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Perhaps out an large aversion to the news, I've been watching YouTube videos, and I've rediscovered Bo Jackson. Bo Jackson was a Heisman Trophy winner who went into baseball, and got more ballots for the All-Star game than any other player. Became an all-pro running back for the Raiders until a crippling injury cut short the career of the greatest 2-sport player in history. (Okay, maybe Jim Brown in football and lacrosse).

Anyway, I was thinking if I have the physical gifts of one human being for a day, it would be Bo Jackson at the peak of his skills. When I thought Lance Armstrong was clean, I imagined being able to power up Alpe d'Huez like he did.

Whose physical gifts would you like to experience for a day? Would it be an athlete? A singer? A musician? I'm not thinking about positions of power or fame. I'm talking about walking around your own skin, but with the physical abilities of any other human being.

So whose physical abilities would you experience for a day?

Linda Ronstadt when she was at her peak. :-)

I would love to have Lawrence Taylor's, greatest football player ever in my opinion..I would love to be able to take over a game on the other side of the ball. Or maybe Pele in his first world cup, so creative. But if I had only 24 hours I would probably pick Usain Bolt in that I could experience being the fastest man alive.

Edit...Eric Clapton would be pretty cool to!

Paul Cezanne or Egon Schiele. I'd paint like mad all day and night, and see if I could learn something.

edit: Either Jack Johnson (the boxer) or Aretha Franklin. The incongruity of Ms Franklin's voice pouring from my mouth would be incredibly delicious.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giuseppe_ ... Mezzofanti

Mezzofanti was well known for being a hyperpolyglot who according to Russell 1858 spoke at least thirty languages "with rare excellence",

Biblical Hebrew, Mishnaic Hebrew, Arabic, Chaldee, Coptic, Ancient Armenian, Modern Armenian, Persian, Turkish, Albanian, Maltese, Greek, Romaic, Latin, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Swedish, Danish, Dutch, Flemish, English, Illyrian, Russian, Polish, Czech, Hungarian, Chinese.

He was reported to have spoken nine other languages fluently, and with dozens of others he is said to have had at least basic knowledge.

I'm currently teaching myself Portuguese in preparation for our move to Brazil, so I'd love to have this man's physical brain's ability to learn a language like he did so I could knock out a lot of the groundwork in one day. Additionally, he also had in-depth knowledge of ethnology, archaeology, numismatics, and astronomy. From the website I'm plagiarizing right now, "He was such a well-known linguistic genius that when he died, people all over Europe vied for his skull."

- Doc

MeDotOrg wrote:Perhaps out an large aversion to the news, I've been watching YouTube videos, and I've rediscovered Bo Jackson. Bo Jackson was a Heisman Trophy winner who went into baseball, and got more ballots for the All-Star game than any other player. Became an all-pro running back for the Raiders until a crippling injury cut short the career of the greatest 2-sport player in history. (Okay, maybe Jim Brown in football and lacrosse).

What about Deion Sanders? He was pretty damn great at both sports too.

So whose physical abilities would you experience for a day?

This answer is a little cheat, but the first thing that popped into my mind was Paul McCartney's music writing abilities in the 60's and 70's.

There was an older YouTube video (I just tried to find but there are too many of them, apparently) of a Cirque du Soleil juggler that I thought was the most amazing show of physical dexterity and skill I can ever remember seeing. That would be the guy whose physical skills I'd like to assume for a day.

Doctor CamNC4Me wrote:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giuseppe_Caspar_Mezzofanti

Mezzofanti was well known for being a hyperpolyglot who according to Russell 1858 spoke at least thirty languages "with rare excellence",

Biblical Hebrew, Mishnaic Hebrew, Arabic, Chaldee, Coptic, Ancient Armenian, Modern Armenian, Persian, Turkish, Albanian, Maltese, Greek, Romaic, Latin, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Swedish, Danish, Dutch, Flemish, English, Illyrian, Russian, Polish, Czech, Hungarian, Chinese.

He was reported to have spoken nine other languages fluently, and with dozens of others he is said to have had at least basic knowledge.

I'm currently teaching myself Portuguese in preparation for our move to Brazil, so I'd love to have this man's physical brain's ability to learn a language like he did so I could knock out a lot of the groundwork in one day. Additionally, he also had in-depth knowledge of ethnology, archaeology, numismatics, and astronomy. From the website I'm plagiarizing right now, "He was such a well-known linguistic genius that when he died, people all over Europe vied for his skull."

- Doc

I've thought that a cool superhero power would be to speak and understand whatever language is being spoken. Or maybe the future will be like Star Trek, where virtually everyone speaks English ;-)

MeDotOrg wrote:So whose physical abilities would you experience for a day?

John Holmes's.

I thought of that, but I think it would hurt to much to cut it down to size.

Jersey Girl wrote:Linda Ronstadt when she was at her peak. :-)

Awesome choice. She was incredible in the movie version of Pirates of Penzance, for example!

I think I would choose a great violinist like Isaac Stern, Jascha Heifetz or Fritz Kreisler.