here's something in a similar vein to jim's "eccentricity" or whatever you want to call it:

an associate pastor named paul at a church in corpus christi has the ability to tell you exactly how many letters are in any given sentence - instantly. and i don't mean: "hello how are you?" the first sentence i gave him was something along the lines of: "i wonder if pastor paul can really tell how many letters are in this long sentence i am saying right now?". and his reply was instantaneous and correct. he did it a number of times in a row, all correct, with even longer and multiple sentences. it was one of the most amazing things i've ever seen. in fact, he knows how many letters are in this paragraph just with one quick read.

Well, that is pretty amazing. I guess he's got a career if Microsoft Word's word count ever succumbs to a fatal virus (which is, of course, inevitable).

Oh, wait...you said "letters," not "words." Poor guy. I guess he'll have to remain in the ministry.

Incidentally, Jim also has a ministry background. Wonder if there's a connection?

well, i would think that if he has the ability to count individual letters, words should actually be easier; i'll have to ask him about that.

as far as connection with ministry, i'm pretty sure it's one of the spiritual gifts or a fruit of the Spirit.

Oh, that's right...I forgot that in the book of Thomas, the Gift of Acronyms and the Gift of Letter Counts are clearly described. ;-)

sounds to me like someone hasn't been reading the apocryphal gospels recently enough!

I'm just endlessly amazed (and often amused) at the way we've been fearfully and wonderfully knit. -- Agreed!

That's GAGLC.

You've got a carton of eggs under one arm but that hand is also holding a 12 pack of Diet Dr. Pepper; in the other hand you've got a half gallon of milk and your rather fragile sunglasses, as well as the door keys. How does your brain communicate to your arms, hands, and even individual fingers just the right amount of pressure...

I've thought about the same types of things many times. Especially now with regard to the mail. One of the regular carriers at our office, whose name is also Jim, is incredibly fast "on the street." Now that I've been doing this for a while, I think I know why. I believe that he is able by long experience to know about how much mail each person on his route is going to get, and therefore can reach into his tray to more or less just the right number of pieces of mail to put into the mailbox. Sort of like Kyle's pastor friend being able to correctly judge the letter count of sentences.

I've actually seen this skill of his at work months ago when he had to bail me out because of a flat tire. We finished the route together: he was driving and reaching for the mail and handing it to me to stuff in the boxes. He would spend almost no time counting through pieces, all he did was grab the right amount and hand it to me. I was amazed then, but since have found myself doing the very same thing... albeit much less accurately.

Wait a minute. Are you telling me that you guys put mail into boxes based on a predetermined volume? And here I was thinking that it actually had something to do with, you know, addresses. What an archaic notion. ;-)

i thought of another good one... my friend kevin has this thing going on where he has a specific "jelly bean number" for each person he meets. no, i don't even know what that means. but he claims that your head has is specific number of jelly beans. i'm assuming that maybe it means a certain number of jelly beans would fit on your face?!?

i have quizzed him endlessly on this, but he claims it is true, and he has a special connection with ronald regan because his (kevin's) jelly bean number is 48, and ronald regan's is 84. he can remember everyone's number that he has ever met (assuming he stays in some reasonable contact with them), and he is slightly offended if you forget what your jelly bean number is after he's told you.

as i'm sure it does with anyone who reads this, this boggles me mind. i'm assuming it might be some sort of related synesthesia like mine, but kevin will also be the first to tell you that he did many drugs in his younger years.

sorry for the typos in that last comment....

Synesthesia didn't really cross my mind when I wrote this post (although I've posted about it before (including a reference to your dad's weird perspective on the days of the week).

But Jelly-Bean Face, beside being a rather lame name for a band, crosses over into Through the Looking Glass territory for me. ;-)

Are you telling me that you guys put mail into boxes based on a predetermined volume?

Oh Eric, you're such an anachronism. Addresses are, like, so 2005.*

*But please don't stop putting them on your mail.

I'd like to request to be put on the LESS Volume List, LVL for Jim's sake, 41 letters for the pastor (only now, it's more like 94; oops, now 106.) Does he count numbers as part of the sentence? How about punctuation marks? ;-)

As to your original question, not that counting letters in sentences doesn't pose some serious questions about one's sanity (Savants syndrome comes to mind), I have some other casual observations about BMs:

1) When we ride in an elevator, we look at our feet rather than talk to the person with whom we are encapsulated.

2) When we are driving along on the freeway and lanes begin to merge, more people than not refuse to allow the merger to "cut" in front of him or her.

Our bathroom light switches were backwards. The one closest to the door was for the fan and the further one was the light. Drove me nuts. Every single time I would turn on the fan. Thank goodness for my electrically talented husband who fixed them. Since he did I've haven't hit the wrong switch.

I have a weird thing about dates. I can generally tell you what day of the week a date falls on in the current year. Hubby thinks I'm weird...probably for more reasons than just that though ;-)

Jim is also brilliant with veggietale quotes, if I may add. For all you know, ministry types may have more links between different parts of their brains.

Does my mum being able to uncannily predict rain, especially when I insist on not bringing an umbrella, count as a BM?

If there is one thing I can do well to the point of instinct, it is to figure out the cheapest combination of value meal and ala carte at a fast food restaurant.

I have no idea which direction I have to turn the key to unlock my car. Since 1997, I've been unlocking my Civic using a magic button on my key fob. However, I suspect my first instinct would always be clockwise to lock and counter-clockwise to unlock.

Why? Because that's the way faucets and (most) nuts/screws work. Except for the lock on my fork mount roof rack, which is the opposite.

Well Eric, all I know is I can spot typos a mile a way but it doesn't stop me making them all the time.
Now what's up with that...