When I was collecting New York Yankee baseball cards in 1958, I knew the current roster, the pitching rotation and the foibles of each player. I didn’t have to memorize it or have a cheat sheet. It flowed into my youthful brain effortlessly, as did my annoyance with Cher for having Tom Sturdivant and not trading him to me. She was ruthless. She wanted my Mickey Mantle, which I made sure that she could only look at, but not touch. So there.
Allen Toma was also a godsend in my youth because he taught me about mnemonic devices. He was memorizing kanji characters for Japanese School and knew that a machine gun on top of a house was, in kanji, the word for person, for example. I have used that method to learn all kinds of things . . Dr. and Mrs. Vandertramp, for example, is a mnemonic device which stands for the French verbs which use être for conjugating in the passé composé . . you really don’t want to know that that means.
The point is that really useful tools exist for humans, and I just discovered one which I am going to share, if I can remember it long enough to finish this article. Nothing is guaranteed north of 71.
When you want to learn something, and you are not the sharpest tool in the shed, all you need to do is find scenery. . find activities about the subject that are interesting and fun to do, so you will learn the material just as a matter of course.
So, I am doing double duty right now. Writing a blog and doing my homework by eating some French bread.