If you don't believe me, try it.

Today I clinically tested a phenomenon I've read about but not specifically discerned. Well, I mean, if you can stretch the definition of "clinical" to include a llama pen next to a farmers' market just off Connecticut Route 1.

It is, apparently, a feature of Benson's syndrome (the visual variant of Alzheimer's) to experience left hemi-neglect. Ok, ok...I like using these medical terms...it heightens my dork factor. Here's what it means: Due to relatively more severe damage to the left hemisphere of the brain, one might witness perception of things-to-the-right (or, in some cases, function of body parts on the right) to be more impaired.

Here's how I noticed: For some reason--today specifically--due to the winding nature of country roads in maritime Connecticut, I began to suspect that when I said "look at that gnarly barn on the left!" there was a slim chance Jeff would look and notice, but when I said "check out the star-spangle onion dome on the right!" the odds shrunk to zip. I tried testing by pointing out houses and such to one side or other, but in a moving car almost anything is apt to be missed, and the test was inconclusive.

THEN (in an otherwise fruitless hunt for a vineyard open for tastings on Monday--note: Connecticut stops on Mondays,) we pulled into Bishop's Orchard Farm Market (Guilford, CT) and bumbled into the proof I will now describe. In a large fenced enclosure, next to the market, lived 4 or 5 llamas, a couple of goats, and a sheep which resembled a goat. We approached a side, roughly 50 feet long, to have a look and see if we couldn't get spit at. (We couldn't.) About 5 feet from the side of the enclosure (on the inside,) stood a hay trough from which the animals could munch. It was double-sided, and situated--relative to the fence--at a 45 degree angle. (draw this: long fence, trough at 45°, angle opening to the right.) So, straight on, or standing to the right, you could see the road-facing side of the trough, but to see the backside, you had to move to the left.

As it happened, there was a small goat pigging up the backside of the trough by sitting in it. Yeah, he was just totally sitting in the trough, and I attempted to point him out to Jeff. No dice. Jeff couldn't seem him. We moved to the right of the trough, such that the trough was now on our left. "See the trough?" Yes. "See the llama eating hay out of the trough?" Yes. Now we moved along the fence so that the trough was on our right, and we could (ostensibly) have a view of the other side. "See the trough?" "You mean here?" said Jeff pointing at the fence. "You mean here?" said Jeff pointing at the small shed in the center of the enclosure. He could not, whatever I tried, look at the trough when it was on his right. Hence, he could not see the goat lounging in it. I tried several times. He couldn't. Case closed.