# Brain blanks

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-blanks/679605>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [January 24, 2014, 8:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-blanks/679605 "2014-01-24T08:35:35Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\
**Post date:** [January 24, 2014, 8:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-blanks/679605/1 "2014-01-24T08:35:35Z")

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So I’m reading [this fascinating Wiki article about the snail telegraph](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pasilalinic-sympathetic_compass), and I think to myself: “Wow, that would be a great subject for a question on that splendid British quiz show, QI! Maybe I should post a comment about this on the forums on their website, or something.” Just to ensure that it hadn’t actually been used on the show already, I do a quick Google search on QI transcripts and snail telepathy.

Well, it turns out that it had already been used as a subject for a question on the show. In fact, it was on the same episode which I had sitting as a YouTube video in the next browser tab over.

Which I had just been watching (or at least partly watching, partly listening to in the background while I was doing something else in a different tab). Which was presumably the reason why I looked up snail telegraphs on Wiki in the first place, although the memory of doing so appears to have gone missing, as I just kind of found myself sitting there, reading the article.

:smack:

I need a new brain.

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**Author:** ![LawMonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@LawMonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LawMonkey)\
**Post date:** [January 24, 2014, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-blanks/679605/2 "2014-01-24T15:52:42Z")

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Don’t feel bad. Even Stephen Fry has his moments. Just ask him what they say of the Parthenon where the Acropolis is if you don’t believe me.

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**Author:** ![Scubaqueen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c0e974/32.png) [@Scubaqueen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scubaqueen)\
**Post date:** [January 24, 2014, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-blanks/679605/3 "2014-01-24T16:38:20Z")

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that’s nothing. i looked over at the divemaster the other day ago – and blanked on his name. :smack::smack::smack:

he was \*\*not \*\*amused. 😃