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Hey Matt:

I have a special talent that nobody else I know has. I can write backwards without even thinking about it, with all the letters reversed. My friend says there might be something wrong with me, but I don't think so. What do you say?

-- sselemaN, San Diego

This question might set off a small shoving match among brain science types with varying answers to why you can do this, but I'd say it's a left brain/right brain switch you have cultivated and you reinforce each time you bore your friends with the trick. Writing is ordinarily thought of as a left-brain-dominated activity: orderly, discipline, plodding along following certain rules. Turn the right brain loose in this environment and it can produce a mirror image of your usual writing style. Some left-handed kids' first writing is a form of mirror writing, and they have to be trained to grasp the left-to-right tradition. Actually, just about anyone could develop this talent, thought why they' want to, I can't say. A little practice to release the left-brain stranglehold should do it.