Earlier today, Jesse Walker posted a link to the FilmFlam email list to an article about how scientists have found that people often tend to blink as a group at particular places when watching movies or TV shows. The seemingly inconsequential act of blinking causes a viewer to miss a split second of the plot, which “means moviegoers who sit through a 150-minute film have their eyes shut for up to 15 minutes.” So people subconsciously save some of their blinks for moments that they instinctually think they can afford to miss briefly.

Later in the day, I responded on the list that this bugged me as a kid:

For a while when I was a kid, my OCD latched on to worrying about blinking during movies & TV shows. Had I really watched a movie, or just sizable portions of a movie? Knowing that I wouldn’t be able to stop blinking entirely, I recall trying to just periodically close one eye and then the other so that I’d never entirely miss even a fraction of a second — but it didn’t take too long for me to decide I was being ridiculous, and so I stopped worrying about it, cold turkey, and began once again blinking with abandon…

Then, just a few minutes ago, tonight’s TiVo’d episode of The Colbert Report was drawing to a close when Stephen Colbert closed the show with this gag:

If those of you watching at home want more show, try watching this episode again without blinking. You get at least 3 percent more programming, and the added bonus of seeing all those bright white spots.

Now, if only one of my Malcolm Gladwell books were to fall mysteriously off a shelf, or something, the day would be complete.