# 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:** 2
**Author:** ![Kizarvexius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/da6949/32.png) [@Kizarvexius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kizarvexius)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-useless-thing-memorized/215244/21 "2003-11-25T22:07:39Z")
- Most of the first book of the Iliad (in English) - A poem by Catullus in Latin (the mock elegy for Lesbia’s pet bird) - The game of Questions from _Rosencrantz and Gildenstern Are Dead_ - Just about all of _The Princess Bride_, _MP & the Holy Grail_, and _Young Frankenstein_. - The old and no-longer-working international phone number of my best friend from high school (14 digits). If you knew my complete lack of ability to remember numbers, you’d understand that this is actually a big deal for me. - _If_, by Rudyard Kipling ---
**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, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-useless-thing-memorized/215244/22 "2003-11-25T22:21:30Z")
Also: powers of every number up to ten to at least 3 or 4, powers of 2 up to about 20, the entire periodic table of elements, and various other geeky things that I can’t remember right now. Ain’t I such a geek, though?😃 ---
**Author:** ![saramamalana](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/74df32/32.png) [@saramamalana](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saramamalana)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-useless-thing-memorized/215244/23 "2003-11-25T22:24:48Z")
**gwendee** , where is the Broadway Pizzeria you’re talking about? There’s one quite close to me, but that could easily just be a popular name. Anywho… I can recite _Jabberwocky_ and most of the movie _Labyrinth_ (but I’d have to be watching it). ---
**Author:** ![dal\_timgar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e57/32.png) [@dal\_timgar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dal_timgar)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-useless-thing-memorized/215244/24 "2003-11-25T22:26:18Z")
pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanconiosis ---
**Author:** ![FilmGeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@FilmGeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FilmGeek)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-useless-thing-memorized/215244/25 "2003-11-25T23:25:10Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Gundy \* > \*\*“Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost. Had to memorize it in seventh grade. \*\* weird. I had to memorize that in the third grade. i think i can still do it, too. my pointless fact: there are 17,901 trees on the campus of the university of kansas (this includes five gingkos). i know lots of crap like this, because i worked for the information center at KU. apparently the shift key on this computer only works intermittently. Does that count? ---
**Author:** ![cheddarsnax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a587f6/32.png) [@cheddarsnax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cheddarsnax)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-useless-thing-memorized/215244/26 "2003-11-25T23:31:25Z")
I remember that, a few years ago, my right knee stopped itching while some sort of pink plant was being shown on the screen at the IMAX theater I was in. Why do I remember this? Because at the time I was sick of things ceasing to itch, and me not noticing exactly when it happens. This resulted in me paying much more attention to my knee than the movie. I also know 40 digits of Pi and the full lyrics to Chumbawamba’s Tubthumping. ---
**Author:** ![Algorithm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/algorithm/32/12204_2.png) [@Algorithm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Algorithm)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-useless-thing-memorized/215244/27 "2003-11-25T23:36:34Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by dal\_timgar \* > \*\*pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanconiosis \*\* Ahem. I think you mean _pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcan **o** coniosis_ ---
**Author:** ![badmana](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@badmana](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/badmana)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-useless-thing-memorized/215244/28 "2003-11-25T23:51:34Z")
“up up down down left right left right A B Select start” ---
**Author:** ![Merhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5a626/32.png) [@Merhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merhouse)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2003, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-useless-thing-memorized/215244/29 "2003-11-26T00:00:01Z")
CPE 1704 TKS 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Kakofonous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e9a140/32.png) [@Kakofonous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kakofonous)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2003, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-useless-thing-memorized/215244/30 "2003-11-26T00:25:13Z")
I had to learn the alphabet backwards at the beginning of 4th grade. It had to be recited at such a speed that it was memorizing it backwards - not just thinking through it. It was a really great teacher that year, too. I’m curious what the lesson was in that exercise. ---
**Author:** ![A\_EVIL\_MONKEY\_LIVES\_IN\_MY\_HEAD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a88e4f/32.png) [@A\_EVIL\_MONKEY\_LIVES\_IN\_MY\_HEAD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/A_EVIL_MONKEY_LIVES_IN_MY_HEAD)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2003, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-useless-thing-memorized/215244/31 "2003-11-26T00:45:43Z")
3.141592653589793238462643383279502884197169 ---
**Author:** ![Chavardz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/91b2a8/32.png) [@Chavardz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chavardz)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2003, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-useless-thing-memorized/215244/32 "2003-11-26T00:50:37Z")
People who die by asfixiation usually present a fine mesh of sand colored points in their eyes. I’m a mechanical engineer major, why would I want to know that? ---
**Author:** ![SylverOne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c0e974/32.png) [@SylverOne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SylverOne)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2003, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-useless-thing-memorized/215244/33 "2003-11-26T00:51:39Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Kakofonous \* > \*\*I’m curious what the lesson was in that exercise. \*\* Around here, it’s used by idiots to try and pass a field sobriety test. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2003, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-useless-thing-memorized/215244/34 "2003-11-26T01:06:03Z")
For me, it’s a tie between the complete lyrics to “American Pie” and two lines of a Czech song meaning “I will tie your hands to the bed; I won’t appear in the room for half a day.” (I have to admit that I occasionally have the urge to go to Prague and run around saying that to random people, just to see what will happen.) And I know lots of poetry by heart, but I wouldn’t really consider that “useless.” ---
**Author:** ![VladAntlerkov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/c68b51/32.png) [@VladAntlerkov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VladAntlerkov)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2003, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-useless-thing-memorized/215244/35 "2003-11-26T01:10:03Z")
The first eleven lines of the Aeneid. In Latin. With the proper scansion (elisions and everything). Not the English meaning of it, though. Go figure. I would say the Attic Greek alphabet, except I’m taking Greek right now. 🙂 Also: The four official languages of Singapore are Chinese, English, Malay, and Tamil, and that [Mandarin is not a dialect of Chinese](http://www.nhptv.org/product/gsc/gsc.htm). (Still mad that the judges botched that last part. :D) ---
**Author:** ![sunstone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunstone/32/3372_2.png) [@sunstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sunstone)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2003, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-useless-thing-memorized/215244/36 "2003-11-26T02:53:52Z")
The Krebs cycle. 3 times. And I always look it up in a book or on the net when I need to know some particular feature. Shheeeese! The wasted brain power. I need all I have! ---
**Author:** ![BwanaBob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bwanabob/32/2985_2.png) [@BwanaBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BwanaBob)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2003, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-useless-thing-memorized/215244/37 "2003-11-26T03:07:30Z")
Not that I care to write it down in its entirety but I can name Monty Python’s long forgotten composer Johann Gambolputtydevonausfern… and I taught it to my older brother and he still remembers it 25 years later! ---
**Author:** ![Quack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e99b99/32.png) [@Quack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quack)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2003, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-useless-thing-memorized/215244/38 "2003-11-26T03:13:52Z")
The 1995 Dallas Cowboys starting lineup. Offense, defense and special teams. ---
**Author:** ![FilmGeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@FilmGeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FilmGeek)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2003, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-useless-thing-memorized/215244/39 "2003-11-26T03:22:55Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Merhouse \* > \*\*CPE 1704 TKS 🙂 \*\* I adore that movie. ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2003, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-useless-thing-memorized/215244/40 "2003-11-26T03:24:06Z")
Will Clark of the San Francisco Giants hit .333 and had 111 RBI in 1989. He also hit a home run in his first major leage at-bat in 1986 against the Astros, but I can’t recall if it was Mike Scott or Nolan Ryan pitching. I think it was Ryan. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-useless-thing-memorized/215244.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-useless-thing-memorized/215244.md?page=3)