Body Chemistry: Rusty Guitars and Magneto Boy

It's amazing to me how everyone is unique. Everyone has their own DNA and their own characteristics. On the down side, some people have bizarre problems that develop from their uniqueness. This can be manifested in allergies or reactions. But sometimes it's more a matter of how things react to people.

Here are two examples:

1. The rusty guitar player. When I worked at Donelson Music Center in high school, there was a particular guy who used to come in to shop for guitars. Everyone likes to pick them up and fiddle around with them. (Some people like to plug in and play really loud, really bad versions of "Walk This Way" for 3 hours straight that make me start to hate guitars, but that's another story...)

This guy had some kind of really weird body chemistry. We noticed it because some of our guitars started suddenly appearing with really rusty strings on them. I took personal responsibility for keeping the guitars in good shape, so this disturbed me. Many of the ones rusting I had recently restrung. We started noticing the common factor was that whatever guitar this guy played, by the next days the strings were completely green and rusted. We felt really bad about it, because he was a cool guy, but the next time he came in, we had to ask him to stop touching our instruments.

2. Magneto boy. I don't know if this is as much of a body chemistry thing, but somehow, this kid messes up every computer he touches unless the teacher uses something to ground the static coming from his body. Who knows where he is picking it up, or if it is somehow coming from himself. He's messed up about 12 computers and an X-Box. Now if only he could focus that energy to control metal... :-)

Engadget had this post about the kid, and I found it really interesting.