# Your Best Fun But Completely Useless Skill **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 14, 2015, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-best-fun-but-completely-useless-skill/731193 "2015-09-14T11:24:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2015, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-best-fun-but-completely-useless-skill/731193/41 "2015-09-14T23:36:01Z")
> [@Asimovian](#): > > I have watched this in person, and it is freaky and unnatural. šŸ™‚ But fun and completely useless, right? ---
**Author:** ![Stoneburg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@Stoneburg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoneburg)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2015, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-best-fun-but-completely-useless-skill/731193/42 "2015-09-14T23:42:42Z")
I can see my own ego, so I am never bored. ---
**Author:** ![fisha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/da6949/32.png) [@fisha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fisha)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2015, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-best-fun-but-completely-useless-skill/731193/43 "2015-09-15T01:48:22Z")
I catch flies bare handed. Not only can I tie cherry stems, I can do it in less than a minute. I can drive by most houses and tell you how many squares +/- less than one it will take to roof it. ---
**Author:** ![ENugent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/4af34b/32.png) [@ENugent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ENugent)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2015, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-best-fun-but-completely-useless-skill/731193/44 "2015-09-15T01:56:54Z")
I am a [certified scrutineer](http://www.centralhome.com/ballroomcountry/scrutineering.htm) for ballroom competition. Nowadays itā€™s all done by computers, so I am totally obsolete. But I can accurately transcribe a column of numbers that someone is reading me into checkmarks on a page, while someone else reads a different column of numbers over a microphone. Sometimes I can even catch errors in the microphone voice while transcribing the other one. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2015, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-best-fun-but-completely-useless-skill/731193/45 "2015-09-15T02:44:58Z")
My lung capacity is something like 3-5 standard deviations higher than normal (I forget exactly). I did a spirometry type test once at a medical office. ---
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2015, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-best-fun-but-completely-useless-skill/731193/46 "2015-09-15T04:31:01Z")
[quote=ā€œkopek, post:9, topic:731193ā€] But can you do this? [/QUOTE] Iā€™m still training. ---
**Author:** ![HoneyBadgerDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honeybadgerdc/32/1033_2.png) [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2015, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-best-fun-but-completely-useless-skill/731193/47 "2015-09-15T04:46:54Z")
I have or had until the last decade or so the ability to control individual muscles in most any part of my body independently. It would look really weird. All my friends like to see me make my stomach muscles roll and dance. ---
**Author:** ![usedtobe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ec9cab/32.png) [@usedtobe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usedtobe)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2015, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-best-fun-but-completely-useless-skill/731193/48 "2015-09-15T05:19:07Z")
Photo darkroom expertise? Want an enlarger? I got 3 to get rid of. And I can wiggle my ears. Itā€™s a scalp muscle that, for some reason, I can voluntarily flex. Freaks people out when I do it. ---
**Author:** ![brovolone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a88e4f/32.png) [@brovolone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brovolone)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2015, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-best-fun-but-completely-useless-skill/731193/49 "2015-09-15T06:13:10Z")
I can guess the year a car was made by looking at it-- usually right 90% of the time. ---
**Author:** ![Find\_Friends](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c37758/32.png) [@Find\_Friends](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Find_Friends)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2015, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-best-fun-but-completely-useless-skill/731193/50 "2015-09-15T06:46:53Z")
I can take the month, date and year you give me and within a few seconds, at most, tell you the day of week. With something like 95% accuracy on the first try. Iā€™ve done it on ā€œstageā€ 7 times. My highest audience rating, 100% was actually with the stage being friends at my nearest McDonalds. Since I intend to try to use the skill for fundraising in November, maybe itā€™s not a Completely Useless Skill. Maybe Iā€™ll start a thread: ā€œAsk the bargain-basement mathemagicianā€ ---
**Author:** ![coffeecat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coffeecat/32/3405_2.png) [@coffeecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coffeecat)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2015, 9:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-best-fun-but-completely-useless-skill/731193/51 "2015-09-15T09:52:01Z")
I can multiply on an abacus. I can also wiggle my ears. Havenā€™t tried both at once, though. ---
**Author:** ![Moonshine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5e9695/32.png) [@Moonshine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moonshine)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2015, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-best-fun-but-completely-useless-skill/731193/52 "2015-09-15T13:46:00Z")
I used to be able to identify any Sherlock Holmes story by reading a single sentence, from anywhere in the text. Completely useless, and I donā€™t even think I can do it anymore. Damn, now what am I going to do with my lifeā€¦ ---
**Author:** ![swampspruce](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/swampspruce/32/261_2.png) [@swampspruce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/swampspruce)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2015, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-best-fun-but-completely-useless-skill/731193/53 "2015-09-15T13:58:22Z")
> [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](#): > > I can move my eyes independently from each other, so I can roll one around but not the other. I can do this one as well! Fascinates my nieces no end! ---
**Author:** ![eclectic\_wench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ac91a4/32.png) [@eclectic\_wench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eclectic_wench)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2015, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-best-fun-but-completely-useless-skill/731193/54 "2015-09-15T14:00:34Z")
I can write mirror-writing, quickly and easily. This is going to come in hugely useful if Iā€™m ever in a Dan Brown novel trying to outwit the worldā€™s most gobsmackingly incompetent cryptologist. ---
**Author:** ![Enright3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/enright3/32/2897_2.png) [@Enright3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enright3)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2015, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-best-fun-but-completely-useless-skill/731193/55 "2015-09-15T14:14:06Z")
> [@pullin](#): > > Trailers. I pull trailers a lot (hence my username). I frequently pull two at a time, and I can back them up with ease. I can do it around corners, into tight places, and usually with only one try. I can place the back of a doubles rig thatā€™s 65 feet behind me within a couple of inches of a target. I spent several years as a yard hostler\* in a freight company and I guess thatā€™s where the skill came from. > > \*Guy who takes the 18-wheelers from the OTR drivers and parks them at the loading doors. The lot was so tight where I worked that only the hostlers were allowed to position trucks. Backing up a double trailer is an amazing skill. I was pretty good at one; Iā€™ve never tried two. In my experience most peoples troubles begin right off the bat, because they donā€™t pull up enough to begin with. My old boss at the oil trucking company I worked at was missing an eye; and could back a semi with a trailer up to a dock within six or so inches of the dock. Amazed the crap out of me. > [@Find\_Friends](#): > > I can take the month, date and year you give me and within a few seconds, at most, tell you the day of week. With something like 95% accuracy on the first try. Iā€™ve done it on ā€œstageā€ 7 times. My highest audience rating, 100% was actually with the stage being friends at my nearest McDonalds. > > Since I intend to try to use the skill for fundraising in November, maybe itā€™s not a Completely Useless Skill. > > Maybe Iā€™ll start a thread: ā€œAsk the bargain-basement mathemagicianā€ Maybe you should because I have questions! šŸ™‚ Is this a skill that can be taught, or is it some type of savant thing? A random guess has what, about a 15% chance of being right? ---
**Author:** ![Mixolydian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/da6949/32.png) [@Mixolydian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mixolydian)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2015, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-best-fun-but-completely-useless-skill/731193/56 "2015-09-15T14:14:23Z")
I can say the alphabet backwards as fast as I can say it forwardsā€¦heard a friendā€™s grandfather perform this trick when I was a lad and learned it shortly thereafter. Never had the opportunity (or need) to recite during a roadside sobriety test, but Iā€™m confident I could do it falling-down drunk. > [@jsgoddess](#): > > I can do that! Can you do it with your arms? > > Since you probably have a good shot at it, try this: > > Put both hands flat on the table. Lift the ring finger of your left hand and the thumb of your right. Put them down. Now lift the middle finger of your left hand and the index of your right. Keep going. When you run out of fingers in one direction, switch. Then try it offset by two fingers (middle finger left and thumb right, etc.). Or try it ring finger to pinkie. Iā€™ve only ever met one other person who could do this without strugglingā€“one of my sisters. I can do the arms thing (learned with index fingers extended) - once you visualize that youā€™re drawing the ā€œsidesā€ of a circle simultaneously and meeting at the bottom & the top, itā€™s much easier. Just tried the hands-on-table trick and was able to do that as well, being a piano player and the left/right brain separation that comes with practice. ---
**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:** [September 15, 2015, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-best-fun-but-completely-useless-skill/731193/57 "2015-09-15T14:29:11Z")
Before I ruined my wrist, I used to be able to out-type the computer. When typing straight copy, the computer would suddenly start typing like this: xxynhdf heujdn hhudehgnt, etc. When I stopped typing, it would go back and correct it. A person who actually witnessed this was possibly drop jawed. She told me that she never would have believed that was even humanly possible. ---
**Author:** ![Enright3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/enright3/32/2897_2.png) [@Enright3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enright3)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2015, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-best-fun-but-completely-useless-skill/731193/58 "2015-09-15T15:23:33Z")
I replied but forgot to add my useless skill. Iā€™m a master at flipping pencils into the ceiling and making them stick. Sitting, standing, doesnā€™t matter. Excellent accuracy as well. I had an idea for a ā€˜targetā€™ ceiling tile for just such an occasion. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2015, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-best-fun-but-completely-useless-skill/731193/59 "2015-09-15T16:39:16Z")
I can spin record album jackets on my fingertips, when I can find record album jackets. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2015, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-best-fun-but-completely-useless-skill/731193/60 "2015-09-15T17:28:23Z")
> [@Enright3](#): > > Maybe you should because I have questions! šŸ™‚ > Is this a skill that can be taught, or is it some type of savant thing? A random guess has what, about a 15% chance of being right? Hereā€™s how it works: first, suppose you know the day of the week for every day of every month in 2015. (Or some other year, or even some set of dates from different years scattered across the calendar year whose day of the week you know by heart. But weā€™ll use 2015.) Then, take the (number of years) + (number of leap days) between then and the same date in 2015. Divide that number by 7, toss the quotient, but keep the _remainder_. Go back that number of days through the week from the day of the week in 2015. Example: suppose you want to know what day of the week November 20, 1933 was. 2015 - 1933 = 82; there are 20 leap days in there, so 82 + 20 = 102. 102 = 14\*7 + 4. November 20, 2015 is on a Friday. Go back 4 days from Friday; thatā€™s Monday. November 20, 1933 was on a Monday. Took a lot longer to type that than to work it out. šŸ™‚ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-best-fun-but-completely-useless-skill/731193.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-best-fun-but-completely-useless-skill/731193.md?page=4)