I used to have an autistic neighbor, the guy could locate all of the seen constellations and tell you how far each star was from Earth and recite dialog from the Dennis the Menace shows verbatim. However, at least once a week he would knock on my door to introduce himself and always enquired as to how long I've lived there as if I were new to the neighborhood. I quit addressing him by name when he approached because it made him a litte miffed that I should know his name before he introduced himself (for the umpteenth time). I think he believed I was spying on him or something.

Like you weren't spying on him trying to steal the mysteries of the known universe!

I work with Autistic kids and they can have some amazing abilities.

None of them equaled Kim of course, but they all seemed to have

"something" that they were amazingly bright about.

I currently work with an Autistic boy that has an amazing memory

for numbers, dates and times. He knows the opening and closing

time of any place in our city. Will never need an address/phone

book because tell him once and he never forgets and if you give

him a date he will tell you what day of the week it's on. Yet at the

same time the child can read something as simple as a 2nd grade

book and cant comprehend what is happening at all.

It's amazing how the human mind works.

In the documentaries they often showed him reading, holding a book near his face, I often thought he was very near sighted, turns out he was reading the left page with his left eye and the right page with his right eye at the same time.

Were they ever able to determine what percentage of his brain he was using (in comparason to a "normal" person)? Because it sounds like it was ALOT more then the rest of us. It would seem to me (and I'm no brain expert, though I did stay at a holiday inn express last night)that the ability to read different things w/both eyes and have comprehension/retention would indicate I higher brain function? Would he be considered Autistic? And am curious also about his IQ. Intriquing person to be sure.

Kim Peek of Utah, died Saturday at the age of 58 from a heart attack. Kim who had been the subject of much study and many television documentaries is best known as the inspiration for the savant character in the movie, "Rain Man," (played by Dustin Hoffman).

I saw an article on this else where, he was considered a master savant as he possessed uncommon abilities in like 7 or 8 different fields, yet couldn't dress himself.