# What have you memorized, intentionally or not? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 20, 2023, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-have-you-memorized-intentionally-or-not/982972 "2023-04-20T13:24:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2023, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-have-you-memorized-intentionally-or-not/982972/61 "2023-04-20T21:56:15Z")
> [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > and the last paragraph of the introduction to his [Galgenlieder](https://de.wikisource.org/wiki/Galgenlieder)! One single completely bonkers sentence, I still find it hilarious (hey, @EinsteinsHund, check it out if you don’t know it, I have a hunch that you would love it too) Well, that’s a hell of a sentence, and I’m impressed that you have it memorized. Can you also translate it into any other language? 😜 ETA: that reminds me of another piece of literature that I know by heart: the first sentence of Franz Kafka’s “Die Verwandlung” (Metamorphosis), because it’s the best opening of any novel or novella: _Als Gregor Samsa eines Morgens aus unruhigen Träumen erwachte, fand er sich in seinem Bett zu einem ungeheuren Ungeziefer verwandelt._ ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2023, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-have-you-memorized-intentionally-or-not/982972/62 "2023-04-20T23:28:44Z")
I performed a monologue for an acting class 30 years ago and I think I still remember every word. It’s the President’s side of a phone conversation with the leader of the USSR from _Dr. Strangelove_ > Hello? … Ah … I can’t hear too well. Do you suppose you could turn the music down just a little? … Oh-ho, that’s much better. … yeah … huh … yes … Fine, I can hear you now, Dmitri. … Clear and plain and coming through fine….I’m coming through fine, too, eh? … Good, then … well, then, as you say, we’re both coming through fine. … Good. … Well, it’s good that you’re fine and … and I’m fine. … I agree with you, it’s great to be fine. … a-ha-ha-ha-ha … Now then, Dmitri, you know how we’ve always talked about the possibility of something going wrong with the Bomb. …The Bomb, Dmitri…. The hydrogen bomb! … Well now, what happened is … ah … one of our base commanders, he had a sort of … well, he went a little funny in the head … you know … just a little … funny. And, ah … he went and did a silly thing. … Well, I’ll tell you what he did. He ordered his planes … to attack your country… Ah… Well, let me finish, Dmitri. … Let me finish, Dmitri. … Well listen, how do you think I feel about it?! …Can you imagine how I feel about it, Dmitri? … Why do you think I’m calling you? Just to say hello? … Of course I like to speak to you! … Of course I like to say hello! … Not now, but anytime, Dmitri. I’m just calling up to tell you something terrible has happened… It’s a friendly call. Of course it’s a friendly call. … Listen, if it wasn’t friendly … you probably wouldn’t have even got it. … They will _not_ reach their targets for at least another hour. … I am … I am positive, Dmitri. … Listen, I’ve been all over this with your ambassador. It is not a trick. … Well, I’ll tell you. We’d like to give your air staff a complete run-down on the targets, the flight plans, and the defensive systems of the planes. … Yes! I mean if we’re unable to recall the planes, then … I’d say that, ah … well, ah … we’re just gonna have to help you destroy them, Dmitri. … I know they’re our boys. … All right, well listen now. Who should we call? …Who should we call, Dmitri? The … wha, the People… you, sorry, you faded away there…. The People’s Central Air Defense Headquarters. … Where is that, Dmitri? … In Omsk. Right? … Yes. …Oh, you’ll call them first, will you? … Uh-hu … Listen, do you happen to have the phone number on you, Dmitri? … Whe-ah, what? I see, just ask for Omsk information. …Ah-ah-eh-uhm-hm … I’m sorry, too, Dmitri. …I’m very sorry. … All right, you’re sorrier than I am, but I am as sorry as well. … I am as sorry as you are, Dmitri! Don’t say that you’re more sorry than I am, because I’m capable of being just as sorry as you are. … So we’re both sorry, all right?! … All right. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2023, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-have-you-memorized-intentionally-or-not/982972/63 "2023-04-21T00:30:47Z")
Plenty of stuff from my childhood, like friends’ phone numbers … Judson’s was BLuemound 8- 8808 (by the way, that took forever on a rotary phone as you waited for those 8s and 0s to click back around, but when TouchTone™ came, it was easy (258-8808, all the middle buttons). And a lot of long form lyrics and literature, usually inadvertently. But what actually came in handy once is that I listened to so much **Firesign Theatre** in high school that it’s pretty much all seared into my brain. Well, fast forward thirty years and the ad agency I’m at is prepping for a conference call with many branches of our corporate client, and their VP of Marketing wasn’t sure that their new untested multi-city audio software was going to work. So half an hour before the call, he asks if one of us could speak at a normal volume until they got it all figured out. “It could conceivably take the whole half hour…” Well, our top brass are all looking like deer in the headlights… but not me: “I’d be glad to, sir. Starting now…” > Los Angeles… he walks again by night. > Out of the fog, into the smog…_(cough, cough)_ > > Relentlessly… ruthlessly… _“I wonder where Ruth is?”_ > Doggedly… _(bark, bark)_ > > Towards his weekly meeting with… the unknown. > At 4th and Drucker he turns left, at Drucker and 4th he turns right, he crosses MacArthur Park and walks into a great sandstone building. _(smack) “Oh, my nose!”_ I was kind of proud of myself for doing all the voices, and, since they did indeed have troubles, I made it all the way to the end: > The makers of Loosener’s Castor Oil Flakes and Fantastic Cigarettes; Loosner’s for the smile of beauty, Fantastics for the smile of success _(cough, cough),_ brought you the transcribed adventures of **Nick Danger, Third Eye**. Tune in again next week - same time, same station… when Nick Danger meets… The Arab! By the way, our conference room was full of chuckling executives, many of whom grew up with noir detective radio shows. We found out later that only their Marketing guy was amused. Everyone else in the corporate conference rooms just sat there stonily. ---
**Author:** ![Ignatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/3be4f8/32.png) [@Ignatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignatz)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2023, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-have-you-memorized-intentionally-or-not/982972/64 "2023-04-21T01:14:08Z")
The U.S. presidents’ last names, in chronological order, from Washington to Eisenhower. After Ike, I have to think about it, as Ike was in office when I did it (and my short term memory is fading). Sea Fever by John Masefield The Declaration of Independence The Gettysburg Address ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2023, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-have-you-memorized-intentionally-or-not/982972/65 "2023-04-21T04:03:52Z")
> [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > Nitpick: 6.02 **2** x 10^23. And I have used it to calculate useless stuff in my mind, like how many molecules of alcohol I was drinking that evening). WHY did we learn this in junior high chemistry (late '60s) as **6.023** x 10^23? A page on the University of Kentucky web site [**thinks it is** :](http://www.uky.edu/~garose/avogadro#:~:text=This%20number%20(Avogadro's%20number)%20is,as%20carbon%20dioxide%20or%20bromine.) “This number (Avogadro’s number) is 6.023 X 10^23.” Ahh, rereading that TL/DR page, later on the same article it says “the presently accepted value being 6.0221367 x 10^23.” . By the way, I have a lot of science-y numbers stuck in my head, and they all got used in an impromptu routine where some friends and strangers over coffee were riffing on “What’s that guy’s [phone] number?” Because the baristas were freshman physics majors who couldn’t keep up with us. One exchange was: “Oh, if you need to call Euler, he’s at (271) 828-1828.” _“I dial that and I CONSTANTly get Napier.”_ “Well, at least you don’t end up talking to Bernoulli. When he’s under pressure, he talks really fast.” (Yes, we purposely conflated Jacob B. and his descendant Daniel B.) “You guys, doesn’t your phone have an _ **e** _ on it?” One of the ‘proto-physicists’ asked what we did. None of us were currently scientists. I went last and said “And I’m an art teacher.” ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2023, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-have-you-memorized-intentionally-or-not/982972/66 "2023-04-21T05:11:47Z")
The 50 US states in alphabetical order. The 66 books in the Bible, in order. And the lyrics of many songs, including Don McLean’s American Pie. _Long, long time ago, I can still remember how that music used to make me smile …_ ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2023, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-have-you-memorized-intentionally-or-not/982972/67 "2023-04-21T05:15:14Z")
I have my driver’s license number memorized. No idea why. I barely ever look at it and certainly had no reason to commit it to memory but…it’s in my head for some reason. I also have my bank’s routing number memorized. Back in the 90s I had a car loan I could pay via phone each month so, that’s what I did. I now know my bank routing number (and my personal account number). Just stayed with me despite being 25 years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2023, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-have-you-memorized-intentionally-or-not/982972/68 "2023-04-21T05:17:13Z")
I have my driver’s license number memorized too, but the really weird thing is that I have my college roommate’s number also memorized, and that was from over 40 years ago. I have no idea why that still sticks in my head. ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2023, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-have-you-memorized-intentionally-or-not/982972/69 "2023-04-21T06:35:57Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > Can you also translate it into any other language? 😜 Of course not! But I’ll feed it to DeepL later, let´s see what it makes of it. ---
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2023, 8:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-have-you-memorized-intentionally-or-not/982972/70 "2023-04-21T08:09:58Z")
I remember my grandmother’s landline number that she had up until the mid 1970’s. I don’t know my OWN LL number, because I don’t use a LL phone anymore. I have a number though! I remember all the words to ‘Matilda, Who Told Lies and was Burned to Death’ which I recited regularly to my own kids during their childhoods, and I’m sure they could regurgitate the words too. Lots of songs of course, American Pie I can still belt out word for word! I remember the registration number of a car my mother had in the 1970’s, a brand new gold Torana, top of the range back then, think it cost her around $4k AUD brand new. I can’t remember any of my own cars’ rego plates. My (Aus) SSN, because I’ve had it since forever and it’s burned into my brain. Can’t remember my cc numbers or Medicare numbers though. Now, more pertinently, ask me what I did yesterday, and my mind will go blank. 😛 😛 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2023, 8:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-have-you-memorized-intentionally-or-not/982972/71 "2023-04-21T08:33:00Z")
It was a rite of passage in my family to memorize Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address at age 13 (The Christian equivalent of a _Bar Mitzvah_). I did, although I can’t recite it flawlessly anymore. For no reason, I memorized [The Orange,](https://moonlitworld.wordpress.com/2010/07/29/the-orange/) by Benjamin Rosenbaum, and [Affectionate Light Bulb](https://hellopoetry.com/poem/686968/affectionate-light-bulb/), by Richard Brautigan. This came in handy when I attended a literary meeting where others were reciting poetry _by reading it._ I don’t consider reading it from print nearly as effective as reciting it from memory – more like “acting”, so although everyone else had prepared for the event and I hadn’t, I was the only person who gave a presentation without notes or prompting. I guess I have to include 1000’s of songs that I effectively memorized when I played bar piano onceuponatime. I never thought of that as memorization, though – I just remembered enough of each tune to recreate it upon demand, pretty much what all musicians do for pop & jazz songs. I still remember my military serial number. In those days, it was not identical to your SSN. And something Mom repeated to me often when I got impatient about something: > Patience is a virtue, > Secure it if you can. > Seldom possessed by a woman, > And _never_ by a man. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2023, 9:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-have-you-memorized-intentionally-or-not/982972/72 "2023-04-21T09:00:28Z")
My CC number. That’s not good. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2023, 9:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-have-you-memorized-intentionally-or-not/982972/73 "2023-04-21T09:05:15Z")
Since middle school, about 50 years ago now (!) — _ **Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears. I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him. The evil that men do lives after them. The good is oft interred with their bones. So let it be with Caesar.** _ I used to know more of it, long ago… ---
**Author:** ![phs3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8491ac/32.png) [@phs3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phs3)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2023, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-have-you-memorized-intentionally-or-not/982972/74 "2023-04-21T13:26:07Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > And Jabberwocky. Me too! Since seventh grade. Talk about useless… ---
**Author:** ![phs3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8491ac/32.png) [@phs3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phs3)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2023, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-have-you-memorized-intentionally-or-not/982972/75 "2023-04-21T13:27:27Z")
> [@dirtball](#): > > I still remember the landline number my wife had when I met her in 1986. Of course, sometimes this is easier than others: my brother-in-law is fond of saying that he remembers his phone number as a kid: 4. Small town. ---
**Author:** ![phs3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8491ac/32.png) [@phs3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phs3)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2023, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-have-you-memorized-intentionally-or-not/982972/76 "2023-04-21T13:27:59Z")
Why not? It’s useful when doing stuff online (assuming you also remember the CVV and your name and ZIP code). ---
**Author:** ![veryfrank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/87869e/32.png) [@veryfrank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/veryfrank)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2023, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-have-you-memorized-intentionally-or-not/982972/77 "2023-04-21T14:08:33Z")
> [@velomont](#): > > > [@veryfrank](#): > > > > We must be of different generations… > > Who knows 🙂 , I’m 63 yrs old 14 year age difference, which would cover the '67 centennial. Just spitballing, but it wouldn’t surprise me if that event and its aftermath may have increased the ubiquity of the national anthem, not to mention the bilingual hybrid version in French Immersion schools. ---
**Author:** ![zimaane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a3d4f5/32.png) [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2023, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-have-you-memorized-intentionally-or-not/982972/78 "2023-04-21T14:31:05Z")
- My and my wife’s social security numbers - Various bank account and routing numbers - The To Be or Not to Be soliloquy from Hamlet and Ozymandius by Shelly - “Look on my works ye mighty, and despair!” - The phone number of a certain carpet installation business. Those of you who have lived in Chicagoland will know what I am talking about. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2023, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-have-you-memorized-intentionally-or-not/982972/79 "2023-04-21T14:39:53Z")
A poem, [Strickly Germ-Proof](http://holyjoe.org/poetry/guiter2.htm), the first four lines are as follows. > [@](#): > > The Antiseptic Baby and the Prophylactic Pup > Were playing in the garden when the Bunny gambolled up; > They looked upon the creature with a loathing undisguised; > It wasn’t disinfected and it wasn’t sterilised. My mom had that memorized and would often say it so it rubbed off on us kids. I remember the phone number of my best friend from high school. I know the birthday of my wife’s first boyfriend. (She uses it for various PINs) For a few years in Taiwan I used a calling card for cheaper calls to the States. I still remember the PIN and my mother’s phone number. When we moved back to Japan, my wife and I chose new cell numbers that were close to each other to help memorize them. ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2023, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-have-you-memorized-intentionally-or-not/982972/80 "2023-04-21T15:18:23Z")
I took two years of German in high school. I remember very little of the language itself, but I can still recite the list of dative adverbs: aus, ausser, bei, mit, nach, zeit, von, zu. At least, I think that’s correct. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-have-you-memorized-intentionally-or-not/982972.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-have-you-memorized-intentionally-or-not/982972.md?page=5)