NOW YOU SEE IT, NOW YOU WON’T

You had to look fast to see that something was missing from the rapid-fire opening montage-credit sequence for NBC’s new Tuesday night series, “Stingray.�

Still, the producer was caught off guard by our suspicion that there was something anatomically incorrect with the famed Vitruvian man (see adjoining; the figure drawn by Leonar do da Vinci and proportioned in a circle and a square by the Roman architect Vitruvius) which, uh, flashes by in the opening.

“You mean, something’s missing?� asked Edward Vaughan. There was a pause. “Is this a joke phone call?�

He was assured of the sincerity of the query. He said, “It hadn’t dawned on me. . . . Let me call you back.�

He did--after running a tape of the sequence in slow motion.

“You’re right--it’s not there! It appears that whoever tampered with that drawing (the opening had been sub-contracted to a small production company) gave the man a kind of papyrus covering over the area in question.�