HOW?
Tom is one of those on the Spectrum weirdo's who has a very enhanced imagination. He thinks in terms of mental pictures and lets those pictures represent what he wishes to remember.
His 'Remarkable Imagination' was documented in the book Superior Memory & Essays in Cognitive Psychology by John Wilding & Elizabeth Valentine in 1997 ISBN 0-86377-456-3 in which they described his ability to produce associations and images to the most unpromising material. And they also described how his technique is useless to the man in the street as Tom has synesthesia on such an extraordinary scale where all his senses are cross-wired and fire at the same time.
Tom has an imageable associate for every number from nought to ninety nine. Some examples. Ninety nine is an Ice Cream, fifty seven is tomato sauce, thirty two is an Action Man Doll, thirty six is page three girl Linda Lusardi, Seventy seven is the late Queen and sixty is a Raleigh Butcher's bike that you used to see outside the delis delivering sausages. Numbers to Tom are like words, and all those Pi numbers on the home page are all the pictures in order banging into each order in an enormous temporal pattern. So to learn 779936576032 he sees the Queen eating an Ice Cream who is approached by Linda Lusardi who drenches her in Tomato Sauce and makes her escape on a Butcher's Bike with the small front wheel only to be apprehended by the Action Man Doll. And Tom has full control and recall of these pictures no matter how ridiculous or how many!
And his greatest secret is that he learns the Pi numbers in groups of seven. Like a big shopping list. Here is the story in his mind of how he knows the Pi numbers. In his head it is like a great big Roald Dahl story!
How Tom sees these numbers!
In Polperro staying at the Tean Cottage on the Coombes adjacent to the Sumfin Tasty Alfresco cafe 1415926 Tom casts his eye down the Coombes to the picturesque Polperro Harbour by the Roman Bridge and House on the Stilts boutique B&B. And in the harbour full of seagulls and pilchards Blackpool Tower 5358979 magically arises like the Artemis 2 on it's way round the Moon. And Harboured to the 518ft 1884 Bickerstaff Tower once famous in Victorian times for it's many acts of self-slaughter is the sunken ocean liner the RMS Augusta 3238462 as seen in the 1996 film Mrs Peregrine’s Home for peculiar children. Racing round the derelict deck is a vintage VW Combi split screen Campervan 6433843 that looks remarkably like the Mystery Machine in the Warner Brothers American media franchise Scooby Doo 7950288 in which Fred, Daphne, Thelma & Scooby who solve mysteries involving obvious suspects who pretend to be supposedly supernatural creatures are by chance passing the Bate’s Motel 4197169. And in the gothic second Empire Victorian property instead of Norman Bate’s Mother Norma it is replaced by something equally sinister the Old Sparky Electric Chair 3993751. Creeping in the background adjusting the electrics is Jack Skellington 0582097 the King of Halloween town in the 1993 Tim Burton film The Nightmare Before Christmas. Who incidentally has a collection of vintage Austin Seven Cars 4944592 that were once on holiday taken on carriage across the 1890 Forth Cantilever Railway bridge 3078164. At the Queensway station in Fife the steam locomotives nearly run over Hammy & Pammy 0628620 who are two very cute Valentine dolls bought in a petrol station in St Annes many moons ago and carry great sentimental meaning to Tom. However the two stuffed toy hamsters survive and continue their Scottish odyssey in Edinburgh climbing to the summit of the 1845 Scott Monument 8998628 standing proudly in Princess Street. At the 200ft summit of this binny sandstone tower they meet a legendary Haggis 0348253 and talk Hamster and Highland to this strange Scottish creature of no specified kind that is a savoury pudding of sheep’s heart, liver and lungs. A live creature in Scottish tradition to many. And this particular Haggis is eaten for tea by this other Scottish mythical creature The Loch Ness Monster 4211706 who just happened to be in Princess Street that day who later one day while swimming up and down his home Loch of Loch Ness and as it happens met Moby Dick 7982148 the Great white sperm whale most famous for chewing of the leg of Captain Ahab of the whaling ship Pequod. His chief mate Starbuck the inspiration for the naming and brand of the Starbucks Coffee company 0865132 whose first establishment was opened to great applause in Seattle in 1971. Outside Starbucks of 1912 Pike Place Seattle runs the U.S. Route 66 8230664 that originally once ran from Chicago to Santa Monica full of quirky gas stations and retro diners that you see in all those low budget American B-movies. This historic scenic road makes a junction in the Silver Lake District of San Francisco with the Music Box Steps 7093844 of the Laurel & Hardy short film comedy released in 1932. At the top of the steps on Walnut Avenue Laurel & Hardy escape the destruction of the birthday surprise piano and retreat to a retro McDonald's drive-in burger bar with it's golden arches 6095505. The Stan & Ollie comedy team are served their burger and fries by the Creature from the Black Lagoon 8223172, the 1954 black & white American horror film starring the piscine amphibious humanoid who looks like your Mother-in-Law. Who once had a haunting apartment in the Medieval Old London Bridge 5359408 of 1209-1831 complete with it's spiked heads of criminals on the gatehouses. Somehow crossing the six hundred year old bridge of shopkeepers between Southwark and the City of London only possible in your imagination is the Cliff Richard Summer Holiday Bus the AEC Regent 111 RT Double Decker 1284811. It's passengers include the Soul Band from Dublin the Committments 1745028 with it's lead singer Andrew Strong on their way to a gig at the Belfast Empire Music Hall 4102701 that is the heartbeat of Belfast's live music scene complete with the most perfect Draft Guinness. And this theatrical pub on Botanic Avenue catered for the local Queens University intellectuals and hosted a regular quiz night that came complete with black chair like the British game show Mastermind 9385211 that drew inspiration from it's creator Bill Wright being interrogated by the Gestapo during World War Two. Occasionally they hosted a celebrity guest in this test of knowledge and once they had comedian Russ Abbot 0555964 who Tom later pictures in the ITV bittersweet comedy drama Set in Blackpool by the Pleasure Beach September Song 4622948. The Pepsi Max Big One roller coaster 9549303 once the tallest and most fearsome funfair ride in the World skyrocketing nearby. And high above one's head on this coaster at 213ft was the setting of an Oirish joke that was told a thousand times about the two Oirishmen on top of this scaring the pants of Pepsi Max Roller Coaster 8196442 from where Paddy leans over and asks Murphy Are you sure this tram goes to Fleetwood? Soon Fleetwood arrives but not by the enormous g-forces of a seaside ride. Arrival at a quirky nautical themed gift shop called Mary, Tom & Friends run by the spellbinding creativity of Miss Katherine Platt 8810975 where the trams turn near the lighthouse and Euston Hotel. Wonderful views from the stock and the shop across the tram tracks to the greasy spoon cafe The Corner Cafe 6659334 frequented by friend Steve Garill who once cycled seventeen miles there from Lytham based on the recommendation of a hearty Full English Breakfast fry who then proceeded to tell the world his adventure with bacon and egg cholesterol on Facebook. Which is what people do in the twenty first century with Social Networks. A minute away is the Pharos Lighthouse 4612847 a sandstone landmark of enormous proportions built in 1840. That hosts in it's parabolic reflector a secret workshop by Wallace & Gromit who on a Grand Day out designed a red rocket to visit the Clangers and Soup Dragon 5648233. And on arrival and inspection of the Soup Dragon kitchen they notice the impeccable cleanliness and the presence of the Shake & Vac dancing woman 7867831 played by actress of Dixon of Dock Green Jenny Logan. Complete in her high heels she danced round the Soup Dragon and Clangers and put the freshness back with her Shake & Vac. How she got there no-one asked but there was a Time Machine in the kitchen that appeared from the dystopian 1960 post-apocalyptic science fiction film The Time Machine starring Rod Taylor 6527120. And by some magic of Hollywood this mysterious film prop 1909145 ended up in a sideshow episode of The Big Bang Theory in 2008 called the Nerdvana Annihilation that leonard, Sheldon, Howard and Raj bought on eBay for a bargain $800. And soon Sheldon has nightmares about the flesh eating Morlocks. And Penny next door played by cute actress Kaley Cuoco 6485669 is not too impressed by these grown genius brain men blocking the stairs with the arrival of the Hollywood Prop. The only time that was travelled and lost was her shift at The Cheesecake Factory with this obstruction. Later Penny was to relax and enjoy a pedal on her Pashley Tradition ladies cycle 2346034 and make her way over long distances to England to visit the historical blue stone landmark of Stonehenge 8610454 near Salisbury. Fenced of by Farmer Giles the prehistoric megalithic structure holds in custody Dolly the cloned Finn-Dorset Sheep 3266482. Who is extensively researched by Boffins at Royal Holloway and New Bedford College 1339360 near London for her status as the first mammal to be cloned from an adult somatic cell. And next door in this principle college John Wilding and Elizabeth Valetine write essays in cognitive psychology about Memory Savant Tom Morton to appear in the book Superior Memory 7260249. And from this hardback reading material that examines all fortunes of exceptional memory, Tom appears in the chapter of Two Unusual Individuals in which it describes how he remembers the Beech Hotel Blackpool phone number of three nine five seven nought nought with an image of Adolf Hitler riding a bike 1412737 and squirting tomato sauce everywhere. Tom with his exclusive and remarkable ability to generate associations he sees thirty nine for invasion of Europe, fifty seven as the Heinz tomato sauce brand and two noughts as the wheels of a bicycle. Pictures press his buttons and it works for Tom and soon Hitler on his bike pedals to the Imperial Hotel in Blackpool 2458700. Grade two listed Charles Dickens and the Queen have frequented there and every celebrity you can think up. This castle in the air structure launches Artemis Two 6606315 that as luck would have it crash lands in Times Square New York 5881748 outside the Planet Hollywood restaurant that enjoys the backing of celebrity and the strings of their film reputation. And centrepiece in the restaurant is Spock's latex ears 8152092 from an early Star Trek film production which is not exactly what you want to see while eating your burgers and fries. This Vulcan star Spock is next seen following his wonder years learning at school 0962829 with their wonderboy academic systems. Todays lesson at Boffin Academy for Spock is the Death Star 2540917 of the Star Wars space opera franchise that appears as a giant spherical moon that is capable of obliterating entire Planet systems. This cultural icon and super weapon is next pointed at North Korea at Kim Jong Un who is enjoying a game of Monopoly 1536436. The traditional London board game and not one dicing with the regime and politics of his country. He throws the dice and everyone's wish is granted as he goes to Jail only this one is not Belmarsh or the Tower of London but Strangeways in Manchester 7892590. Here Kim Jong Un shares a cell with Fred West 3600113 of Cromwell Street Gloucester who has decided to contest his innocence by saying that it was not his fault building his patio when he got his topsoil from Lockerbie 3053054. This Scottish town in the county of Dumfries and Galloway came to the attention of the World with the terrorist bomb attack of flight Pan Am 103 in 1988. But changing subject to the practice of cooking and not killing, it became the location for the new culinary outlet of the yummy Three Bears Cafe 8820466 once a brand of diner in Sandy Row Belfast. But not entirely sure if it was a reference to the anthropomorphic bears moaning about their missing porridge and displaced bed covers by Goldilocks or was it a synonym for some three secret loyalist terrorists. Outside the Three Bears or whatever it's hidden meaning is parked against the cafe front is the famous Goodies three seater bike 5213841. And not a single comedian of this eponymous television show in sight. Only to feel the crush of the colossal freak show Kitten Kong 4695194. Soon after Twinkle the kitten with her formulated growth mixture destroys both St Paul's Cathedral and the Post Office Tower, she arrives amongst the pigeons and centre of London at Charing Cross to Nelson's Column 1511609 of Trafalgar Square. From where the bronze lions at the base of this grand monument a memorial of the British Royal Navy officer Horatio Nelson's decisive victory at the Battle of Trafalgar designed by Sir Edwin Landseer to be replaced by four of the classic but comedic Skoda Estelles 4330572 for the pigeons to do target practice. But one Skoda escapes the shitehawks and wankpuffins to become star in the 1974 Bond Movie The Man with the Golden Gun. In which this air-cooled poor man's Porsche as the first computer generated car stunt leaps the broken bridge in Thailand in the coolest film stunt ever 7036575. Jumping over the Rangsit canal in his techno Skoda Estelle, Roger Moore stops to talk to his like-minded mentalist friend Patrick Jane 9591953 and congratulate his powers of observation and did he see which way Francisco Scaramanga and Nick Nack went. Getting no answer they talk about their days on holiday in Portwenn Cornwall and seek consultation with Doc Martin 0921861 after food poisoning at the local Crab pub. Driving down the Roscarrock Hill road to Portwenn is Tom's precious Florence the rare oxygen blue Mini Cooper. Diesel 1738193. By the Portwenn harbour the village is graced by the historic tea clipper Cutty Sark 2611793 who is descended upon by a rubber suit Dalek 1051185 with a Devon accent that once ran in the London Marathon. And when friendly local fishermen asked the famous villian of Doctor Who where it was from, it said Exeter Mate Exeter Mate. Fearing death from the Dalek toilet plunger the fishermen ran away so the downhearted Dalek returned to his holiday home in Conwy on Lower Gate Street which so happens to be the smallest house in the Kingdom 4807446. Possibly the Dalek was deceived by the estate agent or was the joke misunderstood when he made the first offer as he indicated comparisons to the Doctor's Tardis. As Daleks are known to be evil and not eggheads. This miniscule building and holiday home to this simpleton from Skako had commercial history and was once a Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise 2379962. Their Bargain Buckets very popular every night with the Lytham Coolcats 7495673 Tom's much loved family of cats once of Two South Clifton Street Lytham. These nine felines had the most wonderful names like Paddy, Murphy, Guinness, Poteen, Billy Bugs, Mystery Woman, Chemical Poppy, Smokey Robinson & The Miracles and Charlie Bin Laden. The latter the terrorist cat who who bullied the others in competition for space and refreshment hence the scornful fun name but Charlie Bin Laden was much loved. The real Osama Bin Laden 5188575 was full of vemon and hate. Even less popular than the Jehovah's Witness's 2724891 frequenting the area of Leafy Lytham their door to door evangelism. Stupid humans who refuse blood transfusions and don't do Santa or chocolate eggs. Looking out the window to see if the Jehovah have gone or are broadcasting their fiddlesticks and folly to another neighbour. The coast is clear as Tom nips out to Strong's Fruit & Veg 2279381 for some of his favourite pasture raised Duck eggs. Parked outside this property of award winning fruits and vegetables is Mister Beans conspicuous citron yellow mini with black bonnet and padlock on door 8301194. Teddy is in the back window giving the finger watching the grannies giving him the evils for parking on yellows without Blue Badge. Bean returns and with his box of choice vegetables then globetrots to Pisa Italy to drive to the Leaning Tower of Pisa 9219833. Over and above this curious Italian structure Mister Bean notices the Dambuster Crews 6733624 from Operation Chastise depart on it's famous 617 Squadron RAF Bomber Command Mission to attack the Mohne and Edersee Dams. The great pillars of flame and water looked like a scene from action series Hawaii Five-0 4065664 with Jack Lord. The giant waves consume and splash the great British Liner the SS Canberra 3086021 on one of her world wide odysseys to Australia. Her arrival at Sydney Harbour Bridge 3949463 unhindered. Climbing this great giant steel arch nicknamed the Coathanger is fearless British Steeplejack Fred Dibnah 9522473 who inspecting the Harbour Bridge with his infinite industrial curiosity is nearly run over by the A4 4468 Mallard Pacific steam locomotive 7190702 which is now on display in York 1798609 a must see allurement to it's World Famous Railway Museum.
Hope you enjoyed that. That was only the first 553 places of Pi. So think what over 70,000 are going to look like!
