Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2008 February 24

Does David Yost, the actor who played Billy the Blue Ranger in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, have impaired vision in real life? When I watched the show he wore glasses early in the series but eventually quit wearing them so I am wondering does he have impaired vision in real life. Heegoop, 24 February 2008 (UTC)

The glasses that David Yost wore for his role as Billy Cranston, at least, were just for effect, and were not correcting his vision.

If you look straight-on at the face of someone wearing glasses, their face as seen through their glasses will appear narrower than their actual face if the person is nearsighted, and wider than their actual face if the person is farsighted. A person’s face as seen through their glasses might appear the same width if their glasses are only correcting for astigmatism, but that’s not very common. The main places one sees glasses that aren’t correcting for nearsightedness or farsightedness are on photos of models at the optometrist’s office, who are showing off how good some brand of glasses look, or on an actor, who’s wearing them as a symbolic shorthand to mean “my character is smart” or “my character is a nerd”.

If you look at this picture of David Yost in his role of Billy Cranston, you can see that his face as seen through his glasses is not narrower or wider than his face actually is. In particular, if you look at his face as seen through the very outside edge of the lens over his left eye (which is on the right side of the image), you can see a tiny bit (about a half dozen pixels) of the hair in front of his ear, which lines up horizontally exactly with the hair in front of his ear as seen outside of his glasses. The conclusion is that those glasses are not correcting for nearsightedness or for farsightedness, and are basically being worn because the character is supposed to be a nerd.

The above does not mean, however, that David Yost does not have impaired vision. He may very well be wearing contact lenses behind those optically useless glasses. It may seem odd for him not to instead just wear real glasses that actually match his prescription, but it actually makes sense. People look better when wearing optically useless glasses than they do when wearing real glasses, precisely because of the effect of a person’s face looking a bit too narrow or too wide as seen through real glasses. So by wearing contact lenses in combination with optically useless glasses, he can have his vision corrected, while still looking as good as possible considering that his character has to wear glasses. In short, whether the character of Billy Cranston wears glasses is completely independent of whether David Yost has impaired vision. I don’t know whether or not David Yost has impaired vision, but Billy Cranston wearing glasses is no indication either way. MrRedact (talk) 14:42, 25 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

P.S.: I’d also add “my character is ugly” to the list of meanings that glasses are often used to symbolize. In Hollywood, a theoretically “ugly” woman is often a gorgeous actress, who’s wearing glasses to show that the character is “ugly.” MrRedact (talk) 15:31, 25 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Hm. I've seen eyeglasses used as a sort of fetish object, representing the naughty schoolteacher .. ah, here's an example, Playboy's Miss June 1981. (Behind her is something resembling a fax machine, and the Wall Street Journal spills out of a briefcase at her feet.) —Tamfang (talk) 07:14, 26 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

MrRedact's answer is spot on, and it surprises me how many people don't know about the refraction (even those that wear glasses!). I always have people ask me why my eyes are so small, and they are surprised that it is actually my glasses. The ignorance goes further in some movies. For example, how does the old lady at the start of Ratatouille aim a shotgun and watch a TV across the room with glasses that are obviously made for reading? I've never seen the refraction characteristic of glasses for nearsightness in CG movies - even though the characters are obviously near-sighted. 206.252.74.48 (talk) 20:21, 26 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The melody of the song "I Guess That's Why They Call It the Blues" has always sounded very odd to me, unlike any other song I can think of. Is it in some weird key or something? -- Mwalcoff (talk) 13:16, 24 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

After listening to it on the article, it sounds like another song is being sung underneath it. Maybe like Joni Mitchell[1] John picks his own key. Julia Rossi (talk) 09:06, 26 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Who named him ol blue eyes? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.251.49.133 (talk) 15:15, 24 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I don't have a name, but presumably whoever was in charge of marketing Sinatra's comeback in 1973. He doesn't seem to have been called Ol' Blue Eyes before that. -88.109.139.29 (talk) 15:01, 26 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I can't indentify from which film is [Removed link because Corvix says it is a link to porn, not the claimed image. I believe Corvix. Skittle (talk) 23:30, 24 February 2008 (UTC)] of Helena Bonham Carter. Can someone tell me from which film it is? David Pro (talk) 16:07, 24 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The above link goes to a porn site, and not to a Bonham Carter image. Corvus cornix_talk 21:29, 24 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The above URL is a little flakey, I’m guessing perhaps because it’s to a jpg, not to an html page. It looks like the first time you try to click to it in a web session, the server does a redirect to the home page of the web site, which specializes in nude and sexual pictures of celebrities. However, it looks like the URL always works if you copy and paste it into the address bar. Another way to access the image is to go to this web page. The (non-nude) image in question is the one in which Helena is in a long white dress, surrounded by candles. You can get a bigger version of the image by clicking on the image in the above web page, which will take you to the jpg that doesn’t always work as a direct link. I don’t recognize what movie the image is from. MrRedact (talk) 23:45, 24 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Oops, Skittle removed the direct jpg link. If you want to go to the image directly, which is a non-nude, non-porn image, it works if you copy and paste the following URL into your web browser: http://www.celebrity-gallery.com/content/pictures/HelenaBonhamCarter/helena7.jpg . MrRedact (talk) 23:52, 24 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

It appears to be a rather unique image of her. There is no matching image on a Google image search for "Helena Bonham Carter." I wouldn't assume, by the way, that the image is from a film. It's clearly very posed, looking more like part of a pictorial that might accompany a magazine interview, for example, rather than a movie still. MrRedact (talk) 00:47, 25 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Does anyone have an idea what this is or where it is from? Thanks!--El aprendelenguas (talk) 22:56, 24 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

That's so sweet! It reminds me of a showtune like (but likely isn't - I'm just filling in until the music meister turns up) We're Off to See the Wizard from The Wizard of Oz. Julia Rossi (talk) 09:37, 25 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

For some reason it reminded me of the ending of the theme from Dennis the Menace (1959 TV series). After hearing it a second time, the resemblance is very weak. --tcsetattr (talk / contribs) 20:57, 27 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I'm sure this isn't it, but every time I listen to it it reminds me of a rhythmic pattern that Percy Grainger almost made his own. I can't identify it as one of his melodies, though. -- JackofOz (talk) 08:12, 28 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]