# Minor, nearly useless superpowers you think you have **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 25, 2005, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minor-nearly-useless-superpowers-you-think-you-have/296252 "2005-03-25T20:37:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![moes\_lotion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ba0ec/32.png) [@moes\_lotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moes_lotion)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2005, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minor-nearly-useless-superpowers-you-think-you-have/296252/61 "2005-03-27T06:43:30Z")
Don’t know if this is counts as a minor super-power, but it can be useful. When waiting on the platform for a subway train to arrive, I can sense where to stand so that I will be in front of a set of doors when the train arrives. I don’t travel by subway that often, but my predictive powers work at about the 90% level, and don’t depend on my having used the station before. I have only tested this with one particular subway system, so I don’t know how universal this power is. ---
**Author:** ![Nunavut\_Boy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e95f7d/32.png) [@Nunavut\_Boy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nunavut_Boy)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2005, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minor-nearly-useless-superpowers-you-think-you-have/296252/62 "2005-03-27T16:08:41Z")
-I can belch at will. I’m not talking little “burp, burp” kinda things either, more like wall-shaking, seismic-equipment-registering BELCHES. -I can do a Chewbacca impression so well that when left on people’s answering machines, they ask, “what’d you, put the phone up to the TV?” -In a game of Scene It! I can play Me vs. Everybody else (10 people or more) and kick their asses. (I’m not always beating the same people) -I have a near-photographic memory for trivia. I forget important things easily (I sometimes don’t even remember what day it is) but trivia seems to stick. -I can play the guitar like frickin’ Jimi Hendrix (not really) when I’m at home, but put me on stage and my suck level increases by a factor of 10. (and it’s not stage fright) -I have the ability to schmooze with anyone who I don’t find morally repugnant (and I could probably do it then, too, but choose not to) -oh, yeah: I’m modest, too! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![nocturnal\_tick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/3d9bf3/32.png) [@nocturnal\_tick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nocturnal_tick)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2005, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minor-nearly-useless-superpowers-you-think-you-have/296252/63 "2005-03-27T19:25:40Z")
When I worked literally across the street I used to have traffic controlling powers in that, on a major road\* I could literally walk out of work and across to my house without stopping. I’m not just talking about having enough space between cars to cross, the road would literally empty the second I approached it. [size=1]I say major road but I live in the country. It is still the only road in twenty miles to go to a major city and it has constant traffic.[size] I can also finish other people’s sentences, not just on obvious things but really obscure references. For example I was on the computer while mum was watching telly. She said something about a guy being cute. I told her it was Benjamin Bratt without seeing or hearing anything. And I was right. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2005, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minor-nearly-useless-superpowers-you-think-you-have/296252/64 "2005-03-27T19:53:09Z")
> [@Case Sensitive](#): > > I can do crossword puzzles in my head. I also read faster than anyone I’ve ever met. I’m still waiting for an evil genius to plant a bomb in the city which will explode in 90 minutes, the location of which can only be discovered by reading his cryptic and novel-length manifesto, and which once found can only be disarmed by solving a sequential series of verbal puzzles. Sadly, until that day I’m reduced to bugging the hell out of people by solving their puzzles out loud over their shoulders. > > My sister has a related power, in that she can always solve other people’s crosswords, but never her own. Case, would you wear a cape if you were CrossWorder? And I totally sympathize with your sister. **My Super Powers In A Nutshell:** [ul] [li]Openly boycotting a Major Commerical Business will send their profits through the roof.[/li][li]Seeing the coming Trends In Fashion and Denouncing them as ‘Stupid and Vaccuous’ will make them all the more cool.[/li][li]I can pack for a trip (2 day-21 days) the night before. ( I should get a Nobel Prize for this.)[/li][li]The line I pick will always have a need for a price check on the person ahead of me.[/li][/ul] On The Flip Side: [ul] [li]I have an uncanny ability to predict trends and inventions that need to be made up and BANG there they are…3 years later. Ok, it’s not a bang.[/li][li]I can predict the weather with my sinuses.[/li][li]I can tell which girls in my son’s first grade class are going to be cock-teases later on.[/li][/ul] ---
**Author:** ![kimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f0a364/32.png) [@kimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kimera)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2005, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minor-nearly-useless-superpowers-you-think-you-have/296252/65 "2005-03-27T23:08:48Z")
I attract crazy people. When I take the bus I also try to sit against a wall and put my backpack on the other side of me so the crazy people won’t sit next to me. If I can’t do that because the bus it too crowded then a crazy person will come and sit next to me. It’s not just on the bus, I get a lot of religious people coming up to me in the oddest places. Apparently I have a big sign that says “Godless Atheist, Please Convert” because it happens to me a lot. I don’t live in an area that is known for the amount of Christians. My friends tend to be either very normal or very fucked up. The normal people I meet through school or work and the crazy ones usually find me online. My similar superpower is that random people tell me all sorts of things they would never tell anyone else. They say it is because I am a ‘good listener’ or something. Sometimes I wish I didn’t have it because it sucks when your friends tell you about their molestation experiences. I just hope that they feel better talking about it. ---
**Author:** ![rjk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ed655f/32.png) [@rjk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjk)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2005, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minor-nearly-useless-superpowers-you-think-you-have/296252/66 "2005-03-27T23:48:21Z")
I have a couple I can think of right now. - Microscopic Vision: I’ve always been near-sighted, and I’m getting old enough to need bifocals (one of these days). I can’t see the small print at normal reading distances, but if I flip my glasses up out of the way I can read just about anything, no matter how tiny. In a good light, and if I squint a bit, I can read the serial numbers on the dust motes. - Chat Power: People talk to me. Several times I’ve watched a person snarl at three separate approaches by three different people, then come over to me and start chatting about their kids or their jobs or the town they grew up in. Sometimes old ladies give me candy, if they have some. I’ve chatted with businessmen, bikers, teenage girls, construction workers, whoever. I once started a chat with one of those transit loonies and managed to distract him from his delusions for a full fifteen minutes. (I don’t know how long that lasted after I reached my stop and left him.) ---
**Author:** ![Large\_Marge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/50afbb/32.png) [@Large\_Marge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Large_Marge)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minor-nearly-useless-superpowers-you-think-you-have/296252/67 "2005-03-28T07:21:58Z")
I can smell **everything.** All it takes is a short conversation, a pass in the hallway or on the sidewalk, a ride in the elevator, and I can tell: If you’ve had a cigarette in the past two hours. If you use hairspray. Whether your deoderant is working. If you leave your laundry in the washer too long before drying it. If you don’t wash your hair often enough. If you have more than four indoor cats. If you have tooth decay. If you like hummus. If you have a soar throat (I can smell the throat lozenge). If you’re chewing gum. If you have foot odor (it’s usually in the shoes, not the socks). If you’ve just brushed your teeth. If you’re stoned (but of course, there are other clues 😃 ). If you work as a mechanic (you can’t get the smell of 90 weight out of clothes no matter what you do). And if you attended a cookout/campfire within the last week without washing the clothes you wore to the event. [minor rant] And please, PLEASE: Stop wearing patchouli. It’s the nastiest smell on the Earth. I would rather smell cat piss than smell patchouli. [/minor rant] ---
**Author:** ![longat24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f17d59/32.png) [@longat24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/longat24)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 8:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minor-nearly-useless-superpowers-you-think-you-have/296252/68 "2005-03-28T08:57:23Z")
I can make a bicycle horn noise out of my mouth. This, while amusing to many is what many would consider a “minor” power. I can also make a sound like a drop of water, although that is a more common attribute. ---
**Author:** ![DirkGntly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d9b06d/32.png) [@DirkGntly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DirkGntly)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minor-nearly-useless-superpowers-you-think-you-have/296252/69 "2005-03-28T13:34:08Z")
I have the ability to attract women. No, really. Ever since getting married and getting fat(ter), I get more attention than I ever did when I was single and trim. Unfortunately, I possess my own kryptonite: though I seem to be attracting women, I’m more-or-less oblivious to their advances (it takes others to point out the interest to me). As a prime example, I’m sitting at a table, and a woman approaches. She sits at my table, strikes up a conversation, and even touches/strokes my hand from time-to-time during the conversation. I COMPLETELY MISSED these queues. What makes this even more embarassing is that this was at a SWINGERS CLUB. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Sean\_Factotum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/50afbb/32.png) [@Sean\_Factotum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sean_Factotum)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minor-nearly-useless-superpowers-you-think-you-have/296252/70 "2005-03-28T16:02:10Z")
**Shirley** , your packing super-power may be amazing for women, but for a guy it’s routine. Gender-biased super-powers maybe? I can wiggle my ears, either together or separately (left, right, left, right.) I also give nicknames to people, but sadly have never been able to come up with one of my own that stick. I can make noises like chickens and cows that are incredibly lifelike. And I’ve never been on a farm or spent any time around livestock. ---
**Author:** ![Earthworm\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f07891/32.png) [@Earthworm\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earthworm_Jim)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minor-nearly-useless-superpowers-you-think-you-have/296252/71 "2005-03-28T19:06:08Z")
I have the ability to think of an obscure song several minutes before I hear it. Of course, I don’t recognize this when it’s happening. only after it’s happened. The “Hey, I was just thinking of that obscure song and it’s on the radio! Freaky, I havent’ heard it in years!” super power. ---
**Author:** ![Velma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/85e7bf/32.png) [@Velma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velma)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minor-nearly-useless-superpowers-you-think-you-have/296252/72 "2005-03-28T19:41:13Z")
I have incredible beginner’s luck. I have it in general but particularly when it comes to card games. If someone is teaching me a new game I will win and win but only until I have played enough to understand the rules and nuances of the game, then I win and lose like any other person. A few years ago people were teaching me to play gin and I won on my first turn, that happens fairly often that I will just get dealt a winning hand right off the bat. It seems the less I understand the game the better I do. I continue to do quite well at cribbage because I can never remember how all the scoring works ( I always forget ‘knobs’ or ‘nobs’ or whatever it is.) Needless to say I don’t think too hard when learning card games :). Someday I need to go to Vegas and play a new game. I also am very good at word fill-in-the-blank type games like Wheel of Fortune. I can usually guess the answer with only a few letters revealed and I have even guessed it with no letters revealed a bunch of times. I really need to try to get on that show one of these days. ---
**Author:** ![Daithi\_Lacha](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/daithi_lacha/32/5430_2.png) [@Daithi\_Lacha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daithi_Lacha)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minor-nearly-useless-superpowers-you-think-you-have/296252/73 "2005-03-28T20:38:01Z")
If I think about a song hard enough, it’ll come on the radio in a couple of days. It has to be a song that’s been played on the radio before (and not just on college stations), but if I strain real hard, I’ll get my request played - without making a phone call. I can anticipate what a person is going to say, and then say it with them. It’s not really anticipation, _per se_; I read lips slightly, and when I see them forming a word, I try to guess what it’s going to be. After I start doing it, one of the first things they usually say is “Quit it!” or “Knock it off, asshole,” and I always get those dead on… ---
**Author:** ![gonzoron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a6a055/32.png) [@gonzoron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzoron)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minor-nearly-useless-superpowers-you-think-you-have/296252/74 "2005-03-28T22:52:40Z")
Mine’s rather simple. I’m lucky. Incredibly so. Playing a game and need to roll a 12 on 2d6 to win? I’m your man. Want a free song from Itunes? let me pick your Pepsi bottle. Never been picked for Jury Duty. Never got a real speeding ticket, only one warning. Blocked a dart with my wristwatch once… Accidentally left my front door wide open all day with nothing stolen. Three times. My incredible good luck is only barely balanced by GonzoGal’s incredibly bad luck. In any situation where something bad can happen to her, it will. Me, I laugh in the face of Murphy’s Law. ---
**Author:** ![Jaade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/dfb087/32.png) [@Jaade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaade)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minor-nearly-useless-superpowers-you-think-you-have/296252/75 "2005-03-28T23:36:43Z")
I can pick up the exact number of an item I need to count at work - orings, for instance - without counting them This works up to numbers of about 100. I can make a song come on the radio if I’m thinking about the song on my way out to my car. It doesn’t happen every time, but it’s freaky to be singing a song and turn on the car only to hear that song playing. I am incredibly good at Pictionary, even though I am really bad at drawing. I think my team has lost 2-3 times in the past 10 years (different teams…even if I switch partners with the other team my team will still win.) I also have an uncanny ability to roll full houses and yahtzee’s and I can jinx other people playing the game with me when they need an important roll. Phear me. ---
**Author:** ![Jaade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/dfb087/32.png) [@Jaade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaade)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minor-nearly-useless-superpowers-you-think-you-have/296252/76 "2005-03-28T23:39:06Z")
> [@Large Marge](#): > > I can smell **everything.** > [minor rant] And please, PLEASE: Stop wearing patchouli. It’s the nastiest smell on the Earth. I would rather smell cat piss than smell patchouli. [/minor rant] I forgot - I have this ability, too. I second the motion to ban the use of patchouli as a smell-good substance. What is _wrong_ with you people? ---
**Author:** ![Not\_A\_Tame\_Lion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e36b37/32.png) [@Not\_A\_Tame\_Lion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Not_A_Tame_Lion)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minor-nearly-useless-superpowers-you-think-you-have/296252/77 "2005-03-28T23:48:05Z")
I too invariably wake up before my alarm clock, but I don’t think that’s a superpower. Especially since so many people in this thread have claimed the ability. (By definition a superpower would be something that few or only one person can do.) I don’t think I have any superpowers, per se. However, I have discovered that I am, in fact, a deity. I’m “the god of missed points.” Everytime I say something, be it enormously complex or plain as the nose on my face, whomever I’m speaking to always entirely misses the point. Similarly, others seem to lose the ability to make themselves understood (when conversing to others, not me) when I’m in the room. I don’t know if this behavior is some sort of ritual enactment or somatic offering to me. I do seem to have a lot of worshipers, though no one seems to know me, and I don’t get a lot of publicity. I guess I’m like some kind of really annoying household god. (Shrug.) What’re ya gonna do? ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2005, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minor-nearly-useless-superpowers-you-think-you-have/296252/78 "2005-03-29T00:57:08Z")
This is a family power: if anyone in my family goes into an empty store, it becomes crowded immediately. No one has paid us for this, alas. When I was a messenger in New York, I could predict which elevator would come next without their being any indicators. I’m down to only about 70% now. If there is one piece of dog poop on our grass, I will step on it. ☹ I also share some powers of others. My last and only speeding ticket was 33 years ago. I’ve never gotten a parking ticket, but I try to avoid those. I do jumbles in my head, and also acrostics. I have an uncanny ability for the original Trivial Pursuit. At a neighborhood party three teenagers and I took on the entire rest of the neighborhood. We kicked their butts. ---
**Author:** ![Improv\_Geek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b3f665/32.png) [@Improv\_Geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Improv_Geek)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2005, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minor-nearly-useless-superpowers-you-think-you-have/296252/79 "2005-03-29T01:15:58Z")
I’m very empathetic. I don’t attribute it to anything supernatural, but I do think I’m very good at knowing when someone is upset and hiding it, or trying to be brave. I’m quite effective at remaining on my feet no matter the odds of my falling. I hate ice skating because I end up waving my arms and bending my torso to and fro in an effort to remain on my feet. I also rarely trip, though I’ll stumble I always catch myself. Nothing too super. ---
**Author:** ![Martha\_Medea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/43a26b/32.png) [@Martha\_Medea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martha_Medea)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2005, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minor-nearly-useless-superpowers-you-think-you-have/296252/80 "2005-03-29T01:19:51Z")
- I win lotteries more often than the odds allow. Sadly, it’s never big money prize type draws but small-time raffles - usually with dubious prizes. The worst prize I ever won was an ankle length multi-coloured mohair cardigan - nice. :rolleyes: The best? A trip in a hot-air balloon. - I have the rare gift of phone-voice-deafness. I rarely recognise people’s voices on the phone, even when it’s someone I know really well. Many a time I’ve had an entire conversation with a completely different person to the one I think I’m speaking to. Mostly I spend the first couple of exchanges prying essential information out of the mystery caller. - (I’ve mentioned this before but it bears repeating) - I can do mirror writing, backwards, upside down, while blindfolded. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minor-nearly-useless-superpowers-you-think-you-have/296252.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minor-nearly-useless-superpowers-you-think-you-have/296252.md?page=5)