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My son loves facts.  He will focus on one subject for long periods of time and learn all he wants to about that subject.  He's gone through birds, dinosaurs, and 9/11.  His obssession with 9/11 is the most recent.  He has tried to wrap his brain around the whole tragedy but has a lot of trouble with the empathy part.  It always brings to the forefront some of his difficulties.  I'll cover empathy another day though.  One of the things that has amazed me is his ability to remember these facts.  He doesn't memorize all the facts, but there are some things that grab him more than others.  For a long time during his dinosaur phase (which comes and goes often), he would request that I read him the name of a dinosaur and how long that dinosaur was.  The benefit is that I can pronounce almost any dinsaur name out there. 

The thing that awes me is that he really remembers this stuff without even trying.  We were at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History a few years ago.  He identified a whole bunch of birds when we walked past the bird exhibit.  I had been reading those same books with him but could barely recognize any of them. 

I also use him as my calendar.  Once you tell him your birthday, he remembers it.  It's quite handy.