Comment by Fnoord

> Shaking things often fixes problems.

Oh, indeed. I remember my father, a disabled former engineer, having an expensive McIntosh audio system. He was always fiddling with it, fixing it, applying anti oxidation spray, etc. My parents decided the large wall furniture (in which the audio system was, together with books, TV, etc) was to be replaced.

It turned out that during the giant relocation one of the compartments of his system (IIRC it was the tuner, but it might have been the pre-amplifier or amplifier as well) had become broken. My father, who was nearly blind, made it his project to repair the installation. He was failing, and my parents discussed sending the broken part of the audio system back for repair which would set us back a large sum of money.

Then, at some point, there was an earthquake of 5,5 on the Richter scale. (Having just looked it up the epicenter being 5,8 it was the largest earthquake ever registered in The Netherlands.)

The damage: a photo of a family member, protected by glass, had fallen and the glass was broken. In our wall, a rift appeared. Many things just weren't on their correct place. The radio? Ah, the radio. It worked again when it was put on!!