celebrating

The Thwisher
(“Thwish and Make A Wish!”)
I selected an inelegant container (two plastic champagne
glasses taped together with plastic tape) because they are
cheap and readily available. I tried various noisemakers inside,
used dried corn for a while because of its holy associations,
but B-B’s of the sort used in B-B guns have a sharper
ring. If you cannot find these, you can use small round beans
such as mung or the small white ones, The harder the better.
Here’s what you need to make two for ‘stereo’ use:
Four plastic (‘crystal’ quality) champagne glasses (not the
‘flutes’) with circular bottom pieces to hold them upright
(available at almost any grocery store – see illustration)
I prefer the pitch I get from the champagne glasses because
it approximates the sound I used to hear all the time (tinnitus)
and which I identify as the sound of my nervous system. I say
‘used to’ because, believe it or not, Thwishing has cured me!
So for those of you who suffer from ringing in your ears, you
may want to try different resonating shapes until you find the
one that duplicates the pitch you hear (plastic wine glasses,
perhaps).
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