Sounds like it came from
Sounds like it came from someone who wears bowties.
Found out that the
Found out that the rattleback top exhibits the same kind of behavior (perhaps the same) in that it has a preferred direction of spin and will stop spinning in one direction and start in the other, sometimes even if started in either direction it will reverse spin.
Does not seem to be any generally accepted theory for that behavior.
That said, I need to install the smoothing thingy.