That is EXACTLY what my wife would say to me pulling this kind of stunt. Unfortunately, she does not wear glasses, otherwise I probably would have done it a million times by now.
The little cushion at the very front made me think it was some sort of sewing device. The pins and needles are stored in the basin and the piece being worked on is pinned to the cushion. That way everything you need is right in front of you.
I would not be surprise if MIT has already answered this question. A group of students did a study on the effectiveness of tin foil hats. They used three styles, bowl, cone, and Roman helmet-shape.
I do not remember which one, but one of the styles actually enhanced the radio waves of a certain wave range that is currently in reserve by the US government for future uses. The students’ conclusion was the US government started the tin foil hat theory in a fit if of reverse psychology to encourage their use in order to secretly test the radio waves “held in reserve.”
We had to give our youngest a stack of post-it notes to mark errors and typos to hand in later so he would stop interrupting the teacher.