The Guelphs and the Ghibellines were, of course, factions backing the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor in Italy, in the 12th and 13th centuries. However, I stubbornly refuse to remember which is which. Unfortunately, I haven’t been very successful so far, but one of these days, I swear, I’ll forget, and it’ll stay forgotten.
The members of the Second Triumvirate were Octavian, Mark Antony and Lepidus. As you all know, Lepidus was very much the weakest and least significant member of the group. In fact, he was such a small potato compared to the other two, that whenever I tell someone about the Second Triumvirate, I absolutely forbid them to remember his name. If it somehow sticks with them anyway, I insist that they forget it again as soon as possible.
I knew a guy with a literature degree who insisted that he didn’t understand poetry. He was very much a prose kind of guy. He could talk forever about his favorite novels, but whenever someone confronted him with a poem and asked him about what this or that metaphor might mean, he simply replied that he didn’t understand poetry, and that was the end of the conversation. I’m pretty sure that it was a case of stubbornness rather than any real lack of knowledge or understanding, considering that he had studied a metric buttload of poetry in college.
As a youngster I could not remember anything related to history or government but had a great memory for geography and real gift when it came to most any kind of statistic. I found out as an adult I can read court transcripts and rememeber nearly every word.
I refuse to learn the precedences of all the dozens of operators in C or other C-like languages. If an expression has more than one operator, write it with parentheses, dammit!
sure - I remember it (i before e except after c or when sounding like a as in neighbor and weigh) - but when I go to type words that require that remembrance, there is always this annoying squiggly red line underneath them.
I work entirely in French. Of course, I have to be reasonably good at French to work where I do, and most of the time, I don’t have much of a problem. However, I often have trouble remembering what the words “dessus” and “dessous” mean. One means over, and the other means under, and I can’t always remember which means which. It throws me off sometimes when I’m told to, say, put a piece of paper “en dessus” of a pile of papers, and I can’t remember whether it means to put it on the top of the pile or at the bottom of the pile.
Anytime I’m in court or in plea negotiations, I have to stop and think of the right word to use. (Or correct myself after I use the wrong one). My problem is that “concurrent” sounds a lot like “current” as in electrical current so that they flow together. That’s an incorrect mnemonic.
How often do you find yourself telling people about the Second Triumvirate? When I’m making small talk, I usually just jump to the differences between the Principate and Dominate.
I noticed the other day that whenever I want to spell the word mnemonic, I always have to look it up. So I googled “mnemonic mnemonic”, and found someone pointing out that its similar to the spelling of “amnesia”, which I think has solved that problem for me.
I refuse to learn the names or positions of any Major League baseball players, unless they are on the Los Angeles Dodgers.
I also refuse to acknowledge that former Dodgers have any relevant baseball career after they leave the Dodgers. Mike Scioscia, for instance, is a Dodger catcher. Billy Buckner, likewise, is a Dodger, ummm, infielder.
