By Jim Hagarty
2012
I met a man years ago, about my age, who could write backwards as quickly as you or I can write forwards. But not just backwards, so that when he was done the word would appear correctly in front of you as if it had been written normally. When he was done writing, you had to hold the paper up to a mirror to read what he had written, so I don’t know exactly what you would call that. It was handwritten, not printed, and the writing was good – not sloppy or childlike.
I’m sure I asked him how he learned this but I forget his answer. What I do remember is that he was a pretty quirky soul, always laughing just a little too hysterically, it seemed to me, though his laugh was infectious. And to prove that he hadn’t practised just a few words and that’s why he could do this, he would challenge you to give him a word to write and sure enough, he would write that word mirror backwards just as well as any others.
I think this skill must have been one of those “savant” sort of things, like the “Rain Man.” It was incredible. I wonder what became of John, or nhoJ, as he would have written.
