# What unusual skills do you have? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 25, 2018, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-unusual-skills-do-you-have/813120 "2018-04-25T21:01:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![betterlifethroughchemistry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/betterlifethroughchemistry/32/3094_2.png) [@betterlifethroughchemistry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betterlifethroughchemistry)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2018, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-unusual-skills-do-you-have/813120/81 "2018-05-03T03:15:18Z")
I can and do relate every single daily event to _“Seinfeld”_. Wait, forgot, my coworkers consider that my special annoyance, so, yeah, I got nothin’… ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2018, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-unusual-skills-do-you-have/813120/82 "2018-05-05T03:30:03Z")
My areas of incompetence are so vast it’s hard for me to participate, other than “I could lecture for hours about the arcane details of certain 1970’s-era mainframes.” However I just thought of something: _I can sometimes serve as a sort of “translator,” overcoming a communication gap._ In today’s IMHO thread, OP asked about “162/3 Hertz” power, thinking this was 162÷3=54, and got several informed answers, all based on the assumption that he was speaking of 16⅔ Hertz — though none wrote it that way. (Perhaps due to not knowing ISO had finally been extended to include a ⅔ symbol.) It wasn’t until I wrote 16⅔ Hertz that OP finally whacked his head in sudden understanding. At one Silicon Valley firm there was an engineer even more facetious and sarcastic than I, if you can believe that! I used to be called upon to translate his comments into non-facetious English. :smack: Although my Thai isn’t quite fluent, I once served as interpreter between a well-to-do Bangkokian and a rural Thai with Northeastern diction. _Twice_, I’ve intervened as a stranger when an American tourist couldn’t denote “Les Halles” to a French person. I knew ‘Lay Zall’ is American French for ‘Lay All.’ (The \*h is ‘aspiré’ even though it isn’t aspirated.) And some of my patented inventions came from “bridging a gap” — ideas far too trivial to hold any interest for a mathematician, yet beyond the ken and/or pain tolerance of almost all software engineers. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2018, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-unusual-skills-do-you-have/813120/83 "2018-05-05T15:14:21Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > I can have an orgasm (with ejaculation) without an erection, and without touching my genitals. A friend wants to know how you accomplish this. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2018, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-unusual-skills-do-you-have/813120/84 "2018-05-05T21:15:08Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > A friend wants to know how you accomplish this. Stop bringing it up! Every time you do, **panache** has another one. And this is frowned on in an orthodox temple… ---
**Author:** ![mistymage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mistymage/32/459_2.png) [@mistymage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mistymage)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2018, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-unusual-skills-do-you-have/813120/85 "2018-05-06T05:25:40Z")
I can tie a cherry stem into a knot in my mouth. I think that might relate to why my husband married me so many years ago. I can read really fast because I read paragraphs at a time. When I hit a wrong word whether a misspelling or a wrong usage/homonym it makes me re-read sentence by sentence (not word by word) until my brain goes "Oh, yeah, I see why they made that mistake). ---
**Author:** ![scudsucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scudsucker/32/14101_2.png) [@scudsucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scudsucker)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2018, 10:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-unusual-skills-do-you-have/813120/86 "2018-05-06T10:08:03Z")
I also read in big chunks at a time, at least several lines, if not a whole paragraph. Some time ago, I felt that reading like this was missing the nuance of the author’s intent. It’s fine for business or news, but not so great for literature. I decided to slow myself down by reading upside down. Unfortunately (or fortunately in some situations!) I can now read almost as fast upside down as right way up because I automatically began using the same technique. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2018, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-unusual-skills-do-you-have/813120/87 "2018-05-06T11:58:06Z")
I have a rather useful ability to not step in things, even if I’m not paying especially close attention to where I’m putting my feet. Very useful at the dog park, or when walking around where people have spilled food. I’m not especially agile, but I am usually looking down. I can usually make out lyrics pretty well, even in songs where most people seem stumped. For example, I don’t consider “It’s The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)” by R.E.M. to be difficult to understand. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2018, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-unusual-skills-do-you-have/813120/88 "2018-05-06T17:28:33Z")
> [@JcWoman](#): > > My other is almost a super power that I rarely use but when I do it’s automatic and terrifying. Somehow I can radiate assassin-levels of anger/viciousness. I don’t remember the exact conversation but a few weeks ago I was joking with my husband and said something snarky to him and he stared at me and then shivered. He said I made the hair on the back of his neck rise. Meh. Every wife can do this to her husband. 😃 Mine is waking up without an alarm clock. I have no idea how I do it, and I don’t trust it when it’s a question of something important, like catching a plane, but I always wake up at or before the time I need to, even if I’ve only had a few hours of sleep. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2018, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-unusual-skills-do-you-have/813120/89 "2018-05-07T07:09:45Z")
> [@scudsucker](#): > > I also read in big chunks at a time, at least several lines, if not a whole paragraph. Some time ago, I felt that reading like this was missing the nuance of the author’s intent. It’s fine for business or news, but not so great for literature. > > I decided to slow myself down by reading upside down. > > Unfortunately (or fortunately in some situations!) I can now read almost as fast upside down as right way up because I automatically began using the same technique. Start using a new method to slow yourself down again: hold the book up against your chest and take a selfie. Then read the text (which is now backwards, of course) off your phone screen. I can read and write Braille. I read it visually, FTR. ---
**Author:** ![WildBlueYonder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ce7236/32.png) [@WildBlueYonder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildBlueYonder)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-unusual-skills-do-you-have/813120/90 "2018-05-10T16:20:25Z")
I know a great deal of men who have the super power of not hearing their wives talking to them when they are doing anything else. I can walk in front of the tv naked and all he does is try to look around me…well, not naked. He lives for that…but still deaf to me! ---
**Author:** ![zimaane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a3d4f5/32.png) [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2018, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-unusual-skills-do-you-have/813120/91 "2018-05-11T17:38:35Z")
I speak Waali, a language used by about 100,000 people in northwest Ghana. I used to work at a tutoring center. The kids sat on a table across from me. I got tired of shuffling papers around, and found that if I had to write something on their paper, it was easier just to write upside down. Eventually I could write upside down as well as right side up. ---
**Author:** ![zimaane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a3d4f5/32.png) [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2018, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-unusual-skills-do-you-have/813120/92 "2018-05-11T17:39:45Z")
> [@](#): > > -I can reverse (back in) tractor trailers and other trucks with uncanny accuracy. One job involved taking trucks from their drivers (they weren’t allowed to park them) and packing them 20 at a time so close you could not walk between them. > > -I can sort and shoehorn lots of airplanes into a hangar with a tug. I “memorize” the shape and size of the space and push the plane into it without needing to check again. It’s kind of like a giant puzzle. I did this on a night shift by myself (no observers) for over a year. > > -I can operate a large crane (35 ton) on a floating vessel, and place loads on other vessels (also bobbing on the waves) with uncanny accuracy. I’ve even placed loads on vessels while underway (moving past us, it was necessary in a few odd situations). I also operated a crane holding equipment for divers 5-600 feet below. I had to position the loads watching a closed circuit camera and compensate for waves as the divers worked. > > -I “drove” a large semi-submersible vessel for a few years (it crawled along the seabed using a spiderweb of cables anchored to the seafloor). I occasionally had to snuggle up close to oil rigs without bumping them. I would frequently get calls from the divers to “move starboard 8 inches”. The vessel was 650 feet long and 45,000 tons, so accurate placement was very difficult. > > -I’ve mentioned here before, I’m a licensed commercial pilot and flight instructor, and although not as difficult as the items above, this does require some spatial skills. Impressive! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-unusual-skills-do-you-have/813120.md?page=4)