TIME’S UP! Hidden talents contest

Let's start at the very beginning. A very good place to start.

This is my favorite movie:



I've seen it at least fifty times. Even looking at these pictures warms the cockles of me 'eart.

Remember the part where Captain Von Trapp and the Baroness Schrader throw the party? It's where the Captain and Maria realize their feelings for each other, and where the Baroness manipulates Maria into leaving.


At the ball, one of the heads of the Nazi party speaks to Captain Von Trapp and remarks on his family's upcoming performance at the music festival. Captain Von Trapp says, "I, too, am a man of hidden talents." Of course, he says it with a smirk that's masking his anger, as he hates how the Nazis have claimed his beloved Austria.



We are all people of hidden talents, I believe. The focus of this contest is HIDDEN talents, something few people would know about. If you're an excellent knitter and make gifts for people far and wide, that's a wonderful thing, but it's not a hidden talent.

For example:

• I can eyeball liquid measurements quite accurately. I can tell the difference between 1/4 teaspoon and 12 cups with ease.

What can I say? It's a gift.

• I can imitate a dolphin's clicky sounds. I have no idea why I know how to do this, but my children find it really very remarkable.

• I have a freakishly bizarre ability to remember household hints. Not because I am such a fantastic stain remover, but because I remember all the tips I read. It's like the file for household tips storage is extra large in my brain.

Did you know that hairspray will remove ball point pen from clothing?

Or that if you place wadded up wet newspapers on the soil of your houseplants, it will keep them from dying while you're on vacation?

I did.

What are your hidden talents? Leave a comment to this post telling me at least one thing you can secretly do, and you could win a skein of yarn. Not just any skein, either. You choose the yarn base (anything we have instock), and you choose the colorway. We'll make it for you. YAY!

You have until Friday, August 1st at 8pm Eastern to tell me all about your hidden talents.

Comments

[Mary(seussy)]

This one really made me think! I asked my children and they say I am the best kite flier ever, and I take that as high praise! I have also breastfed my children in just about every circumstance imaginable - that's a hidden talent that has really been valuable! Keep up the blog contests, this is fun!

[Kristie Hammond]

My hidden talent is I can impersonate my 2 daughters on the phone. Well, I actually don't try to impersonate them, it just ends up their friends often can't tell us apart when we answer the phone. It has proved to be interesting over the years....!

[Melissa]

lol - this is hilarious - and I love the sound of music too! we sing the entire soundtrack regularly at my house.

I can almost always tell you what time it is - almost to the minute - even when I've had no access to a clock for some time. . .and my alarm never ever goes off - I always wake up before it. . . .

[Alison]

My hidden talent is that I almost always get at least one Yatzhee when playing that silly game . . .

And I always wish the kids would have gotten one instead since they get such a BIG kick out of it . . . high fives all around and YES YES YES at top volume!!!

[trek]

I can deliver a round kick a foot over my own head with either foot. :o)

[Beth K]

I have the ability to clean up messes made by small children, daily and with gusto. Today it was powdered sugar, mud, water & dog food. In that order.

I also have the gift of giving birth to a demo crew... who knew that a 2 & 3 year old girls could do so much damage that I then have to clean up?

[Jo Anne]

I can imitate a guinea pig without trying. In fact, it's the way I used to laugh. That is until someone told me I sounded like a guinea pig.

I can also do a really good Charlie Parker clarinet imitation with my voice. And I could do it before I knew who Charlie Parker was. It was just an exagerrated plaintive sound I'd make once in a while for fun. Then one day someone told me I sounded just like Charlie Parker.

Who knows what else comes out of my voicebox that I'm unaware of!

[Jennifer]

This is really great, reading everyone's talents.

Hidden talent? Built in gyroscope. Turn, twist, hang me upside down. I can still point North. Drives DH (and son) absolutely bonkers. Went to South America and Australia on holidays and you would think it would be South, but nope, still North. It became a game with the locals. Though with that, take me there once and I can always get back. I can't get lost. I've tried.

Thanks! What fun!!

[Francesca]

I've been thinking and thinking about this all day. I think I may have come up with my special talent--I can sing all the songs to Les Miserables AND Phantom of the Opera (but not at the same time!). I can break out into song almost at the drop of a hat for those two musicals (but please don't ask as your ears will probably regret it! ;) )

[Shelley]

My secret talent is knowing exactly how to describe television shows and fandoms to my best friend to get her just as hooked as I am. *g* In the ten years we've been friends, I've introduced her to at least fifteen TV shows and book series. My record is 15 minutes from introducing the show to her setting her DVR. The miraculous thing is that even though I've taken over her life, basically, she still loves me. *g*

[Melissa]

My hidden talent has proved to be very handy as I just had my 3rd c/s 8 days ago :) I found out that I have what DH calls monkey toes. I am able to pick things up w/ my toes, I can even hold a pen and write w/ them. I say it helped w/ my c/s recovery b/c I was unable to bend over to pick things up. I was able to keep the house clean w/o bending over by picking things up w/ my toes and lifting my leg to grab the item w/ my hands. I was able to keep all the dirty clothes in the hamper and keep all trash off the floor! Now that is a handy hidden talent, lol.

[Rachel]

I"m horrible at math-- SO bad that I've come up with seemingly nonsensical ways to solve any daily mathematical problems that arise. So, somehow, I'm someone who is horrible with math, yet really, REALLY good at math at the same time.

Don't ask me how I do it. If I knew, I'd infomercial my system and make my billions.

[Audrey]

I love these... it's always some new thing that makes you think. I've been trying to figure out what mine is :)

I think I got at least one... I have a photographic memory. I can see words on pages of a book like I have the book open in front of me. I can see what page in a book the words are on and everything. This came in handy when I was still in school... not so much right now. Unless someone has an infant handbook ;)

[Maureen]

My secret talent is... I can fold things into perfect thirds. I'm also very good at judging distance measurements, right down to the quarter inch.

Also, I have my own personal version of imdb.com in my head. I remember really obscure movie references. I can always answer the question, "What else is he/she in?"

[Kellie]

My talent.. to the dismay of family members... is that I only have to hear a song or jingle once to pretty much memorize it. This can become particularly annoying (or fun, depending on how full your glass is) on road trips! However, it helps me to win most trivia games that are played at parties!!!

[Lisa]

Let's see...I'm fascinated by the night sky and can locate and name at least 50 different stars/planets/constellations as they move about the sky during the year. I also have an uncanny knack for recognizing voices and being able to place them even if its been years since I originally heard them (my son can do this, too, which makes watching old movies and TV shows interesting because we're both like...that voice! That belongs to the same guy who plays ______!)

[Kate]

I have two...I can trip over nothing in my bare feet (I have more scars on my knees from my 30's than from when I was a kid) and I have an ability to calm dogs just by petting them once...it's a bit strange. Once I was told that I have "the touch" when it comes to animals. Too bad I'm not a vet!

[Jen]

I can read a book (200-250 pages, easy reading) in a few hours and then recite large passages of it word-for-word. I proved this once to my dad when I was a teenager and he found me finishing a book I'd just come home with a few hours ago. He swore there's no way I'd actually READ anything, so he picked up the book and asked about something about halfway through. I started rattling off exactly what had happened (not easy since it was one of those teen books with lots of characters in impossibly knotted situations). The look on his face was pretty priceless.

I can also recite almost all of "Sense and Sensibility" (the movie) from "Your son has arrived from London, sir," to "He's kneeling down!" but that's not a talent--that's from watching the movie obsessively. :-)

[Siobhan]

I have several hidden talents. I can touch my nose with my tongue (that's my favorite). I always know what time it is without looking at a clock. If you read to me a sentence from To Kill a Mockingbird, I can tell you what happens next. And I have a great memory. It's so good that everyone in my family checks with me to find out what happened when in our family history. Even for things that happened before I was born (obviously, I don't remember when they happened, but I remember the stories behind them).

[Lindsay]

I have a photographic memory. If DH loses something he knows he can come to me to find it because its like i have a big photo album in my head of everything i look at.

Telephone numbers only have to be dialed once by me to have then memorized for life. i could tell you the telephone number of my best friend from elementary school still.

[Kristen]

I know I'm too late for the contest, but I've been thinking about this and wanted to add that my hidden talent is driving around in a new town so that I can get the lay of the land (without knowing it, I seem to put together a map in my head after I "find" myself at a familiar looking spot after "being lost" for a time).

I also have talent for loosing important documents because they are put "somewhere safe." :)

[Karah]

Um I am very bendy. I can put my legs behind my head and I can twist my legs backwards so my feet rest on my hips. Oh and I can draw pretty good. At least the last time I tried lol. I haven't done anything serious in about 4 years.

[Hallie Greer]

would like to enter yarn giveaway... ANY selection is OK.... tomorrow (3/24) is my 70th birthday!!
yarn will be mittens for my great grandson.. being a disabled senior surviving on social security makes my yarn money very scant.
Thank you

[Chris C]

I love the Cameron. I'm from the DC area but moved to cold Minnesota 31 years a go. Cameron reminds me of the Spring flowers that DC had starting in February and early March, while we in MN are still dealing with snow and cold and tulips, daffodils and forsythia are only in our dreams. What I would make, a vest or lace sweater so I can think of REAL SPRING when I'm tired of brown and white.

[cake recipe video]

yummmy....... thanks for the points , i'd love to adhere to your weblog as generally as i can.have a wonderful day~~