three things we love

Savant Daniel Tammet

Inside the remarkable mind of Daniel Tammet

Tammet shares with us his inspiring story of living a fully independent life as an autistic savant.

The subject of child prodigies and savants has particularly fascinated me. These are people with exceptional mental abilities and one of the most interesting cases I have come across is a man named Daniel Tammet who has a seemingly magical relationship with numbers and words. One of Daniel's claims to fame is that he holds the European record in his ability to recite the number pi to 22,512 decimal places. He says he sees numbers as a landscape. In addition, he has synesthesia, which he describes as a cross talk of the senses--when you hear music but you see shapes, or you hear a word and see a color. Hence the title of his memoir, which I enjoyed immensely, called Born on a Blue Day. Daniel is also a linguist who speaks at least 11 languages, and has the amazing ability to learn new ones extremely quickly. He has even been featured on an Icelandic television program by learning the difficult Icelandic language in five days and then going on a talk show to prove it.

There are numerous books written by Daniel Tammet that include Moonwalking with Einstein, Thinking in Numbers, Born on a Blue Day; and Embracing the Wide Sky; How to Be Normal; and Every Word is a Bird We Teach to Sing; as well as Lili Marlene's book on Daniel Tammet: The Boy with the Incredible Story. If you want to learn more, there is a good documentary on him as well entitled Brain Man
What makes Daniel so intriguing is that Savants can't usually tell us how they do what they do. It just comes to them. Daniel is different--he can describe what he sees in his head. That's why he's exciting. As Richard Johnson of the Guardian puts it: "He could be the Rosetta Stone."

High Tea at the Crosby Hotel

I don't do it often, but once a year I take my daughter and niece out for high tea. It has become a tradition around the holidays and I look forward to it every December. This year, with the omicron variant of Covid beginning to spread like wild fire in New York City, I write this as a virtual visit to my favorite place for high tea: The Crosby Hotel on Crosby Street in Soho (NYC). The setting could not be more beautiful, and although I am usually a minimalist when it comes to interior design, the wonderful designer Kit Kemp goes to town with her eclectic mix of over the top patterns and colors in the hotel and bar. High tea includes standard fare: delicious tea sandwiches and pastries beautifully presented with a wide choice of impeccably british teas....

Two Short Poems

To Blossom
BY ANAIS NIN
And then the day came, when the risk
to remain tight
in a bud
was more painful
than the risk
it took
to blossom.

Dust of Snow
BY ROBERT FROST
The way a crow
Shook down on me
The dust of snow
From a hemlock tree

Has given my heart

A change of mood
And saved some part
Of a day I had rued.

Charity of the Week

Painting of the Week

About The Author

New York City based contemporary artist, Pam Smilow created the creative lifestyle blog “things we love” in an effort to foster a sense of community during times of isolation and reflection. To read more about her and her art, visit her website and check out the essay written by the Hammond Museum's Frank Matheis entitled The Sophisticated Innocence of Pam Smilow.. And by the way, let me know in the comment section what you think of the new haircut...