Been listening, on and off, for weeks, to Moonwalking with Einstein, since I thought it would help me with my trivial pursuits (see what I did there?), but thus far, I’m not sure it’ll help me. It’s really intimidating to think about dedicating myself to this kind of learning; I’ve never been great at rote memorisation, but maybe something will sink in soon. It would be hella handy if I do want to get even deeper down the trivia rabbit hole, scaring men along the way.

Because a lot of my ‘freakish’ (it’s not actually) memory is just good recall of some things, often things I’ve learned on QI or other non-trivia-based TV or movies. My knowledge of Canadian current events plummeted when ‘This Hour Has 22 Minutes’ lost Rick Mercer, because I mostly stopped watching. When I wrote the ‘Jeopardy!’ online test (WHY DON’T THEY CALL?), it is literally true that one of the answers I got correct was directly from Miss Hoover’s Teacher’s Edition. I’m Canadian! I don’t know much about the U.S. Civil War, okay? (Even though our mother took us to a few battlefield on our roadtrips to Florida, none, and I mean NONE, of the ‘facts’ I learned there stuck. I remember Gettysburg being damp and boring when I was 11.)

I never took high school biology either; I couldn’t face the idea of having to dissect a fetal pig in Grade 11. The smell of that week of experiments permeated the whole Science Wing (and my more science-y friends clothes) so profoundly that I’m glad I didn’t.

But this week, a mnemonic device on ‘Community’ helped me finally remember (most) of the taxonomic ranks, which I never did remember properly in Grade 10 Science: Kevin, Please Come Over For Gay Sex. I didn’t even have to look up what (all) the letters stood for as soon as Pierce said it. How could I ever forget that? I probably won’t.

Which means that I really should get through this book, because mnemonics, which form the basis of really ace memorisation skills, make the world go ’round. I’ve never had a use for them before, or at least I thought I didn’t. I always just got through with dumb luck and decent recall. If only I remembered to listen to it.

—
To the numbnuts who are freaking the hell out about gayness in ‘Game of Thrones’? It’s in the books. Subtext. Hell, sometimes even texttext. Learn to read. Renly and Loras = TRU LUV 4EVA.

See also: Being a racist idiot re. The Hunger Games.