. On an average night walking through a parking lot, at least one or two streetlights will go out when I approach, then regain their luminous state after I have passed. Could there be some sort of electrochemical imbalance in my body that causes this to happen? Am I surrounded by some strange magnetic field? This happens only with streetlights, not with lights in my home or public buildings. Is there a scientific explanation, am I looney, or do I just pay too much attention to streetlights? –Matthew Davis, San Jose, California; similarly from Neal Duncan, Washington, D.C.
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
Nothing personal, Matthew, but our default explanation for things like this is that you are looney. However, on investigation (we had little Ed bring it up on talk radio), we are starting to think there’s more to this than meets the eye.
And then there was a call from Joe. Joe claimed that when he and a friend walked down a street in Chicago once, eight or nine of the dozen or so streetlights they passed went out as they approached, then relighted after they’d gone by. While subsequent forays into the city have not been so unenlightening, Joe says he will sometimes put out two or three lights in the course of a stroll. Though he can’t do so at will. Hmm, said little Ed.
Seeing as how we’re not making much progress, we’re faced with several choices: (1) Give up in frustration. We’d sooner die. (2) Conduct six weeks of in-depth investigation. Right. Like we get paid by the hour for this. (3) Fob the job off on the Teeming Millions. The very thing. We invite reports from persons who believe they douse more streetlights than can be explained by mere happenstance. We are particularly interested in hearing from people who can do this at will, without the aid of wire cutters, slingshots, etc. Include phone number or e-mail Ed at ezotti@merle.acns.nwu.edu. Perhaps nothing will come of this. But you never know.
