Down for the count

Earlier this week, one of my Facebook friends linked to this Economist article on the important role that social and behavioral "misfits" play in many businesses. It mentions the founder of the company I work for and is quite an interesting read overall.

(It's a little early in the post to go off on a tangent, but here it is anyway: Any time I read an article from the Economist I usually find it fascinating. I also find myself assuming, from the topics I'm reading about and the writing style used, that it's an American publication. But in each piece there's always a hint or two to remind me, "Oh yeah, this is British." The clues actually came early this time, with "Organisation (rather than Organization) Man" and "hoover up" (instead of vacuum) popping up in the opening paragraph.)

The second paragraph jumped out at me. My mom likes to diagnose family, friends and strangers with all sorts of diseases and syndromes. Asperger's is one of her favorite labels to apply, especially to my dad. But she's also given me that diagnosis a few times. I laugh it off, knowing (or at least hoping) that I do not display "a lack of sensitivity to social cues," as the article describes.

But the rest of the signs given in that paragraph hit pretty close to home, especially when I look back on my adolescence: "an obsessive interest in narrow subjects; a passion for numbers, patterns and machines; an addiction to repetitive tasks." Here's the most prominent example from my youth that indicates my mother may be on to something.

It's probably not a secret to many who read my blog that I've been an avid pro wrestling fan for decades. But something you probably didn't know is that I subscribed to WWF Magazine (almost as rigorous a read as The Economist, let me assure you) for about 15 years, starting in 1990. It was a nice supplement to the programming I watched each week in the early '90s, and in the mid-'90s became the primary source of wrestling information in my cable-less household when the syndicated WWF Superstars of Wrestling went away.

As my magazine collection grew, and as I had few other options to get my wrestling fix, I began (I can't believe I'm admitting this) counting pictures of people in each issue and tracking them in a database. This process raised some tough questions: does a picture of Hulk Hogan on a t-shirt or ice cream bar count as a picture of Hulk Hogan? (Yes.) Do pictures of non-wrestling figures in advertisements count, requiring me to at least attempt to figure out the names of the members of Motorhead or the cast of the Mortal Kombat movie, in the days before Google? (Yes.) Does this qualify me for the Nerd Hall of Fame? (Absolutely.)

I planned ahead before my LDS mission, renewing my subscription for two years. Amazingly, my mom didn't throw them away, keeping them in a big box for me as they arrived each month. When I returned from Scotland, I had about six weeks before I went back to college. I had read all 24 issues and catalogued the pictures well before moving back to Provo. So yeah, pretty Aspergian.

If someone were ever to say to me, "Have ye received his image in your countenance?" they might be asking if I had noticed Stone Cold Steve Austin's leg in the corner of a photo on page 45 of the March 2002 issue and added it to my spreadsheet. That would be a super-weird way to ask about that, though. More likely, if someone asked me that question, they'd be referring to the soul-searching self-evaluation conducted by Alma in the 5th chapter of his eponymous book, which we'll be covering in Sunday School this week. Some great stuff there, check it out!

Bet you didn't guess I was leading up to this week's BASOTRUSSL, did you? Unless you saw the tag. (BASOTRUSSL stands for my weekly Blog About Something Only Tangentially Related to the Upcoming Sunday School Lesson.) Well, I like to keep you guessing. And if that messes with your mind, I don't really care. You know, because of my Asperger's.

P.S. Two points I forgot to bring up in last week's BASOTRUSSL on Book of Mormon government:

--At one point Alma (the one who organized the church among the Nephites and the father of this week's Alma) says basically that a monarchy is the best form of government, as long as the rulers act justly (see Mosiah 23:8). I wonder if that's a belief he held regardless of the circumstances, or if he would've adjusted his opinion depending on the size of the population. At the time he made that statement he was the spiritual leader of a community of about 500 people.

--I can't believe I made all those references to judges last week and didn't make any Cat Deeley jokes. She pronounces the word as "jidges," and it's adorable. Cat is my celebrity crush (along with Ivanka Trump), and I just may have a chance with her--she just revealed that she would date Taylor Hicks, and I look just like him! (All right, I'm taking her comments slightly out of context, but it's worth a try.) How 'bout it, Cat? Can I take you out for some As-burgers and fries?