Send them this way, please! They go wonderfully well with the Spanish degree. (The best part: getting financial aid to pay for 4 months in Madrid.)
99.9% is a little high. I would say more like 92.3%, but my area of expertise is music of the 1980s. I frequently either tie or beat Gary in “Stump the Booey” (for anyone who listens to Howard Stern).
It’s not important knowledge to have, but it’s all I’ve got, okay?!?
Spain huh? Well you would have loved to be at the wedding I personally catered here .
It was wonderful, my wife and I were part of a wedding party in the states we met a couple at the wedding who were to be married in Spain. We became wonderful friends with them and when the couple decided to get married in Spain - she’s from Madrid - we accepted with the contingency that we cater it.
It was wondrous. So Eva if you ever want a very good Spanish recipe for anything or any occasion, let me know I’ll hook you up. 
El Escorial, huh? I never made it there, but I did just buy a Spanish cookbook last night. Feel free to post any recipe that floats your boat…on second thought, I’m about to start a thread on that subject in MPSIMS.
And now, off to lunch!
There are a couple of people on the SDMB who can really kick my ass in this subject, but I’d say I know more about Middle Eastern history and religion, both ancient and modern, than 99% of the people I come across in every day life. I know more about Middle Eastern politics than most people, too, but this so contentious that I prefer to stay out of discussions on this topic.
Also, I’m a flutist. I don’t play much anymore, thanks to TMJ, but I could probably outplay 99% of the population. Not 99% of other flutists, though!
General Medicine, or Family Practice is my area. With a minor in Corrections Medicine, Addiction medicine, and in Tolkien’s writings. And so many areas that I’ve dabbled in that they’re too numerous to mention.
Mundaine pointless facts of little known interest. How I learned it all you ask? well By studying hard in school…NOT. now I have alot of free time since I droped out so I read…
(I am not a normal drop out)
(hijack)
Hi Ringo !
(/hijack)
I’m not bad at electronics, HVAC, and general electricalness, comes from a very wide variety of stuff in the field, from missiles, sonar, and hydraulics, through to digital musical instruments(not one of which I can play, just repair), tv’s, videos and other home electronics, right up to power generation and distribution.
Oh, might as well add incinerator plant, laundry machinery, engineering machinery and other assorted industrial stuff.
No not a jack of all trades, just 25 years experience.
Cycling, as in racing on road and track, and long long distance events, and a goodly bunch of off-road stuff thrown in, pretty much done all that.
I know lots of crap, dunno how it gets there, but, the coolest person I know and admire not just for useless but absolutely essential trivia, is a poster here whom I have had the honour to meet, this thread is just made for Steve Wright.
Computers. Bleh. I’m so boring. Even if I do know more about computers than 99.9% of the population (which is entirely possible), that still leaves a metric assload of people who know more than me.
I try to be less boring by knowing quite a bit about a bunch of topics, though. They definitely lean toward the technical in most cases, but hey, at least there’s some breadth to my knowledge.
mutual funds and homemade baby food.
I am a BIG hit at parties
I was a damned good automobile detailer, and something interesting came out of that. I had a pretty good business cleaning up alloy wheels, especially Ferrari wheels. It turns out that one of Ferrari’s wheel manufacturers, Campagnolo, also made bitchin’ corkscrews, so one day on a lark I told the guy who mentioned it to me to bring in his matching corkscrew and I’d clean it, too. Somehow the word got out, and for awhile I was the guy to go to if you wanted your classic Italian corkscrew um… detailed. And I got a fair amount of business, if you can believe it.
I suppose I’m an “expert” in a couple of other things, but corkscrew restoration, well, that’s one that never found its way onto my resume.
Carseats. Or more precisely… Child Passenger Restraints.
The proper installation of carseats into your car, the proper installation of your child into the seat.
The companies who manufacture carseats and the various models available and their comparative merits.
What a carseat tether is and when you should use one. The difference between a convertible carseat and a combination carseat.
What carseat you can use for your premature baby who needs to stay on her stomach.
There are actually a lot of people who know more than I do, but unfortunately I’m pretty sure that I beat 99.9% of the population, probably even 95% of the carseat using population, which is too damn bad because almost everybody is using their carseat improperly.
Probably you do not have the seatbelt restraining the carseat tightened enough. Likely your child’s harness is not adjusted nearly tight enough, in fact you can probably take your kid out of the carseat without unbuckling the harness. Possibly you are using the passenger side seatbelt to secure the seat in the center seat possition. Or perhaps you are using a bouncy seat made of fabric and velcro and emblazoned with the warning DO NOT USE AS A CARSEAT as a carseat.
It’s kind of a troublesome information set to carry around actually, but maybe someday a kid might survive a bad car accident because of me bugging their parent.
Eh, I’m the uber-dilettante.
I suppose it is remotely conceivable I’m in the top .01% in the area of wastewater treament/water reclamation ( my job ), just because nobody in their right mind has much interest in it, including me most of the time ;).
I know a lot about a number of periods/areas of history, but top .01% is probably pushing it. Might be stronger on breadth, than fine detail in some respects ( not all ). Read a lot of books, but long since given up on keeping up with journals.
I know a fair bit about natural history and taxonomy, but almost certainly not to that rarefied level. Lots and lots of excellent amateurs ( birdwatchers et al ) probably exceed me, not too mention the tons of professionals. Though again owing to my peculiar schooling habits I may have slightly more breadth than average. Same thing here with professional journals - Subscriptions have all long since lapsed.
Further down the list comes passions like movies, music, books ( SF and othewise ), stereo equipment, computer games, etc. - In none of which I’m likely to break even the top 10%, even on just this board :).
- Tamerlane
My career has been in insurance claims. I’ve been in the biz 24 years and I still love it.
OK, I know that qualifies me for a sick f*ck but hey, I like it!
I have many passions (reading, crafting, computing, Mr. Ruby) but none of which I would qualify as an expert.
Insurance agent (8 years), travel agent (7 years). I can also string a tennis racquet in under 5 minutes, drive a fork-lift and speak 5 languages (English, French, Spanish, German and Italian).
My resume looks very odd.
Most facets of carpentry. I’ve been in the trade for 27 years, and done stuff from framing to finishing. I can plumb a house and wire it.
I know Finnish postage stamps from collecting them for 45 years.
I know a fair bit about lumberjacking, having done that as well for several years.
I am fluent in Finnish, due to an accident of birth.
I am a trivia freak.
Well, I haven’t done it much lately, but I can teach the Verbal section of the SAT book “Ten Real SATs” almost from memory. Sometimes I could tell a kid what the correct answer was from hearing them read the question. I could also sometimes paraphrase the relevant part of the reading passage closely enough to illustrate why the correct answer was correct.
If we’re talking literally 1 out of 1000, I might be getting there with my grammar. I also taught the SAT II Writing test.
Considering what I’ve observed now that I’ve been spending a fair amount of time out of the cosmopolitan centers, I think I might actually have a shot at 1/1000.
Piezoelectric Quartz Crystal Units.
Roman history.
The Grateful Dead.
The Nixon administration.