On being … an aide-mémoire
By Ingrid Sapona
Last Sunday a friend and I were considering where to go for lunch. As we thought of places, I looked them up on-line for their hours. To our dismay, a few were closed on Sundays, a few required reservations (and none were available when we wanted to go), and a few were only serving brunch, which we didn’t want.
Then I thought about a restaurant another friend and I recently reminisced about – a place neither of us had been to in years but that we agreed we’d like to revisit. I knew it was a one-word name but I couldn’t remember it. All I could think of was that the name reminded me of a Harlequin. When I mentioned this, my friend laughed and asked if I was actually thinking of a book. I explained I meant the clown-like character with a costume featuring fabric with large, colourful diamonds.
When my description of the name didn’t help, I mentioned the restaurant was known for its panoramic view, despite being in an area one wouldn’t think of as having such views. I also thought the street it was on started with a B, but couldn’t remember more. So, I opened Google Maps, looking in the general area I was picturing in my mind. There was a street called Balmoral but the restaurant wasn’t coming up on Google Maps. Argh. Maybe it had closed, or maybe I was just out to lunch (equal possibilities, admittedly).
I was about to give up when the name popped into my head: Scaramouche! I then found its website and confirmed that it’s still in business, but not open on Sundays. While that was a disappointment, I was pleased that at least I remembered the name (eventually). I was also pleased when I looked up Scaramouch in the dictionary* and found there is a connection between Harlequin and Scaramouche – both are characters in commedia dell'arte. (Whew, not going crazy.) As for the address – well, again, I was part right. It’s on a street that starts with a B (Benvenuto) in the neighborhood I was looking on the map (in fact, a couple blocks south of Balmoral).
Please don’t misunderstand. I’m not writing this because I’m concerned about memory problems. I think I’ve been to Scaramouche once and it was easily 25 years ago – so I don’t feel bad the name didn’t come to me right away. What this little episode got me thinking about, however, is the different ways we use to remember things.
For example, growing up some teachers tried to drill into us different mnemonics. I never really found them too helpful. The only one I’ve ever remembered is Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, which I know relates to reading music. But, in writing this I had to Google the phrase to: 1) make sure I had it right, and 2) find out exactly what it represents musically. I didn’t remember that it is specifically for the notes on the treble clef. Indeed, I’m sure there’s a mnemonic related to the bass clef, but I don’t remember it at all. Then there’s the “i before e, except after C” mnemonic. In fairness, that one pops into my head whenever I’m typing a word with “ie” – but it’s not that useful because I don’t remember all the exceptions, so I often end up looking up the spelling anyway. My main qualm about mnemonics is I’ve just never seen the point of memorizing something to remind yourself of something else.
These days, rather than relying on aide-mémoire, I turn to digital tools to jog my memory. For example, I use Google Maps a lot because I’m far likelier to remember the general location of a place I’ve visited – or driven past – than I am to remember the name of the place. Even if the name doesn’t pop up on Google Maps, the Google Street View might capture it or seeing pictures of the neighborhood at least gives me a sense of whether that’s the area I’m thinking of.
IMDB (Internet Movie DataBase) is another great tool (I prefer the app to the website) I rely on if I can’t remember an actor’s name. If you can think of a movie (or tv show) the actor was in, just look up the title on IMDB and you’ll see the names (and usually faces) of the entire cast. So efficient!
I’ve realized that when I’m trying to remember something, I often use a reverse engineering process. I start with what I remember and then I turn to things like Google Maps and IMDB to try to figure out what I’d forgotten. Sometimes the process takes awhile, but it’s kind of fun making sense of the seemingly random details you remember (like the fact the street name starts with a B).
What about you? What tools – or techniques – do you use when you’re trying to recall something?
©
2024 Ingrid Sapona
*Attention fans of the rock band Queen: If you’re scratching
your head wondering why the word Scaramouche sounds familiar, well, Merriam
Webster (another aide-memoire I call on often) reminds readers of this lyric
from “Bohemian Rhapsody”: "I see a little silhouetto of a man /
Scaramouche, Scaramouche, will you do the fandango?" Rings a bell… right!