Weirdos or geniuses?

I love meeting new people, especially those I find a bit weird. Meaning they have a passion for things I never could imagine anybody would be interested in.

Like the other day when I met an apparently clever woman, who just made her PhD in science. When I asked what particular science it was (thinking I'd probably have no clue, but still a bit curious), she responded "I PhD'd in what wood sounds like". And all I could think about when responding was "oh really?". And then of course, being me, I launched into a long speech about how I hate wood, since I grew up with it and how much I prefer stone. But she was gracious, and pretended that she just got into that field by accident. That may be true, or not, but I'm still in awe how somebody could spend many years looking into "what wood sounds like". But I'm proud of myself, since I did refrain from asking what it might be good for.

Then a guy joined, and he turned out to be passionate about German architecture and building structures from the 1950's to 60's. Another area that is blank in my brain. I tell you, it was hard to even pretend to be interested. And even though I got a bit of a lecture I think I managed to forget it all again. Good for me. Still, it's nice to see people being so hot on a subject, that most of the population couldn't give a hoot about.

He did have one interesting hobby though, he was very knowledgeable about chili's. Chili here, chili there, different types of. For me who loves chili, it was eye-opening. I knew of course there are different types, but for me, chili is something you add to a dish and it tastes better. And hotter. But he knew his stuff, and after hearing about his chili plantation in his window, I think I might keep him as a contact.