It’s one of the truisms of life: at the moment the I.T. person or repair technician shows up in response to your call, the problem that prompted your call suddenly refuses to repeat itself. So it was today with my call to Time Warner Cable of NY & NJ.

For weeks I have been annoyed by increasingly bad audio problems on the Fox HD channel. The audio cuts out constantly and erratically, making it impossible to follow the dialogue in some of the shows that I watch and/or record. It has gotten so bad during the last two weeks that I have been forced to turn on closed captioning while watching 24, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, and Dollhouse.

It’s not my cable converter box; other shows record just fine in HD at the same time the Fox shows are cutting out.

So I called customer service a short time ago. After a long wait on hold, the CSR asks me to go turn on my TV. I do so. And of course, when I switch to Fox HD, it’s on commercial break; for reasons I don’t really understand, the commercials always sound fine. When the Fox 5 news returns, however, it also sounds fine. The CSR explains that if the channel isn’t glitching while she is on the phone with me, there is nothing for her to trouble-shoot.  She makes a note in my account file, and we hang up.

Minutes later I return to the living room to turn off the TV — and the audio is cutting out on the Fox 5 news.

The loud slapping sound heard ’round the world at that moment was my palm striking my forehead.