Maybe a poll can be developed from replies to this basic question.
Add to the list of lists you know and some details about when and how your learned them.
US States
US State Capitals
European Countries
European Capitals
South American Countries
South American Capitals
Asian Countries
Asian Capitals
African Countries
African Capitals
Books of the Bible
Periodic Table
US Presidents
Do you waste as much time at Sporcle as I used to? Timed quizzes are a drag for me because I get such slow response times from my ISP. It’s no fun when a 2-second reply takes 10 seconds to register. But if you are a lists fan, there are some doozies there.
I loved the Books of Lists as a kid. I just remember scraps of them – the “words for specific objects” one with words like punt and aglet. Or “phrases used wrong” like “control your destiny” since destiny is by definition uncontrollable.
Also, the Book of Rock Lists with things like “lyrics that slipped by the censors” and “eerie final hits” like Patsy Cline’s “I Fall to Pieces” before she died in a plane crash.
Thanks for the trip down memory lane
Officially, HOMES - Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior, in grade school.
I’m not sure where my copy of Word Menu even is, but it fascinated me when I first got it years ago. It was the work of a guy who went to the trouble of collecting and defining and otherwise enlarging on those terms you run across in the dictionary like nautical terms, figures of speech, all sorts of categories. He just went ahead and did what I thought would be a fun project – but was too lazy to do for myself.
I know the seven dwarfs’ names, the modern Greek alphabet, and the 10 films of Astaire-Rodgers. Useful for trivia games and the occasional crossword, not much else.
When I was a liberal arts major in a well-known mid-west university that emphasized a well-rounded education, the biology department thought it would be a good idea for all of us to memorize the Krebs cycle (something to do with digestion, not a 50’s beatnik). It’s a list of chemical reactions, I think. I flunked out.
At age eight I knew all the planets, their diameters, number and names of their (then) satellites, distance from the Sun, and length of revolution. Mostly gone.
At twelve, I knew all the Best Picture winners, Best Actor/Actress and Best Director, all the way back to 1927. 99 and 44/100% forgotten.
I forgot, I also know the seven deadly sins, which I learned from the original movie Bedazzled in 1967 (hey, they had the sense to have Raquel Welch as Lust, or “Lillian Lust the Babe with the Bust”).
A stupid song in junior high chorus class taught me how to remember the name of the US states in alphbabetical order.
Sometime in high school I could recite, in chronological order, all the reigning kings and queens of England. I still get a litle fuzzy on the early 1800’s and the US presidents though.
I still know my list of President’s pretty well. Theres a few obscure ones in the 1800’s that are difficult. I can usually get them out if I concentrate hard enough.
