I am going to estimate I was in high school when Magic Eye became kind of a big thing.

It was something of a fad - it was everywhere. Even an episode of ‘Seinfeld’ - I think it was the Thanksgiving episode, where Mr. Pitt is supposed to hold a balloon in the parade? Or maybe I’m mixing plots. Regardless, he’s in awe of the image when he’s finally able to see it.

In the Daily News, Magic Eye became a part of the Sunday comics page…and now that I think about it I am pretty sure the Boston Globe’s comics page had it for a number of years.

But I never saw why the Magic Eye was such a big deal - I was never able to make it work.

An image on the wall, one in the newspaper - whether I had to move myself slowly backwards or slowly move the paper away from my face - I was never able to see anything change with the image.

But the last Sunday I was in New York, at my parents’ house they had the Daily News and I was sitting there idly and I figured why not, I’d give it another go.

And I saw the 3-D image.

It was amazing.

It wasn’t just a cheap-o 3-D image either - it was a really layered image.

I couldn’t believe it.

I immediately wondered why after so many years I was able to do this and I developed a theory.

Back in March I told you that it had been a year since my LASIK surgery. I am not going to pretend that I understand all of the science behind this, but if you’re looking for an uncommon denominator in this unbalanced equation (I’m not going to pretend I understand math metaphors either), well, back when Magic Eye first became popular, I wore glasses.

Now, when I got Magic Eye to work, I do not wear glasses.

I had definitely tried it all those years ago with glasses, without glasses, while wearing my contact lenses…maybe my eyes were just too in between to full grasp the 3-D image.

But I was able to see it now, and it was really thrilling.

Now I understand how Mr. Pitt felt in that episode of ‘Seinfeld.’

And I think I have to find another Magic Eye to make sure this one wasn’t a fluke.