Born On A Blue Day
Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant
Chapter One
Blue Nines and Red Words
I was born on January 31, 1979 - a Wednesday. I know it was a Wednesday,
because the date is blue in my mind and Wednesdays are always blue, like
the number 9 or the sound of loud voices arguing. I like my birth date,
because of the way I'm able to visualize most of the numbers in it as
smooth and round shapes, similar to pebbles on a beach. That's because
they are prime numbers: 31, 19, 197, 97, 79 and 1979 are all divisible
only by themselves and 1. I can recognize every prime up to 9,973 by their
"pebble-like" quality. It's just the way my brain works.
I have a rare condition known as savant syndrome, little known before its
portrayal by actor Dustin Hoffman in the Oscar-winning 1988 film Rain Man.
Like Hoffman's character, Raymond Babbitt, I have an almost obsessive need
for order and routine which affects virtually every aspect of my life. For
example, I eat exactly 45 grams of porridge for breakfast each morning; I
weigh the bowl with an electronic sc ... read full excerpt from Born on a Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant ebook
