My hidden talent is finding diamonds in the rough. I often go for solitary walks day, night, allies, city, beach, lake shore and I find things. I found a collection of old maps - one of Japan hand-painted on rice paper - in a water stained cardboard box on the curb. A beautiful bevelled mirror with a hardwood frame propped against a vending machine that the store was throwing out. A chemistry book with a plain cover that held a black and white postcard and study notes in the most perfect script on old weathered paper in a stack of books on a curb.
This is a very fun question and I love these answers. My hidden talent is that I can repurpose leftovers with aplomb. The secret is: don't combine anything. A tub of roasted brocolli, one of smoked turkey and another of sauteed onions from Christmas got turned into a wonderful stirfry noodle dish the other night, but if they'd all been in one container it would've just tasted like Day 38 of Christmas and nobody would eat it. As it was, my family ooohed, aaaahed and cleaned their plates.
You should if you’re so inclined read Tamar Adler’s An Everlasting Meal. It’s just about how the leftovers of one meal become the inspiration and beginning of the next. It’s soothing.
It's being consciously present in your dream, and some cases, like mine, being able to interact and maybe even affect its progress. The last one I had that I can remember occurred a couple of nights ago. I was playing chess with my eight year old grandson. But my view of the board was at eye level with it and only from the side. Some of my pieces were hidden behind his and I couldn't see them well enough to decide on my next move. I tried - consciously - to alter my POV, but couldn't. So, I decided I couldn't play the game, and that being the case that I ought to wake myself up, let that dream evaporate, and then come back and see what dream was next.
Here's a hoary old joke: Guy has fabulous dreams. Thinks to himself that if he could just remember one and capture it, he would have the makings of a great novel. He decides to put a pen and pad beside his bed and wake himself up after a really good dream and write it down. Some days go by, but one night he realizes he's in the midst of a beaut. He shakes himself, wakes, grabs the pen and writes. Next morning, after his stretch and yawn, he remembers that he wrote down his dream. Excitedly, he picks up the pad to read what he wrote: "Boy meets girl".
Your description of lucid dreaming reminds me very much of being under hypnosis -- a kind of conscious dreaming in which the (unconscious) dream world becomes more vivid than the real one and yet can be altered, interacted with and adjusted according to whim (or whimsy). Quite wonderful.
I love gallery walls. Yours is great. My hidden talent is I’m an amazing challah baker. Friends put in requests. But I am a one trick pony in the kitchen. Everything else I make is edible but mediocre
My hidden talent is similar to yours, but not as extensive. I hang artwork really well. I have no spatial reasoning and no sense of direction. But I can hang a painting perfectly in one go. I back up, look at the wall space, pick a spot, hammer in a nail, and voila! No measuring, no marking the wall with a pencil. Just bung it up there.
haha - not a talent at all - my hidden superpower is to go completely numb when someone asks about me - this is funny because I'm just finishing my second memoir - ask me about my memoir and I'll talk for hours. Ask me about me and dead silence. But enough about me - this is a really fun article - I read it to the end - leaning into it - not just about how you arrange the pics but how you hang them - I'm going to have to suffer with just that one hint - power drill in hand - I want more! How do you find the studs? Why don't you use those sticky things? - how do you back up and see things and then get close to hang them? Do you have an assistant - lots of questions fill the air - not about me but about you. Great work.
That’s a humble brag talent. No fair! But I do find it fascinating that you can talk about and write memoir but hate talking about yourself. I found it AGONISING to talk about my memoir, especially on camera or stage. Oddly easy to write about though. The difference between talking and writing is weird. More to say re: your questions— soon.
I don't have one, so I can't show you - but I have three drastically different (asthetically, tonally) framed pieces up in my house and I hasve long had this pulling desire to display them all TOGETHER. Maybe letting that desire win is the start of my gallery-wall journey!
That was a really thought-provoking question! Pretty much any talent I have that I could think of wasn't hidden because it was related to my job, education or public persona in some way. Then I remembered that I play a pretty decent penny whistle, so if I'm ever in a beauty contest for old men, I can whip it out and rattle through "The Wind that Shakes the Barley".
That is an *excellent* hidden talent. And lucky for you, there IS a beauty contest for old men which I believe is known as "the US presidential election." You should enter!
hidden talent, hmmm, I wonder what my friends might say? I often leave others impressed that I can guess a song after only a few notes- I revel in this Whitman notion so I wish to believe I can do lots of stuff: "I am large, I contain multitudes." but then again I'm really most like the old adage; 'Jack of all trades, master of none' hmmm musically speaking, If I can call you Leah, you can call me Jack
I never had the opportunity for that other than at house parties but I have won a city wide pancake eating contest and beat all comers in a regional Scrabble tournament for which I received a lobster dinner. My legacy is solid.
Jeepers. Well, uh. Looks like I don't have one. Gallery wall - could do that. Can find the right pic for whatever space comes available. Have been known to paint pictures that don't make me sick and that I have been permitted to hang in the house by you know who. Can shift furniture around until a room is tickety-boo. Have a good ear for bullshit. Always been good at seeing the obvious. Also the unobvious. Oh yeah, and lucid dreaming, but not everyone thinks its a talent, per se.
I suck at gallery walls. This is not my hidden talent - i get stuck in an endless loop of the relation of the images to one another and can't see the whole - I have a similar issue with throw pillows. I used to be able bend my hand backwards so that my fingers could touch the back of my forearm. I'd say my hidden talent is perhaps math.
My hidden talent is finding diamonds in the rough. I often go for solitary walks day, night, allies, city, beach, lake shore and I find things. I found a collection of old maps - one of Japan hand-painted on rice paper - in a water stained cardboard box on the curb. A beautiful bevelled mirror with a hardwood frame propped against a vending machine that the store was throwing out. A chemistry book with a plain cover that held a black and white postcard and study notes in the most perfect script on old weathered paper in a stack of books on a curb.
Have you read The Art of Noticing Things? If not you should https://www.amazon.co.uk/Art-Noticing-Rediscover-Really-Matters/dp/1529104432?nodl=1&dplnkId=5a7183d2-d16a-463a-bf82-08d705c2795c
This is a very fun question and I love these answers. My hidden talent is that I can repurpose leftovers with aplomb. The secret is: don't combine anything. A tub of roasted brocolli, one of smoked turkey and another of sauteed onions from Christmas got turned into a wonderful stirfry noodle dish the other night, but if they'd all been in one container it would've just tasted like Day 38 of Christmas and nobody would eat it. As it was, my family ooohed, aaaahed and cleaned their plates.
You should if you’re so inclined read Tamar Adler’s An Everlasting Meal. It’s just about how the leftovers of one meal become the inspiration and beginning of the next. It’s soothing.
I love that book!!!! 😍🍲
I love this! Adjacent hidden cooking talent: cobbling together a delicious meal after being told there is nothing — absolutely nothing! — to eat.
“Absolutely nothing!” Said with 8-year-old in agony flair. 😆
It's being consciously present in your dream, and some cases, like mine, being able to interact and maybe even affect its progress. The last one I had that I can remember occurred a couple of nights ago. I was playing chess with my eight year old grandson. But my view of the board was at eye level with it and only from the side. Some of my pieces were hidden behind his and I couldn't see them well enough to decide on my next move. I tried - consciously - to alter my POV, but couldn't. So, I decided I couldn't play the game, and that being the case that I ought to wake myself up, let that dream evaporate, and then come back and see what dream was next.
Here's a hoary old joke: Guy has fabulous dreams. Thinks to himself that if he could just remember one and capture it, he would have the makings of a great novel. He decides to put a pen and pad beside his bed and wake himself up after a really good dream and write it down. Some days go by, but one night he realizes he's in the midst of a beaut. He shakes himself, wakes, grabs the pen and writes. Next morning, after his stretch and yawn, he remembers that he wrote down his dream. Excitedly, he picks up the pad to read what he wrote: "Boy meets girl".
Your description of lucid dreaming reminds me very much of being under hypnosis -- a kind of conscious dreaming in which the (unconscious) dream world becomes more vivid than the real one and yet can be altered, interacted with and adjusted according to whim (or whimsy). Quite wonderful.
My hidden talent is folding a map back to its original state. That's why GPSes make me so sad. Soon my talent will be archaic.
Hmm, possibly not. Once the crude oil and fresh water runs out we’ll need maps and map folders again
I love gallery walls. Yours is great. My hidden talent is I’m an amazing challah baker. Friends put in requests. But I am a one trick pony in the kitchen. Everything else I make is edible but mediocre
that’s astonishing — it’s bread and requires actual braiding. plus delicious.
My usuals are 5 and 6 strands but I've done 7, 8 and once 11 strands.
I'm sorry but that's not a talent it's a vocation
My hidden talent is similar to yours, but not as extensive. I hang artwork really well. I have no spatial reasoning and no sense of direction. But I can hang a painting perfectly in one go. I back up, look at the wall space, pick a spot, hammer in a nail, and voila! No measuring, no marking the wall with a pencil. Just bung it up there.
Yes weirdly similar— slight in awe of your bunging though. I admit I do use a pencil!
haha - not a talent at all - my hidden superpower is to go completely numb when someone asks about me - this is funny because I'm just finishing my second memoir - ask me about my memoir and I'll talk for hours. Ask me about me and dead silence. But enough about me - this is a really fun article - I read it to the end - leaning into it - not just about how you arrange the pics but how you hang them - I'm going to have to suffer with just that one hint - power drill in hand - I want more! How do you find the studs? Why don't you use those sticky things? - how do you back up and see things and then get close to hang them? Do you have an assistant - lots of questions fill the air - not about me but about you. Great work.
That’s a humble brag talent. No fair! But I do find it fascinating that you can talk about and write memoir but hate talking about yourself. I found it AGONISING to talk about my memoir, especially on camera or stage. Oddly easy to write about though. The difference between talking and writing is weird. More to say re: your questions— soon.
I don't have one, so I can't show you - but I have three drastically different (asthetically, tonally) framed pieces up in my house and I hasve long had this pulling desire to display them all TOGETHER. Maybe letting that desire win is the start of my gallery-wall journey!
Do it do it do it! Just slap 'em up and see what happens.
That was a really thought-provoking question! Pretty much any talent I have that I could think of wasn't hidden because it was related to my job, education or public persona in some way. Then I remembered that I play a pretty decent penny whistle, so if I'm ever in a beauty contest for old men, I can whip it out and rattle through "The Wind that Shakes the Barley".
That is an *excellent* hidden talent. And lucky for you, there IS a beauty contest for old men which I believe is known as "the US presidential election." You should enter!
LOL, with that competition, I'd be odds-on favourite 🤪
hidden talent, hmmm, I wonder what my friends might say? I often leave others impressed that I can guess a song after only a few notes- I revel in this Whitman notion so I wish to believe I can do lots of stuff: "I am large, I contain multitudes." but then again I'm really most like the old adage; 'Jack of all trades, master of none' hmmm musically speaking, If I can call you Leah, you can call me Jack
You must have won some “name that tune contests” surely?
I never had the opportunity for that other than at house parties but I have won a city wide pancake eating contest and beat all comers in a regional Scrabble tournament for which I received a lobster dinner. My legacy is solid.
Jeepers. Well, uh. Looks like I don't have one. Gallery wall - could do that. Can find the right pic for whatever space comes available. Have been known to paint pictures that don't make me sick and that I have been permitted to hang in the house by you know who. Can shift furniture around until a room is tickety-boo. Have a good ear for bullshit. Always been good at seeing the obvious. Also the unobvious. Oh yeah, and lucid dreaming, but not everyone thinks its a talent, per se.
My sons are obsessed with lucid dreaming— what’s it like?
I suck at gallery walls. This is not my hidden talent - i get stuck in an endless loop of the relation of the images to one another and can't see the whole - I have a similar issue with throw pillows. I used to be able bend my hand backwards so that my fingers could touch the back of my forearm. I'd say my hidden talent is perhaps math.
unfortunately math is useless. I will come do your gallery wall anytime x
Cooking steaks over extremely hot oak wood fires
a civilised barbarian
Sometimes
I was hypnotized in the womb. You?