# Strange Talents **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 20, 2009, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-talents/482076 "2009-01-20T02:06:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![nikonikosuru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5f8ce5/32.png) [@nikonikosuru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nikonikosuru)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2009, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-talents/482076/21 "2009-01-20T06:39:21Z")
> [@Justin\_Credible](#): > > Nice boobs! Haha, I was deciding on whether I should put that circle in or not. It makes all the difference, I don’t want everyone thinking that I’m a flat-chested stick figure! 😛 ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2009, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-talents/482076/22 "2009-01-20T06:43:12Z")
I have a fairly resonant voice and can make up these amazing dramatic dialogs between characters while showering doing all the voices, but when I hop out the magic is all gone. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2009, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-talents/482076/23 "2009-01-20T07:06:47Z")
When crossing a street, I can tell ahead of time which foot will land on the curb. Unless I try to think about it. ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2009, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-talents/482076/24 "2009-01-20T08:07:24Z")
> [@Cider\_Depot](#): > > I have the uncanny ability to make people laugh - sometimes fits of laughter - when I make serious statements. :D:D:D I can play Paul Simon’s “Feelin’ Groovy” while seated with my back to the piano, so I’m playing it with my hands behind my back. (Or I used to be able to, I haven’t tried it in years.) ---
**Author:** ![Walpurgis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/7ea924/32.png) [@Walpurgis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walpurgis)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2009, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-talents/482076/25 "2009-01-20T08:14:35Z")
I can imitate a car alarm. I’m exceptionally good at unravelling tangled wires, threads and cables. The last one is actually pretty handy. ---
**Author:** ![maggenpye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecc23a/32.png) [@maggenpye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/maggenpye)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2009, 8:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-talents/482076/26 "2009-01-20T08:17:10Z")
Oh yes! I can untangle Slinkies. Plastic or metal, doesn’t matter, I can sort the bugger out. ---
**Author:** ![willthekittensurvive](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/91b2a8/32.png) [@willthekittensurvive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/willthekittensurvive)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2009, 8:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-talents/482076/27 "2009-01-20T08:52:34Z")
> [@Bam\_Boo\_Gut](#): > > I’m really good at rolling my belly. What I’d really love to be able to do is raise one eyebrow in a quizzical manner. My right eyebrow can do this…I have no influence over when it rises; it seems to have a mind of his own. rising only to undermine me in conversation…you know stories about having the devils right eye? Sometimes I fear I carry the antichrist on my brow ---
**Author:** ![brujaja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4af34b/32.png) [@brujaja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brujaja)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2009, 9:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-talents/482076/28 "2009-01-20T09:17:50Z")
I can fold cootie catchers. And I have been compiling the fulltext of acronyms for years now, not having anticipated that teh internets would make this obsolete. [COLOR=“black”] (First In First Out! Away With Out Leave! DeoxyriboNucleic Acid!)[/COLOR] ---
**Author:** ![dwyr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwyr/32/363_2.png) [@dwyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwyr)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2009, 9:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-talents/482076/29 "2009-01-20T09:55:16Z")
Well, according to my family anyway, wherever we are I always have what is needed in my bag be it batteries, band-aids, or birthday candles. (Also stuff that starts with other letters of the alphabet.) ---
**Author:** ![George\_Kaplin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3e96dc/32.png) [@George\_Kaplin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/George_Kaplin)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2009, 10:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-talents/482076/30 "2009-01-20T10:34:31Z")
I have double jointed thumbs. I hav yet to decide whether I shall use them for good or evil. ---
**Author:** ![Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleeps_With_Butterflies)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2009, 10:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-talents/482076/31 "2009-01-20T10:50:49Z")
I do a pretty good impression of Mr Hankey, The Christmas Poo, from South Park. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2009, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-talents/482076/32 "2009-01-20T13:48:37Z")
I can burp at will. I also have the loudest hiccups, but I can’t do that at will. I once stopped a stage show with them. Two talents that get you nowhere in life. ---
**Author:** ![pbbth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f9ae1b/32.png) [@pbbth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pbbth)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2009, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-talents/482076/33 "2009-01-20T13:50:59Z")
> [@George\_Kaplin](#): > > I have double jointed thumbs. I hav yet to decide whether I shall use them for good or evil. Ooh, this reminds me that I am double jointed in all of my fingers and I can hyper extend them as well. It really grossed people out in elementary school but hasn’t been overly useful since then. ---
**Author:** ![interface2x](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c0e974/32.png) [@interface2x](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/interface2x)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2009, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-talents/482076/34 "2009-01-20T14:25:53Z")
I’m pigeon-toed so I can do some weird stuff. Like I can turn my feet in and touch my toes. And then keep going and touch my heels. Imagine touching your toes and then continuing to move your feet so the sides touch and then finally until the heels touch. It’s kinda hard to describe. Also, when I bend my legs back, my feet don’t go straight up to the back of my leg. Since my bones are slightly turned, they go off to the side and people get freaked out. In general, though, my pigeon-toedness is not noticeable. ---
**Author:** ![Agent\_Foxtrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc29f/32.png) [@Agent\_Foxtrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agent_Foxtrot)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2009, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-talents/482076/35 "2009-01-20T14:30:11Z")
People’s pets love me. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard, “Dude, my dog growls at everyone but you.” For some reason, all I have to do is put out my hand, and any manner of cat or dog will lick and nuzzle it. ---
**Author:** ![BiblioCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2009, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-talents/482076/36 "2009-01-20T14:56:25Z")
> [@Agent\_Foxtrot](#): > > People’s pets love me. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard, “Dude, my dog growls at everyone but you.” For some reason, all I have to do is put out my hand, and any manner of cat or dog will lick and nuzzle it. Me, too. I was in a house the other day and saw a cat sitting off in the kitchen. I said, “Hi, kitty” and made those kissy noises to get her to come to me. Her owner said, “Oh, she’s a mean cat. She doesn’t let anyone pet her and hisses at everyone.” Not only did I get the cat to come to me and be petted, but when I stood up, she twined around my legs and then reached up and patted me, wanting to be petted some more. ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2009, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-talents/482076/37 "2009-01-20T14:59:27Z")
> [@drastic\_quench](#): > > Conversational wordsmith, for others. I regularly converse with some amazingly intelligent and creative people, but somehow - whenever they pause to search for just the right word or phrase to capture the thrust of their story - I chime in with a something they inevitably regard as “perfect”. Sadly, I cannot use this ability for myself. I, too, have this gift. I am the human thesaurus. I can make the sound of one hand clapping. ---
**Author:** ![Apocalypso](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Apocalypso](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apocalypso)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2009, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-talents/482076/38 "2009-01-20T15:33:25Z")
I have the amazing :rolleyes: ability to _always_ get in the shortest checkout line at any store. ---
**Author:** ![Roland\_Orzabal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c2a13f/32.png) [@Roland\_Orzabal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roland_Orzabal)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2009, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-talents/482076/39 "2009-01-20T15:55:18Z")
I don’t know if it’s a talent, per se, but I have an aura of evil. It’s not that I look menacing, or that I cut a particularly imposing figure; there is apparently just something inarticulably dark about my presence that throws people off guard to varying degrees. More than one person – as in, the majority of people I’ve gotten to know since age 18 or so – has confirmed this, most of them unprompted, after having known me for a while (at which point, it seems, the effect fades once they realize I’m harmless). Nobody has yet been able to explain to me what exactly it is. I’m told it’s not my mannerisms, or conversational style, or…well, anything I could actually use to prevent it. Believe me, it’s not something I try to foster; I don’t much care for, say, having a new coworker actively _run away from me_ on my second day…which has happened, although the girl who did this became a good friend within about a month. Yo, **Skald** , any chance of an evil-ectomy? You’re welcome to the damned thing if you want it. ---
**Author:** ![congodwarf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@congodwarf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/congodwarf)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2009, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-talents/482076/40 "2009-01-20T16:34:35Z")
I can reach stuff in really low places (like under couches), without going to all the trouble of lying down on the floor first. I am double jointed in both elbows (well - only the right one now. My tennis elbow has seriously decreased my range-of-motion in my left). If I put my arms out to the sides and let them do their thing, I end up looking like a seagull. Thanks to this, I can easily get down on my knees, bend my arm at a strange angle, and reach all those things other people can’t reach. I am a tick-puller. I didn’t ask for this honor. My mother used to pay me a quarter to pull ticks off my sisters (I have no clue why they had them and I never did). I never told anyone this - it’s not something to be particularly proud of. Imagine my surprise when I got a call from my (then) boyfriend’s sister, “One of the dogs has a tick, can you come over and pull it off?” I told her I wanted my quarter first. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-talents/482076.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-talents/482076.md?page=3)