Let's open Prepop's magic box!
Sea-Monkeys are not Soggy Primates
A quasi con-man named Harold von Braunhut, doffed his brown hat in the 1960's and began selling brine shrimp (artemia salina) on the back of comic books. He called them Sea-Monkeys, and kids all over America bugged their parents to send for some. Harold would send you some eggs. All you had to do was add a little water and they came to life as tiny creatures with a very short life span. Did you buy some when you were a kid? Those colorful ads were hard to resist. I resisted, but only because I had no money to send to Harold and my relatives were not going to give in to my silly requests.
Remembering Tips
If you are like me, sometimes (well, most of the time) I have trouble remembering where I have left things (like two expensive hearing aids!). Back in March of 2009, Massachusetts General Hospital published some tips to help you remember.
1. Will yourself to remember. Discipline yourself to notice where you are and what you are doing when you need to remember something important. (Like, saying to yourself: "I am on the stairs, and I am going up to the bedroom to get into my jammies." Yes, that is very important.)
2. Stop, look and record. Take the time to make a visualization of what you want to remember, noticing as many details as possible. (Memorize a picture of where you are leaving your hearing aid, so you don't lose another one.)
3. Put it to music. (Put all of your grocery list items into a song. Try for a Gershwin tune. "Milk, you is my meatloaf now. Ain't no orange juice on my brow." You get the picture.)
4. Prepare a lecture. (Pretend you have to give a speech at a Toastmasters' Convention. Work the thing you are trying to remember into the details of the speech. Practice out loud.)
5. Use numbers as objects. (Assign a particular item to each of the numbers, 0 to 9, and make stories with these item/numbers. This works well when you are trying to remember numbers, as in telephone or social security numbers. Father Janiates was a valued member of our AARP Chapter, and he divulged his secret system like this, which he used for everything, not just numbers. I will find his document and publish it here. He was known for his great memory.. abetted by his number system.)
6. Create an image using your body. (Let me quote the article directly on this one: "Need to remember to buy peanut butter, spaghetti, and olives at the supermarket? Picture yourself with peanut butter smeared in your hair, a necklace of olives, and a hula skirt made of spaghetti strands. The vivid image should make your shopping list easier to recall."
Remembering in Africa
Today I heard a reporter talk about Boko Haran, the African militant organization that kidnapped over 100 young girls. He said that he had visited with some of them and found that many of them had memorized the Quoran, completely, even though they were not able to actually read it. Reading knowledge is not important to that organization.
Remembering in New Bedford, Massachusetts
When I was a senior at New Bedford High School, our class met in a large hall where professors from Boston University tried to interest us in getting a higher education. We filed into the hall in some kind of order, and were then allowed to swap seats and mix ourselves up. While we were doing this, one professor left the room. When he came back, he took a 30 second look around the room and began to look at each mixed-up seated student and recite their name. He did not miss even one of them. Obviously he used some kind of memory trick, but it was very impressive, and made me want to somehow get to Boston University, which apparently developed this genius.
Remembering in Boston, Massachusetts
While waiting with other new Air Force recruits in Boston's South Station for a train to our basic training location, an older gentleman approached us. He looked very distinguished and had a jacket pocket filled with 4 x 6 type photographs.. ones that we would probably now call "selfies." He had pictures of himself with Zulu warriors, with famous movie stars, and with famous politicians.
After he had wowed us with the pictures, he asked each of us where we were from, and we were from several different parts of Massachusetts. But, no matter where we were from, he knew somebody we each knew. In my case, he knew my mother by name, and knew other facts that only a good friend or relative would know. He managed to amaze each and every one of us. How did he do that? Did he really know all of these persons? Or, did he read every newspaper every day, remembering everything about everybody written on those pages? He did not tell us.
Remembering in Baltimore
In the early 1960's, as a Claims Authorizer on Disability Claims for Social Security Benefits, I was taxed with somehow knowing the "ins" and "outs" of the Social Security Act and all of it's revisions. This was an almost impossible task for me. I had to spend hours searching through pages and pages of the Act. However, there was a great resource for making life a lot easier for me. His name was Al Henderson, and he was my Section Chief. No matter what the problem was that I could not find the solution for, he would just stand there, look up to the ceiling, and give me the exact Section, Paragraph and even the Sentence that would solve my problem. The man had a true photographic memory.. and he was one hell of a nice guy too.
Some more Remembering in Baltimore
When I became old enough to vote in Massachusetts, one of the candidates shook my hand and was quite friendly. His first name was Sumner, and he was from an aristocratic Boston Brahmin family. He became a Massachusetts elected official, and I moved on to Baltimore. Many years later, Sumner retired from politics and took a high level job with the Social Security Administration, located in Baltimore.
One day, I was coming back from the cafeteria, when I heard: "Hey, Joe, how have you been?" It was Sumner. He met me once, maybe twenty years earlier, and still remembered my face and my name. What an amazing man. But, I hear that Bill Clinton is just like him. Yesterday, a commentator remarked that once at a conference where Bill was supposed to speak, before he got up on the stage, he had absorbed the names and vital statistics of all the waiters, and mentioned some of them in his speech.
Remembering in Westminster
Oh... I just remembered, I left some eggs boiling on the stove and I need to go rescue them before they become charred ash.
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