# Most Useless Thing Memorized? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 25, 2003, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-useless-thing-memorized/215244 "2003-11-25T20:06:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Captain\_Carrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@Captain\_Carrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Carrot)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-useless-thing-memorized/215244/1 "2003-11-25T20:06:27Z")
What is the most useless thing you have ever memorized? By ‘useless’, I mean useless in the eyes of the world. For example, I can recite all 65 Roman emperors and pi to 660 places. I’m sure someone can top those! ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-useless-thing-memorized/215244/2 "2003-11-25T20:09:02Z")
“Thanksgiving Wishes,” by Arthur Guterman. A poem I had to recite in 6th grade and still remember every word of. . . . My cell-phone number, on the other hand . . . ---
**Author:** ![cowgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8c91f0/32.png) [@cowgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cowgirl)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-useless-thing-memorized/215244/3 "2003-11-25T20:18:28Z")
The first eighteen lines (I think) of _Caunterbury Tales_ in Olde English. high school english class. Get it out of my head ! And, more lyrics to 80s songs than I care to recall. Heard “It Ain’t Enough” (Bryan Adams, off _Reckless_, a great album) in the grocery store this morning and knew every word even though I haven’t heard it in over ten years, for sure. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-useless-thing-memorized/215244/4 "2003-11-25T20:22:07Z")
The 3rd perfect number is 496, the forth is 8128. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-useless-thing-memorized/215244/5 "2003-11-25T20:45:49Z")
Brutus’ soliloquy. The quadratic equation (it was fine for solving math problems that require it, but has been useless for any other aspect of my life). ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-useless-thing-memorized/215244/6 "2003-11-25T20:47:15Z")
And of course, that should be _Marc Anthony’s_ soliloquy. Told you it was useless. ---
**Author:** ![Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de053/32.png) [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackknifed_Juggernaut)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-useless-thing-memorized/215244/7 "2003-11-25T20:49:24Z")
“Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow…” ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-useless-thing-memorized/215244/8 "2003-11-25T21:05:44Z")
Ha. I know the title to every X-files episode. What’s more useless than that? ---
**Author:** ![DeVena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dec6dc/32.png) [@DeVena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeVena)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-useless-thing-memorized/215244/9 "2003-11-25T21:12:52Z")
Far more Shakespeare than anyone else in Alabama. and **Chefguy** , Brutus’ Sililoquy begins “Friends, countrymen and lovers…” I like that one better 😉 United States, in alphabetical order. The Rosary, in latin - really scares the rest of the baptist sunday school class and the original questions and answers to Trivial Pursuit. ---
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-useless-thing-memorized/215244/10 "2003-11-25T21:24:23Z")
Antananarivo is the capital of Madagascar. ---
**Author:** ![Bruce\_Daddy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/85f322/32.png) [@Bruce\_Daddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bruce_Daddy)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-useless-thing-memorized/215244/11 "2003-11-25T21:35:46Z")
SC543TU was the serial number on a boat that was trailered by a truck that almost ran me over in 8th grade. ---
**Author:** ![Moo\_the\_Magic\_Cow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ebca7d/32.png) [@Moo\_the\_Magic\_Cow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moo_the_Magic_Cow)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-useless-thing-memorized/215244/12 "2003-11-25T21:35:59Z")
I had to recite a few lines of The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere in grade school. ---
**Author:** ![gwendee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/35a633/32.png) [@gwendee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gwendee)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-useless-thing-memorized/215244/13 "2003-11-25T21:36:07Z")
The phone number of a pizza place I haven’t lived near since 1988. I cannot remember what _my_ phone number was in 1988 or my sister’s number now- but there it is Broadway Pizzeria forever. (It is still there, the number is the same and they still have excellent pizza and better meatball heros) My education included very little memorization. My mother and her brother can rattle off all sorts of lists and poems and facts. The response to “Mom, list all the U.S. Presidents.” is “Do you want them alphabetically or chronologically?” ---
**Author:** ![Lsura](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7993a0/32.png) [@Lsura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lsura)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-useless-thing-memorized/215244/14 "2003-11-25T21:41:11Z")
Ok, here goes. My spelling is likely way off, since it’s been 9 years since I learned this: Karin: Tag Michael! Michael: Tag Karin. Wie ist die Suppe heute? K: Sie ist ganz gut. Ubrigens, arbeitest du viel im moment? That’s all I know, but it has stuck in my head all this time. It’s from my first semester textbook in German. We had to memorize the conversations at the beginning of each chapter and say them to each other. That’s the only one I remember out of all of them. ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-useless-thing-memorized/215244/15 "2003-11-25T21:52:03Z")
I can rattle off the names of all 86 incorporated cities in Los Angeles County. But that’s hard to prove in this forum. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-useless-thing-memorized/215244/16 "2003-11-25T21:58:55Z")
From Latin classes (more or less accurately): Britannia est insula. Italia est peninsula. Omnia Gallia dividia in tres partia est. Man, I hated Latin. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-useless-thing-memorized/215244/17 "2003-11-25T22:02:12Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by cowgirl \* > **The first eighteen lines (I think) of _Caunterbury Tales_ in Olde English.** Middle English, actually. Yes, I’ve memorized more about the history of the English language than most people will ever learn. Or want to. > [@](#): > > \*\*And, more lyrics to 80s songs than I care to recall. Heard “It Ain’t Enough” (Bryan Adams, off _Reckless_, a great album) in the grocery store this morning and knew every word even though I haven’t heard it in over ten years, for sure. \*\* Sing it, sister. 😉 With me, it’s less 80s music and more 50s-70s music, with an emphasis on Motown and 70s psychadelica. Also, I know the cheats to the Doom games (at least Doom I and Doom II) by sheer muscle memory. IDDQD IDKFA IDSPISPOPD. I wonder how _that_ happened… 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Chastain86](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Chastain86](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chastain86)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-useless-thing-memorized/215244/18 "2003-11-25T22:05:04Z")
I still remember my locker combination from my freshman year of high school. I am now 28. The sad thing is, I can’t even remember my locker number, so knowing this sequence won’t even help. 49-27-19. Oh, and I can correctly identify any episode of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” within 15 seconds of watching at any point. ---
**Author:** ![Gundy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b782af/32.png) [@Gundy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gundy)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-useless-thing-memorized/215244/19 "2003-11-25T22:05:10Z")
“Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost. Had to memorize it in seventh grade. ---
**Author:** ![Rabid\_Squirrel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Rabid\_Squirrel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rabid_Squirrel)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-useless-thing-memorized/215244/20 "2003-11-25T22:06:44Z")
I know very little of the language, but do I know how to say, “Hello, my name is Mrs Tai” in Cantonese. How’s that for useless! [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-useless-thing-memorized/215244.md?page=2)