Knick Knacks
Hello. Welcome to the famed Weekend Gene Pool, which has just been awarded the coveted L'Œil d'or for best documentary at the Cannes Film Festival. Today, as always, we will ask you for personal observations and anecdotes on a subject of our choosing, and which I will respond to next week. In return, I always make a solemn promise to entertain you.
Today’s topic, as always, is you. Tell us about some unusual talent you have. Funny is good, but interesting is also good. Must be true, even if weird.
I have two. I can juggle three or even four raw eggs competently for at least fifteen seconds before they splat into the ground. I can also read things upside down and backwards while not appearing to be doing this; I learned it as a young reporter in Albany, N.Y., at the Knickerbocker News, because it was a way to read documents on the desk of people you were interviewing without their knowledge. The knack delivered me several big stories — including my biggest, about a man who bribed the mayor — and I never once got busted for it or punched in the face.
As for juggling eggs, I learned that just to be an asshole. I assassinated at least six dozen eggs while learning the skill. I would link right now to a video of my doing this, but it takes me about three days to work at it so as to regain the muscle memory. I will deliver this video when I am ready.
Please send your knacks to the orange “questions and observations” button below. Please do not post them in the Comments section. If your greatest personal knack is posting things in comments sections as opposed to areas specifically designated for this purpose, I don’t want to hear about it. Thank you.
Also feel free to send us a small amount of money.
See you on Tuesday.
Apart from the ethical considerations, not surprised you picked up the knack of reading documents backwards and upside down. We know there is a strong relationship between a facility with words (that would be you...) and the "ability" to read in different orientations. Also seems to have some correlation with intelligence. Although juggling raw eggs might raise a question about that attribute (juggling three chickens would certainly answer it). Being left-handed could be an additional possible explanation for the knack.
I, too, learned reading upside-down while in Albany, New York, at the Other Paper - the Times Union. But I was not quite as good at it. When I was covering City Hall the city budget director caught me. For awhile he wouldn't let me near his desk, until one day I walked into his office and pulled out a pair of toy binoculars. He relented, and I perfected my skills.