What's your talent?

Everyone, it seems, has talents. But some people, however, have a talent, and then they have a talent. It's like how everyone is special, but some of us are more special than others.


My mom is a talented artist and writer. She makes a mean meatloaf and speaks Italian. Those are her talents.

Her talent, however, is being able to tell the time without actually knowing the time. And when I say that she can tell time, I mean you can wake her up at 4:07 AM and she would ask you why on earth you woke her up at 4:07 AM. She's just that good.

Dan is a speed reader. He's done with the page by the time I'm done with the third sentence (really). He's an excellent cook, a cell phone specs expert, and a great writer. He once wrote a paper where he wrote that some random thing was just like "the rusting hulks of Bethlehem Steel". I told him that was the dumbest metaphor I had ever heard. Then he got a perfect score on the writing portion of the GRE. He won't let me forget it.

His talent is his hearing. He has Superman ears, I'm not even kidding. He can actually hear someone a few aisles down in Wal-Mart whispering. It's a good thing I'm a very quiet person, otherwise who knows what he'd be taking in.

I am a talented Grace. I have talents in many things, including being Grace and speaking Grace. Aside from that, I am a great writer, sing well, and have a good palate for non-Sysco food.

I have two talents.

I have an uncanny ability to recognize almost anyone I have seen before, even if I'm only seen them once, by the back of the head. Like, I saw this person once before, they have their back to me, and I'm like, yep, I totally know who that is. This actually creeps me out quite a bit, so don't worry, you're not alone here.

I am also able to usually get the gist of most text written in a foreign language, as long as it uses the ABCs we all know and love. I find it very easy to recognize patterns in language, so I can often figure out the meaning by noticing repetitions, Anglicized words, etc. It's like solving one giant cryptogram. I especially like trying to trace surnames back to their place of origin, for some reason. Maybe that's why I was fascinated by telephone books when I was in high school.

What's your strange talent? Please share, so we can all back away from you in terror!

*edited to add damning evidence*

Apparently, the PubMed article on Asperger syndrome actually lists phone books as an example of a "narrow area of interest". This is terrifying, yet telling.