What they are saying about...What they are saying about “Secrets, Tips and Tricks of a Powerful Memory” With both wit and wisdom, Barry Reitman’s “Secrets, Tips, and Tricks

What they are saying about “Secrets, Tips and Tricks of a Powerful Memory”

With both wit and wisdom, Barry Reitman’s “Secrets, Tips, and Tricks of a Powerful Memory” unlocks the untapped power within us to recall the things we need to remember. Distilled from science and his own years of practice, Barry’s book makes for a journey of self-discovery that is both fun to take and seriously helpful. According to Barry, we can all remember more than we realize and he teaches us simple ways of doing so in a way we can easily retrieve—on demand—the names, dates, numbers and other information we struggle with day to day. That’s a leadership skill and Memory Shock will teach you to master it.

—Gerry Egan, Executive Director National Equipment Finance Association

I’m a radiological scientist that can easily remember the half-lives of radioisotopes but can’t remember anyone’s name. It’s been downright embarrassing. But, after reading Barry’s book, I have greatly improved. I can even remember my wife’s name now—those beautiful green eyes, like a Cathode-ray tube. And, Barry himself, after forgetting his name while playing cards with him, I can’t forget it now: Yes, the element Barium, used in a certain proctologic procedure. The better the image fits, the easier the name is to remember!

But seriously, Barry has done a huge amount of work on this subject and has written a great book–easy-to-read and humorous while helping to cure all of our poor memories.

—Theodore Rahon, Ph.D. President, CoPhysics Corporation

Anyone who has a need to know or memorize a lot of different things, be it faces, numbers, or a seemingly endless list of facts that do not seem to have any rhyme or reason, will learn how they can master this learned skill. And, in doing so, they will amaze not only their friends, coworkers and employers, but themselves as well.

—Richard Picciotto, Deputy Chief, FDNY (Ret.) Author, “Last Man Down:A Firefighter’s Story of Survival and

Escape from the World Trade Center”

Easy and fun reading . . . How often can we go to a seminar or a class where we learned something practical and useful? Once? Maybe twice? Now with “Secrets, Tips and Tricks” we can return to the Memory Shock seminars over and over. I’ll have them available twenty-four-seven.

—Brian Huey, Author, Perpetual: the Never-Ending Series www.BrianHuey.com

Now that I’ve read “The Memory Shock Book,” I’m realizing how often being able to remember a name or place is a real advantage. The tech-niques are starting to become a part of my thought process, a pleasant surprise and revelation.

—Arlene Romoff, Author, Listening Closely: A Journey to Bilateral Hearing and Hear Again: Back to Life with a Cochlear Implant.

www.ListeningClosely.com

Secrets, Tips and Tricks of a Powerful Memory” is very informative, use-ful, and entertaining as well. Mr. Reitman’s witty, conversational style ensures that reading this book is a delight. His tips yielded immediate results when applied, especially for someone who does not usually adhere to “exercises”presented in books. Mr. Reitman’s method is easy to under-stand and apply. This book is a must-read for anyone looking to improve memory skills!

—Heather von Bargen, President, Fine Art Photographer, www.CuratedImages.com

The writing style makes the book fun to read and easy to understand. A learning experience for everyone to enjoy and utilize!

—Henry Porcaro, FDNY, (Ret.)

Worry no more! The Memory Shock method improves ALL levels of abil-ity to recall, and if you think you have an awful memory, this is exactly the place you want to start to master your memory. You have a natural memory. This method helps your natural memory by forcing it to use images that help you retain what you need. Here you will learn a simple two-step method of focusing on faces, names, places and things that will make it impossible not to remember them!

—Sonia von Matt Stoddard, Stoddard & Associates Business Writing Services, Author, The Legal Assistant’s Letter Book

www.StoddardAssociates.com

A creative and fun way to a better memory. Well written in an easy-to-pickup form!

—Joy McGroarty, Graphic Artist

Having spent most of my life as a ‘bad with names’ person, Memory Shock came to me as a game changer. Within a few hours of reading the first few chapters and doing the names and faces exercise, I tried those techniques in the real world, and have had great success with them. I can’t wait for the next Freemasons’ convention where I’ll be in a room with 300 people!

—Ajit Nathaniel, Senior Financial Editor, Hyderabad (India)

Does “in one ear and out the other” describe your ability to recall names, numbers and events? The tools provided by Barry Reitman in Memory Shock can improve that dramatically. It is a book that manages to be entertaining while providing the means to improve your life If you follow the suggestions and practice, the results will be impressive. In my job, I meet hundreds of people and Memory Shock has helped me to significantly improve my recall of these individuals and many other important details in my business.

—Michael G. Meacher, CEO Front Sight Firearms Training, Las Vegas, Nevada.

What they are saying about the Memory Shock system, courses, and lectures:

Not only were the strategies and tips you shared well received, but many in attendance would have liked to have several more hours with you to continue reviewing your system. I commend you on your course content as well as on your instructional style; both were an absolute hit with our audience.

—Captain Daniel E. Sosnowik, Commanding Officer, Leadership Training Section, NYPD

Barry Reitman’s Memory Shock presentation was both effective and valu-able to professors, teachers, and graduate students.

—Elaine Geller, Director of Field Experience and Outreach, Rockland Graduate Campus, Long Island University

Barry Reitman is a brilliant instructor . . . The strategies that he taught will stay with me forever and will help me succeed in everything I do. I am so impressed with this course.

—Margarita Benejan, Customer Service Manager

Excellent—Unleashed huge powers in me.—Simon Haysom, Esq. Attorney, Goshen, NY

Darn, I need to remember to . . .” (at my age, there are a lot of options that can go here) when I get home—or back to my desk—or some place I usually go that I can’t remember right now. In the past, I might plan to call and leave a message for myself on the answering machine. But, of course, that would require that I remember to do that when I got to a phone. After spending some time with Barry Reitman and his Memory Shock technique, I don’t need to remember. I just create an image to remind me at the most appropriate time. For example, when someone asked to borrow my full second season of Glee, I created the image of an opening garage door as a smiling face. Sure enough, as I pulled up to the garage, I was reminded to put the DVD set into my briefcase to bring to work the next day.

I first got to know Barry as a business associate. When we would make a joint sales call, I was always amazed by his ability to remember the name of everyone in the meeting. After some time, he decided to share his technique with me. After a call, I’d ask about the specific picture he created for the various people we had met. His images were quite graphic and, yes, shocking. But once he shared them, I would always remember the names of those people. When I first started to try this on my own, I’d ask myself

“What Would Barry Do?” It worked. And after a while, I could come up with some pretty interesting pictures on my own. Though I can’t come close to the ones Barry conjures up, they work for me.

Perhaps the best part of this process is that Barry makes it fun. So it’s not a chore—it doesn’t even seem difficult. It’s among the best games I’ve ever learned to play. (And certainly better than the ones I’ve never learned—like golf. Maybe if I pictured a little birdie sitting on the golf ball . . . . . .)

—Linus Dirnberger, President and General Manager, New Horizons Computer Learning Center of Syracuse and Rochester

I have known Barry Reitman for close to 30 years. He has somehow taken a lifetime of experience, stories, jokes, political yearnings and some-how woven them into a course (or system if you will) that is easily read-able and adaptable in many situations and circumstances. Barry has been perfecting this system for decades. 20 years ago we had the opportunity to “car pool”. At the time, decades before the author in him came out, he would have me write down the numbers of ALL the licenses plates we passed on the way to work. He would then thrill and amaze me as we would go thru the list of almost 100 hundred plates and he could tell me the cars they were associated with or I could give him the type of automo-bile and he could give me the license plate # from memory (backwards or forwards). As Barry’s friend I can also attest to the fact that 1.) He has NO natural memory, 2.) He never exceeded the speed limit when we played our commuting game. The others were just really slow drivers.

—Daryl Warmbrand, Principal, DW Events www.dwevents.com

Secrets, Tips and Tricksof a

POWERFULMEMORY

The Memory Shock Oh-So-Easy

How-to-Remember User’s Guide for Your Brain.

Barry Reitman

K E L S O S E R V I C E S2012

© Copyright 2012 Barry Reitman. Printed and bound in the United States of America. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by an information storage and retrieval system—with the exception of a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review to be printed in a newspaper or magazine—without written permission of the publisher. For information, contact Kelso Services, P.O. Box 284, Blooming Grove, New York 10914, 845-496-4187.

This book includes information from many sources and gathered from many personal experiences. It is published for general reference and is not intended to be a substitute for independent verification by readers when necessary and appropriate. The book is sold with the understanding that neither the author nor publisher is engaged in rendering medical or psychological advice. The author and publisher disclaim any personal liability, directly or indirectly, for advice or information presented within. Although the author and publisher have prepared this manuscript with utmost care and diligence and have made every effort to ensure the accuracy and completeness of the information contained within, we assume no responsibility for errors, inaccuracies, omissions or inconsistencies.

Publisher’s Cataloging in PublicationReitman, Barry

Secrets, tips & tricks of a powerful memory: the memory shock oh-so-easy how-to-remember user’s guide for your brain/Barry Reitman 1st ed. p. cm.LCCN: 2012905233ISBN-13: 978-0-9851133-0-8 eBookISBN-13: 978-0-9851133-1-5 Paperback1. Mnemonics. 2 Memory. I. Title BF385.R45 2012153.1’4—dc22

ATTN: QUANTITY DISCOUNTS ARE AVAILABLE TO YOUR COMPANY, EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION OR ORGANIZATION

for educational purposes, reselling, gifts or fundraising campaigns.

For more information, please contact the publisher at Kelso Services, P.O. Box 284, Blooming Grove, New York 10914

845-496-4187—[email protected]

DeDicaTion

For Rita. I’ll always remember.

ix

conTenTS

Dedication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . viiForeword. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiiiAcknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xviiPreface. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xix

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1How to use this book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2Will I have to keep practicing? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2What will I be able to remember? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3Is there a special section for school work? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3How long will it take to improve my memory?. . . . . . . . . . . 3Can Memory Shock overcome age-related

and medical-related problems?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Part 1

Memory Shock System Basics and Remembering Names & Faces

1 Memory Shock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 2 Pay Attention! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 3 Remembering First-Names and Faces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Part 2

Picturing Numbers 4 Body Parts as Number Pictures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 5 Body Part Hooks—A Numbered List. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 6 The U.S. Constitution’s Bill Of Rights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

x Secrets, Tips and Tricks of a Powerful Memory

7 A Little Bit More About Body Parts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 8 Numbers—Major Mnemonic System. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 9 Tips, Tricks & Short-Cuts for Numbers. . . . . . . . . . . . . 5310 Number Hooks, Peg Words, Folders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5711 Combine Number Hooks & Body Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

Part 3

LOCI12 Loci, Memory Tour, Memory Palace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Part 4

Dates/Calendars13 Dates—Days of the Week—Part 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8714 Dates—Days of the Week—Part 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9115 Remembering Appointments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

Part 5

Additional Techniques16 Letters, We Get Letters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9917 Acronyms and, Um, Un-Acronyms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10318 Computer Passwords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10519 Memorizing Playing Cards—Part 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10720 Playing Cards—Part 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11121 Names and Faces—Last Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11322 Driving Directions and Maps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11923 Where Did You Put the Car Keys? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12424 Changes to Your Normal Schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12525 Linked Lists, an Over-Rated Technique . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

Part 6

Special Applications26 Job Interviews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13127 Great Tips for Waiters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13528 Texas Hold’em Poker. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

Contents xi

29 Sales Presentations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14130 Public Speaking without Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14331 Acting—Memorizing Scripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14532 Foreign Words and Phrases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14933 Parlor Tricks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

Part 7

Advanced Material34 A Large Slice of Pi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15735 Days of the Week—for Centuries. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16136 A Few Closing Words . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172

Appendixes

Practice Material and ExplanationsA First Name Pictures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177B Hook/Peg/Folder Words from 1 To 100. . . . . . . . . . . . 187C Loci Blanks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193D Probability: The Birthday Paradox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199E Lists of Stuff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201E-1 More Pi, Anyone? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203E-2 Population and Order of U.S. States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205E-3 The Key to the City . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207E-4 Top Ten Lists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211E-5 U.S. Presidents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213E-6 20st and 21st Century Key Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215F Resource . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217

xiii

FoRewoRD

Working as a police captain on the Lower East Side of Manhat-tan not long ago, I spotted a woman walking in the park with a large black poodle wearing a red sweater. I didn’t know the woman’s name, but I knew the dog’s.

“Wendell Willkie,” I called out.Wendell Willkie didn’t seem to notice he was being paged,

but the woman turned around, surprised, then smiled.“You have a scary-good memory,” she said. “I can’t believe

you remembered his name.”But I don’t really have a particularly good memory. It’s just

that I had chatted with her briefly earlier that week when she was walking her dog in the same area. I had patted him and asked his name; she told me, adding that his namesake “was a politician who ran against FDR in 1940. He was a Republican and I’m a lifelong Democrat, but I liked the name, and . . .”

And, as it happened, I always associate Wendell Willkie with an old book of poetry I like that makes reference to Willkie—and the red of the dog’s sweater reminded me of that book’s cover. So, with all these associations, all these mental pegs upon which to hang the memory, how could I possibly not remember the name of this poodle upon seeing him again?

It might not have seemed so easy, though, had I not been fortunate enough, a few months before, to attend one of Barry Reitman’s one-day Memory Shock training sessions. Although I won’t try to explain Barry’s system—the rest of this book will do

xiv Secrets, Tips and Tricks of a Powerful Memory

that quite simply and enjoyably—I will say that mental associa-tions are one of his keystones. Barry will teach you that when hearing someone’s name for the first time (he’s usually talking about humans, not poodles), a few quick steps to form those associations will engrave that name on your brain forever. And, with a little practice, those steps will quickly become habit.

I attended Barry’s class through my department’s training bureau, all the students being supervisory law-enforcement pro-fessionals. We cops are a notoriously tough audience for trainers who aren’t cops themselves—we listen politely (usually), but we often believe that we know more, have seen more, and are gener-ally sharper and more clever than any civilian instructor (and we’re often right).

But within a short while, Barry had won everyone over with his humorous, self-deprecating and engaging teaching style. Not to mention his ability to recite every word in that day’s New York Times crossword puzzle, from memory, without looking at anything but the audience.

Yes, Barry had memorized the entire puzzle, and was able to reconstruct it out of thin air, first giving the number—“seven down,” etc.—and then the word. For those of us who, like me, find it challenging to do the New York Times crossword puzzle, the fact that he had completed it and then committed it to mem-ory, all before our 9:00 A.M. class, was rather, pun intended, memorable.

Barry went on to show us the elements of memorizing names and, just as important, connecting each name to the face it belongs to. Projecting a grid of anonymous faces on the screen at the front of the room, he soon had every student able to rattle off each character’s moniker. This led him to demonstrate the ability to memorize long, long strings of numbers, turning them into words and sentences in order to make them easier to recall. And then . . . but I won’t go on—you’ll be doing the same things yourself before you’re too far into this book.

Beneath Barry’s down-to-earth Bronx attitude is a richness of knowledge, experience and interests. Get him talking and he might tell you about his years supervising the installation of nuclear components on submarines; express a strong and well-informed

Foreword xv

opinion on history, politics or culture; describe being in Atlanta for Martin Luther King’s funeral; recount making it to and play-ing in the World Series of Poker Main Event in Las Vegas; or give you a funny story about his beloved dog, Nathan. I’ve gotten to know Barry a bit since that class, and have yet to find the topic about which he has nothing interesting to say.

Fortunately, he’s put a lot of that unique personality into this book—along with his simple, fun and useful system for remembering all the things we all have to remember, living busy, complex lives in a fast-moving world. I’ve found Barry’s Memory Shock system helpful on numerous occasions, personal and pro-fessional, and I think you’ll like it—and this book—as much as I do.

George Molé is a captain in the New York City Police Depart-ment, and a writer whose work has appeared in the New York Times, New York Daily News, New York Post and other publications. He blogs at the Finto File (www.FintoFile.com).

xvii

acknowleDgemenTS

To my friends, who provided proof-reading with wild abandon, I am so very grateful. Heather von Bargen, Linus Dirnberger, Mike Meacher, Richard Picciotto, Marge Polis, Hank Porcaro, Ted Rahon, PhD, Arlene Romoff, Sonia Stoddard, Pam Youngquist, PhD, and Daryl Warmbrand found and reported a ton of errors, precluding more embarrassment than any one person deserves.

Rick Soldin, designer and principal at www.book-comp.com, took over an ugly project and accomplished everything I wanted and more. The sign on the car mechanic’s wall says, “Good, cheap, fast. Pick any two.” Rick gave me all three and with the patience of a saint.

Joy McGroarty and Neil Zobler selflessly offered artwork and photography, respectively. I felt so safe in their professional hands. George Molé, a writer of extraordinary talent, graciously agreed to write the foreword. I can’t imagine anyone doing it better.

And to my friend and mentor, Gerry Egan, I offer profound thanks. This acknowledgement page is one of the few things I’ve done in the last decade without seeking his guidance.

xix

PReFace

One night at my local poker club, one of the women regulars, Lisa, happened to be sitting on my left, with Lee, her husband, on my right. (There are several married couples among the 200 members.)

She mentioned to Lee that she was somewhat concerned about the following morning. Her regular pattern was to drive to her office in Morristown, New Jersey. But occasionally she had to spend the morning in a satellite office in the town of Budd Lake. Every time she had to do this, she drove halfway to Mor-ristown, in the opposite direction, before realizing the mistake and turning around.

I asked her if she leaves the house through the front door or the garage in the morning. Lisa looked at me like I was nuts. But Lee, with whom I’ve discussed Memory Shock, said, “Lisa, listen to Barry and answer his questions.”

Lisa said that she leaves through the front door; the car is always parked in front of the house. I asked if the front door had a brass door knob. Now, she figured that Lee and I were both nuts. “Yes, it does,” she answered.

“Tomorrow,” I told her, “you’re going to have a problem opening the door. When you grab the knob it won’t be made of brass. Instead it will be a rose bud and get all squished. You’ll have to gently pry the door open. Can you picture that? Can you imagine the feel of a squished up rose bud in your hand?”

xx Secrets, Tips and Tricks of a Powerful Memory

Before she could call for someone to lock me up, I explained that by seeing that picture in her mind’s eye, she would not be able not to see and feel it as she reached for the door knob in the morning. The door knob that had become a rose bud would remind her to steer the car toward Budd Lake.

The next time I saw her, Lisa reported on the success of her new system.

That story, which you’ll see again later in this book, is the Memory Shock system in a nutshell.

How will it enable you to easily remember the names in a roomful of new people, long numbers and passwords, days of the week for years, talking points for a public speech, and virtu-ally everything else you want to remember? The answer unfolds as you take this book chapter by chapter, building a new skill that will unlock the hidden power you already possess.

1

inTRoDucTion

Many people, when they learn that I teach memory techniques, react in an interesting way. “Well, I have a terrible memory; it wouldn’t work for me.” Duh! While application of Memory Shock improves ALL levels of ability to recall, it is super-impor-tant for those who “have a terrible memory.”

Forget about writing the Gettysburg address 20 times or reading the same test material over and over. No one gets better at that. If you’re like most people, it is an absolute bore, and you hate the thought of it. I sure do. Throw that out the window.

This book will not teach you new ways to do the kind of remembering you’ve never been able to master. Instead, it’s going to give you skills you’ve never heard of. They’re easy to learn and they’re fun to use.

Memory Shock is a whole ’nother thing. It makes sense. You’ll start using it by the time you finish the first chapter, and bang-ing the heel of your hand into your forehead (just figuratively, I hope) wondering why you didn’t think of this yourself. It’s that kind of good. With each new chapter you will learn and use more and more of these incredibly effective tricks of the trade.

At the end of my one-hour keynote speeches, attendees are shocked at their own ability to use the one or two techniques I introduce to them. They haven’t just seen me demonstrate an amazing ability to memorize; they have done it themselves.

2 Secrets, Tips and Tricks of a Powerful Memory

How to use this bookBest use of Secrets, Tips & Tricks of a Powerful Memory is based on a thorough reading and practicing of the material in Parts 1 through 3—about 20 minutes a day. As you’ll see, that practice will take virtually no time from your schedule—and may actu-ally save you time. You’ll begin using many of the techniques for things you wanted to remember anyway.

Step 1: Learn Parts 1 through 3 by reading one or two chapters at a time, as little as every other day. (But try to practice every day.) Together with their simple—and fun—practice exercises, they’ll bring out the memory powers that are locked away within you. These three parts present the groundwork for everything that comes after.

Step 2: Optional, but important, is Part 4—Dates. It’s not required for a powerful memory, but since you already will have learned the basics behind this skill, um, why not? (It’s optional because it is not one of the building blocks.)

Step 3: Read through Parts 5 and 6—Additional Techniques and Special Applications. When you come upon those that are of interest to you, focus on them as you did the material in Parts 1 through 3. I encourage at least a brief reading of all of them because they will give you ideas on how to mold the system to virtually any memory problem.

Step 4: The Advanced Material in Part 7 is for the very curious (and/or masochistic J).

Step 5: Become acquainted with the appendixes. They provide good practice material, as well as some interesting concepts.

Will I have to keep practicing?My favorite question! When a child learns how to speak, does he have to keep practicing? No, he just does it every time wants to communicate.

Introduction 3

You will be practicing these techniques every time you want to remember something. This material will become second nature to you.

What will I be able to remember?The simple answer is . . . virtually everything! As part of learning the specific topics in the book, you’ll be training yourself to see things in a new way. And that means you’ll actually know things better than you’ve ever been able to know them before. A big part of the problem of forgetting is that you often never knew the material in the first place.

For example, you can’t possibly “remember” the names of people you meet at a cocktail party if you were distracted (and nervous) during the introductions. Here, you’ll learn a simple two-step method of focusing on their faces and names that will make it impossible not to remember them.

Is there a special section for school work?No. Virtually all of this system is applicable to deriving the most from an education. You will learn which parts to apply to vari-ous subjects.

How long will it take to improve my memory?While this book can be read in a day or two, I strongly encourage you not to do that. Take it a chapter at a time. Do the exercises. They are not boring, and they take virtually no time from your schedule. (Almost all the practice can be done during “mindless time” like mowing the lawn, doing the dishes, driving your car, riding the train.) This means you will have completed reading the chapters and doing the exercises over a period of three to four weeks, BUT you will not wait that long to see a difference in your ability to remember.

You will—like those who attend my lectures and classes—instantly see big, measurable improvement. This is not a magic bullet, but rather a new way of seeing things. (Am I starting to


repeat myself? Yes. You’re going to overcome a lifetime of not seeing things, of not focusing, of not using my simple systematic way of remembering—and that bears repetition.)

Within the first few chapters you’ll have a better functional memory than you ever thought possible before—and a better memory than probably anyone you know.

So, the answer to “how long will it take?” is an hour . . . a few weeks . . . and the rest of your life! That’s because you’ll be learning a new way of thinking and will soon discover your own twists and techniques. You will be applying this new way of thinking to every problem you come upon. That’s a good thing.

Can Memory Shock overcome age-related and medical-related problems?

Otherwise-functional people who are seeing “forgetfulness” and/or “memory loss”1 as they get along in years are definitely able to benefit from the Memory Shock system. Some retain much of the system, others less. What’s my genuine belief about whether or not you’ll succeed? If you stick with the lessons and give them the twenty minutes a day I ask for, you will be able to take it to levels you never thought possible. And it will give you firmer abs! Um, no, I got carried away.

Shucks. Take this book over to the latte bar (or click on “Look Inside” if you’re online), and try the first three chapters. Not just the first few pages, but all three chapters. Even without the little bit of practice I ask for at the end of most chapters, you’ll see changes in your thinking. You will recognize in your-self more potential to be a first-class rememberizer2 than you ever before imagined. If it doesn’t feel right, don’t buy this book.

Does everyone who buys the book wind up with a better memory? That’s a trick question. Some people buy it and never

1 Not necessarily the same.2 Yes, I make up words—and you should also. You’ll be learning new ways to think about and imagine things here, and that’s part of it.

Introduction 5

read it. (Yup, there’s the old gag about the guy who buys a mem-ory course and forgets where he put it.) And, some folks give up without trying. So, while they benefit from a new knowledge about observation and a few tricks at the beginning, there’s not a lot gained. But I firmly believe that everyone who follows these lessons, and does the exercises and minimal practice will wind up with a much better functional memory.

I can also answer this way: The “instructor evaluation forms” filled in by students at the completion of my courses range from very positive to glowing. The same is true of the evaluation forms from attendees of my one- and two-hour presentations.

You get what you put into anything, and Memory Shock is no different. Do not buy this book if you intend to speed-read it and put it away. (Unless you have a photographic memory and can retain it all. J)

Can it slow down the onset or progression of dementia? Per-haps. There’s a lot of chatter about this kind of thing—brains developing and staying toned by exercising the way muscles do. But I do not have a definitive answer. I certainly do not think this system can prevent dementia entirely—although it’s a great fantasy.3

Maybe this will answer some of your questions: On the first day of class each time I teach Memory Shock, and before each of my speaking engagements, I completely work the crossword puzzle in that morning’s New York Times. The attendees are handed photocopies of the completed puzzle. I start the hour by reciting every cell in the puzzle’s answers from memory. While that’s pretty impressive, I then shock them by saying this:

“Undoubtedly, I have the worst natural memory in the room!”

3 Regarding those who already have dementia, I am determined to study this care-fully. I do have a very profound experience over a period of years with a dear friend who has Lewy Body Dementia. He was ultimately confined to a residential institu-tion. If any professionals or patient family-members want to discuss this, please contact me by email or phone. Current contact information is available at www.MemoryShock.com.


It’s true. I discuss the fact that a combination of factors, including a certain prescription drug and my current age,4 has deteriorated that part of my brain where memory functions hap-pen. It was the realization of this fact—and its destructive impact on my business (my “day-job”)—that caused me to go back and polish the memory system, now Memory Shock, that I began developing as a youngster.

By the way, if you want to have fun, come with me to the busy waiting room of any of my doctors in New York City. As often as not, at least one person there will be working the Times puzzle. At the very least, there usually will be a copy of that morning’s paper on the stack of reading material. “Pick a number of a word going across from the puzzle clues,” I say. Or, “If you’re stuck on any of the clues, tell me the number—not the clue, just the number.” And then I tell them what the answer is.

Better than that, give this book a try, and YOU perform this—and a million other—amazing feats.

Let’s get started!

4 I’d rather not say exactly how old I am as I write this, but it’s a big number, and has two sixes in it.


Many years ago, I was hired as an installation machinist at the General Dynamics/Electric Boat submarine construction facility in Groton, Connecticut. I was in the group that installed nuclear reactor components in the then-new Trident class of “big boomer” submarines. The normal course for being promoted through the ranks was to work at your particular trade over several years up to foreman level, and then either move up within that trade or cross over to the “Ship Management” department. That department has supervisory responsibility over all the various trades that work on the submarines under construction. It is the problem-solving group to whom the trade foremen turn for direction and resolution of conflicts. (If a welder, an electrician, and a pipe-fitter all need to complete a job in the same small corner of a compartment, each sees his job as most important.) The Ship Management group (Ship Superintendents) knows how all the pieces fit, and in what order they must be installed.

Entry into Nuclear Ship Management requires a good working knowledge of all the various trades, expertise in reading blueprints and work-authorizations, understanding myriad nuclear construc-tion protocols, possession of solid management aptitude, and a basic understanding of nuclear propulsion systems. It’s that last item—and its written test—that strikes fear into the hearts of mere mortals. Most applicants spend many years in the trades before taking the forty-plus hour nuclear propulsion course taught by U.S. Navy personnel and sitting for the test.

I was encouraged, by the powers that be, to give it a try during my second year of employment as a nuclear machinist. I put my still-evolving Memory Shock system to use, and the outcome was a giant success. (I was told that I had one of the highest scores ever on the test.) Was that cheating? I’ll say this: I used all that memorized knowledge of systems and components to be the best Nuclear Ship Superintendent I could be, and was always rated near the very top of the 71-person department evaluations. For the last year before I chose to leave (to start up a very successful unrelated entrepreneurial business) I was the supervisor responsible for all nuclear construction on the very active midnight shift.

In Part 2, you’ll learn the part of the system that I used to pre-pare for that exam. The techniques that you will easily learn in this book will give you opportunities that might now seem unimaginable.

PARt 1Memory Shock System Basics and Remembering Names & Faces

11

ChAPter 1 Memory Shock

How is your memory? Your interest in this book indicates you may have a problem—or at least room for improvement. Here’s the good news: Your ability to recall is much better than you think it is. The simple techniques in this book will bring about an instant improvement in your ability to remember num-bers, and names & faces (and which name goes with what face), and lists, and where you put the car keys and . . . and . . . and . . . everything you want to remember.

Isn’t it interesting that every toy and device you buy has a user’s manual to help you get started, but you never received one for your inherent ability to remember? Here it is: The User’s Guide for Your Brain. And like all good user’s manuals, Memory Shock gives you quick access to all the features and short-cuts for getting the most out of it. This is not a manual for the mechanic; you will not see sections about how to set the gap on your spark plugs and how to test compression of the cylinders. But you will see sections comparable to turning on the windshield wipers and selecting the right gear to use in snow.

In other words, you want to know how to use your memory. This is not the place for brain surgery and esoteric theory. This is a book for the everyday tricks of the trade. How to remember the names of the people you meet. How to remember your to-do list for today. How to remember the features and benefits of your company’s new product line. How to remember birthdays and anniversaries and appointments. And, yes! How to remember where you put the car keys.


Theory will be at an absolute minimum. Instead, you will be immediately launched into the easiest ways to use your memory. And you’ll have fun doing it. Will practice make it even better? Of course, and you’ll be rewarded instantly for it.

At the beginning of every lecture I do, I ask, “How many of you can meet nine or ten new people, perhaps at a business meeting or a party, and remember every name? Use their names throughout the event and into the future. Raise your hand if you usually can do that.” Every time I ask that question, the number of hands that are raised is the same: Zero. (And there are more than a few attendees who openly laugh at the suggestion.) Then, I show them the simple secret that the memory professionals use. I put up a PowerPoint of nine or ten people5 and the group learns the names and the trick to remembering each.

Then, and for remainder of the lecture, as we move on to remembering lists, I flash those faces unannounced on the screen. To their own surprise and delight, virtually everyone shouts out the names.

Yes, it really is that easy once you’ve been shown how to do it; and no, there is no monotonous repetition or difficult study like there would be in a rote system. It’s just a simple method that, frankly, you should have been taught in kindergarten. Instead of the dread of having to meet a roomful of new people, you’ll look forward to it. Instead of struggling to recall the names of people you recently met, you will welcome the opportunity to show off your new skill.

“It was so nice to meet you, Evelyn. I’m looking forward to speaking with you sometime soon about your project.”

At the end of most chapters there will be some easy exercises. The really good news is that most will take NO TIME from your already cluttered schedule. They can be done while you are doing other things. Not only can they be done without a drain on your time, but they can actually make the time fly when you are doing boring chores.

5 A group of twenty-five professionals and clerical staff at a major veterinary hos-pital learned how to remember pets and their owners.

Memory Shock 13

How much practice time should you put in? That’s up to you. I certainly suggest no less than ten minutes twice a day. But I’m confident that you’ll enjoy your practice sessions, and typically do more practicing than you planned. Many of the practice ses-sions can be built around things you want to remember anyway. It’s like a baking class where you get to eat those wonderful des-serts you just made.

So relax and be ready to enjoy the acquisition and use of a skill that you will use for the rest of your life.

Here we go!

In the days of the three- and four-masted sailing ships, over a hundred years ago, there was an old captain who was well-known in the mercantile navy as among the most knowledge-able and most respected of all the captains.

Each morning he would open a safe in his cabin, take out a piece of paper, read it, and lock it up again. For decades the sailors wondered what his secret was. Then, one day he died at sea. While everyone was saddened at the death of this grand old man, they finally had the opportunity to learn his secret. All the junior officers ran to his cabin, and the purser, who had all the combinations, opened the safe. He took out the piece of paper and read . . . “Port left. Starboard right.”

That silly story about an apocryphal ship’s captain illustrates an attempt at rote memorization. Constant repetition. Now, let’s introduce him to Memory Shock. What if, on his very first day at sea, one of the older sailors poured a full glass of bright red port wine onto his left hand, where his wedding band was, and said, “Now you will always know that port is left.” Would he always know that port is left? Of course! But he didn’t need to have that port wine actually poured over his left hand. All he needed was to mentally see a picture of that happening.

15

ChAPter 2 Pay Attention!

Sometimes, it’s the most obvious lesson that trips you up. The message here is that even if you have a photographic memory, you cannot possibly remember something if you haven’t actually seen it. Too often, when we think we can’t remember something, it’s really because we didn’t know it in the first place.

From this point forward, everything in your life that is impor-tant to you will be seen in a new way. You will learn how to really know something so that you can apply your new memory skills to it.

You’ll start to consciously focus on things you want to retain. In the upcoming chapters, I’ll give you some examples, and per-haps the best example regards the topic of remembering names and faces.

Most people walk into a party or business meeting know-ing that they will never remember the names of everyone there. They give up before they start. While those who know the simple tricks of the trade are focusing on each person’s face and using their memory skills, most people are too busy telling themselves, “I’ll never remember all these names.”

By using the Memory Shock system, you will replace that self-fulfilling prophecy with a technique that forces you to actu-ally see the face and connect it to the name. And no, you won’t be staring at the ceiling, saying to yourself, “Must focus. Must focus. Must focus.” Instead, you will actually be focusing on the face and the name in a way that makes the process easy—and fun.


You’ll learn how to take control and stop distractions. You’ll learn how to embed that person’s name and face in your memory so that you can’t possibly forget it. And you’ll learn how and when to review for reinforcement.

You have a natural memory6 that is always working to some degree. By applying Memory Shock, you are helping your natu-ral memory along. You are forcing yourself to give your natural memory the images it needs to retain things. Your natural mem-ory and your system memory form a symbiosis. Together they are your functional memory. One is always helping the other. The problem has been that up until now, you’ve probably had little or no system to do its share. Memory Shock is a tool that lets your natural memory work at its most efficient level.

The really good news is that this is not a rote memorization technique. You will not be like the school child who is forced to repeat the Gettysburg Address over and over and over. While that might work for some people, it is far too much effort for too little return. And, by the way, if public speaking is something that you enjoy or must do as part of your employment, you are in for a real treat. But, please! Do not jump ahead to that or any other section. The Memory Shock system has many parts, and each builds upon the preceding. Some people will use this book to learn the system just up to the part or parts that pertain to their needs. That’s fine. But jumping ahead without the ground-ing provided by the earlier sections will not allow you to be suc-cessful at Memory Shock.

Shocking Pictures are the KeyYou may see a thousand cars on your drive to work. But the one that’s crumpled up against a telephone pole is the one you don’t forget. It is the shocking or unusual or violent or gigantic or silly thing that you remember most easily. Let’s use that to our advantage. Let’s take the commonplace and make it startling. Then—and this is so very important—actually SEE that silly or

6 For our purposes, “Natural Memory” is simply the part that works without ap-plying any system or technique.

Pay Attention! 17

shocking picture. [From this point forward, I’ll just say “shock-ing” for the most part. But you’ll know that I mean anything that takes the usual and makes it UNusual.] See these pictures in your mind’s eye. If you merely think the shocking picture momentarily or conjure it up briefly, that won’t be enough. Stop. Even close your eyes if that will help.

I promised that I wouldn’t bog you down with theory, but it’s important to know that we human animals are programmed to remember best that which we see. Study after study confirms this. At first, you may have to force yourself to see your shocking pic-tures. That’s OK. With a bit of practice, it will become automatic.

And one other thing: None of this is rocket-science. Some of it is so practical that you’ll wonder—“Why didn’t I think of this?” As you become more aware of your memory, you will begin to add your own tricks and gimmicks.

Here’s a real simple one: You know those dopey refrigerator magnets? Why not use them as front-door magnets! Yup, if your home has a steel entry door, as most homes do, you can move a few of them there. Never again forget to take anything important


as you rush out of the house in the morning. At first, you can put a scrap of paper under the magnet with, say, “Smithers Contract,” scrawled on it. The fun part comes when you start to use shocking pictures instead of written notes. Keep a few different magnets on the hinge side of the door. Then, move one of them over near the door handle and (in this case) see it being blown to SMITHERines! When you reach for the handle in the morning, you will see that picture and, of course, remember the Smithers Contract.

With several different colors or designs, each magnet can be assigned an item. And those items can be changed each day. And, yes, some can have permanent pictures, like one that reminds you to check your pockets or purse each morning for essential items like keys, wallet, and cell phone.

The use of shocking pictures makes this work. You didn’t want that car to crash on the highway today, injuring those people. But you understand that the memory of it will stay with you for a while. THAT’S IT! That’s the key to the whole system. I’m going to show you how to make everything you want to remember stay with you—for as long as you want. How? By showing you the tricks to how to make those pictures in your mind.

What kind of pictures are best? Shocking pictures. That can mean silly or gigantic or tiny or excessively violent or vulgar or anything else that is striking because of its unnaturalness. Incon-gruous pictures are great. You may or may not remember seeing a tourist looking at a gorilla in its cage at the zoo. But there’s no question that you’ll remember the scene if the tourist is in the cage and the gorilla is looking in.

You may have seen one of my presentations, maybe live, maybe on Youtube. The crossword shtick,7 I am told, is very impressive. But I think the fact that I can do that even though I always have the worst natural memory in the room is even more impressive. Really. If I can do it, you can do it. If you’ve been able to read this far without going back too many times, your power of concentration is probably better than mine.

Now, let’s start to put this into practice.

7 shtick–(Yiddish) a contrived attention-getting part of a performance.

Pay Attention! 19

In 1983, I decided to leave my job in nuclear construction to start an equipment finance business. As my only salesman, it was my job to call on vendors of business equipment of all types, offering to help them make sales by providing “easy monthly payments” to their customers. The new, hot product in the busi-ness world was desktop computers.

I telephoned every computer vendor within 50 miles of my new office to sell them on letting me visit to talk about my financing product in person. One of those calls was to John Had-ley, the sales manager of a well-financed new computer store in Wayne, New Jersey. John was very receptive, even telling me that he was going to be speaking to several leasing companies to select the best. Yes, I could come visit.

I must have done a good job of telling him about my company, because he agreed to let me come back the following Monday morning to speak with his ten sales reps at their weekly meeting.

I arrived early, greeted John, and stood at the entrance to the meeting room. As each rep came into the room, I intro-duced myself, “Hi. I’m Barry, from Keystone Leasing. What’s your name?” For the next hour I said nothing that didn’t begin or end with one of their names. “Herb, I’m glad you asked. I agree that. . . .” “Good idea, Harold, but there are some exceptions, such as. . . .” “I think you’ll find, Wendy, that if you give your cus-tomers a choice. . . .”

By the end of the hour, everyone in that room wanted me to be their “leasing guy,” and John Hadley agreed. I no longer had any competition to worry about.

Did I have a good financing product and know my stuff? Sure. But speaking to them by name helped me reach them on another, more personal, level.

21

ChAPter 3 Remembering First-Names and Faces

Nice to meet you, um. . . .

Imagine if everyone always wore a name badge. You know, the “Hello, my name is. . . .” badges that are used at conventions. That sure would make it easy to know their names. From now on, you’ll have something even better! Everyone’s name will appear right on their face. You won’t even have to look down at their lapels. Whether you are a teacher, salesman, cop, nurse, or anyone else who ever has to deal with people, you’ll win their confidence—and they may not even know why.

Have you ever considered that you seldom forget a face? You may not remember the name that goes with it, but you know you’ve seen the face. Why is that? It goes to the material in the previous chapter: You’ve seen the face, but you’ve only heard the name. (And only if you were paying attention!) We need a way to SEE names. By that, I don’t mean the name as written. While name tags (like everyone might be wearing at a convention) can be a small help, they haven’t let you SEE the name. The name tag has just shown you some alphabetical characters that allow you to sound out the name.

Instead, we need a way to really picture names, because then we can make them shocking. First, some basics:


This is particularly important when you are meeting several new people at once. Make sure you actually hear the name by repeating it. “Is that Emory?” There is no shame or embar-rassment in misstating the name at this point. People are pleased that you want to make sure you know their names. If the person who is making the introduc-tions says, “and I’d also like you to meet. . . .”

Stop them cold with something like, “John, I want to meet every-one, but let me make sure that I really know each of your friends.” Turn back to Emory, and tell him that you’re pleased to meet him.

Now, here’s the part that makes learning and remembering names easy—and fun. Pick out the most distinguishing feature on Emory’s face. There’s no right or wrong here. It’s simply what strikes you as his most important feature. Does he have a big nose? Floppy ears? A small dimple that’s not quite centered on his chin? Really see it. Exaggerate it, and now . . . link it forever with a PICTURE of his name. If Emory has a big nose, file it down with an emery board! Make it bleed! AND SEE THAT PICTURE.

Yup. As long as the sound of a name can be an object, or an action, simply SEE that object or action in the picture with his or her most distinguishing feature. As we move along, I’ll show you that every name can be pictured. If you meet someone named “Bill” who has big ears, see the image of dollar bills instead of ears. If you meet someone named “Jack” with a small chin, see yourself jacking him up with a car jack hooked under his chin as you would when changing a tire. “Tommy” with a broken front tooth? How about playing a rhythm on it like a tom-tom drum (or shooting out that tooth with a Tommy gun)?

Remembering First-Names And Faces 23

In Appendix A, you’ll find a starter list of name-pictures. But you really won’t need it. And if you have better pictures than mine for some of the names, by all means, replace mine with yours! Again, this is not a system of rote memory. Use your imagination to make up word-pictures for names. And once you decide, stick with it. If you want to see Bill as the bill of a duck-billed platypus, fine. But make every Bill the bill of a duck-billed platypus. That will make you quicker at nailing the name of every Bill you meet.

Coming up are nine faces with their names. Let’s walk through the list. As always, talking about this stuff does no good whatso-ever. SEE THE PICTURES as we discuss each one. Now, names are one of those parts of Memory Shock where I encourage you to go wild. Normally, I’ll suggest you choose any feature and any name-picture that you like. But for the purposes of illustration, stay with me this time.

So here’s the premise. We are at a party and I introduce you to these nine people. Will you ever be able to remember all nine names and faces? (Don’t worry, I have confidence in you!)

BEATRICE: While you might ordinar-ily focus on her tight smile or arched eye-brows—and that would be fine—I’m going to point to her unusual hairdo. Now, for the name-picture: Hmmm . . . Beatrice, bee-atrice, bee. Yup, I’m going to see a giant bee living in Beatrice’s hair. (Or a bee hive built in her hair.) If I take your arm right


now and try to turn you to the next person, STOP ME! It is important for you to spend a long moment seeing the giant bee in Beatrice’s hair. You also should conversationally say her name at least twice. Something like, “Hello, Beatrice, I’m pleased to meet you. My favorite aunt was named Beatrice.” Or, “I’ve heard a lot of nice things about you. Perhaps we can talk later, Beatrice.” Or, “I see I have a lot of folks to meet, but I hope we can chat later. By the way, Beatrice, your bracelet is beautiful.”

While your comments are sincere, you will be looking at that dopey giant bee in her hair the whole time—and trying not to laugh!

BRIDGET: Now, you’re ready to move on. Let me introduce you to Bridget. Despite the fact that she has a rather prominent nose, I think her large mouthful of teeth are even more exceptional. The picture? A bridge, of course. As a matter of fact, you can actually SEE a railroad train traveling across the top of her teeth—which looks like a railroad bridge to me. (Yes, you can certainly go to the bridge of her nose as well and see a picture. Maybe a sign that makes you laugh because it says, “You are about to cross the Bridget’s Bridge Bridge.” OK, let’s put this into practice: “Hi, Bridget. It sure is nice to meet you. I’m a fan of old European movies, and Brigitte Bardot is my all-time favorite actress.” (The fact that they spell their names in different ways doesn’t matter.)

EDDIE: An “eddy” is a swirling current moving counter to the main flow; or Eddie could be short-hand for an editor, which you can picture by someone making corrections with a blue pencil. I use the picture of eating, as in “it must have been somethin’ I et.” Now, the Eddie you are meeting here has a pair of glasses with big lenses. So big, in fact, that you’re going to eat (or you et) a plate of spaghetti from them. So you are actually going to have difficulty seeing Eddie’s eyes because of the spaghetti you see on his glasses. If you chose to see an “editor,” you might see Eddie’s glasses all marked up by a blue pencil.

GEORGE: George? When you meet a George, you will see his most prominent facial feature tied to a gorge. The George that we are meeting here has big masculine eyebrows, and in the middle


there is a gorge. I’m going to picture a hiker walking across his left eyebrow, toward the right one. But, horror of horrors, when he gets to the middle between the two eyebrows, he falls into that gorge to his death! (Did I mention that violence is good?) Don’t just say it. See that picture.

HERBERT: Herb. Herbs. Oregano. Parsley. Pepper. Achoo! Yup, take another look at Herb’s face. He almost looks like he’s about to sneeze. Do you know why? Of course! It’s all those herbs in his beard. Now say hello to Herb while you’re seeing the picture of all those herbs in his beard. But don’t get too close. You don’t want him to sneeze all over you!

JOHN: OK. This will be a tad sensitive. But I would be doing you a big disservice if I didn’t tell you about my standard picture for John. The john. The restroom. Earlier, I told you that the shocking thing in your shocking pictures can be gigantic or tiny or violent or . . . . Well, vulgar was on that list, and this is where the vulgarity hits the fan.8 Look at John’s Romanesque nose. Now picture it as, or in, or using, something in the restroom. (If you’d rather stay out here, you can simply picture the words “Men’s Room” written across his nose.) Are you seeing your picture? Good. Let’s just chat briefly with John, then we’ll wash our hands and see whom we’re going to meet next.

PHILLIP: See those pursed lips, the scrunched forehead. Do you know why? It’s because he’s FILLED UP with something, and he’s having a difficult time trying to keep it in. Yup. Phillip is filled up. Try to picture him straining to keep in whatever it is that he’s filled up with. OK, let’s just say a fast hello to Phillip and move on to . . .

ROBERTA: Roberta looks like she knows that something is going to happen. I think Ro-bird-a knows that a whole flock of birds about to land on her broad nose or on her landing pad of

8 If you are uncomfortable with this, don’t use it. Otherwise, give it a try. (You’re the only one knowing about your pictures.)


a flattened out hairdo. You decide which and see that picture of Roberta and the birds. As soon as you’ve said hello and seen that picture, we’ll meet . . .

ROSEANNE: Believe it or not, Roseanne has a fetish. She has a compulsion to jam rose stems into her right ear. See how she has pulled the hair aside, inviting you to do it for her? Picture that . . . maybe with blood pouring out.

If you first meet Carol on the telephone or are told that you will be meeting Peter later at a party, before you even know what they look like, you’re going to form the word-picture for the name first. You’ll be prepared. You’ll be all set to picture something on Carol’s face as singing or otherwise involved with Christmas carols. You’ll be prepared to picture something on Peter’s face as tired, petered out.


On the other hand, if you see an old friend steering someone toward you at a party, anticipate that you’ll be introduced to this person. Pick out his feature before they are even in talking range. If you focus, say, on his big, square jaw, and your mutual friend says, “this is Steve,” you are all ready to picture a wood-burning stove (Steve) balanced on that jaw.

Well, here’s the group you just met. How will you do?


In chapter 21 you’ll learn how to remember last names. You’ll be amazed at how simple it is.

Practice:• Practice this skill every time you see new people. Even if you

are not going to meet them, pick out and focus on everyone’s prominent facial feature. Similarly, when you hear names, even if you’ll never see their faces, see—or make up—the word-picture for that name.

• Being introduced to someone new? Great! Watch how con-fident you are with your new skill.

• Practice whenever you see anyone with a name badge—waitresses, gas station attendants, check-out clerks.

• Watch TV? Most shows provide opportunity to practice names of new people. Police shows are particularly good because they have new characters in each episode.

• In Appendix A there is a list of several hundred male and female first names for you to try your hand at creating pic-tures. (Feel free to change them.)

PARt 2Picturing Numbers

It’s easier than you think.

Mastering numbers is an important part of a memory system. So much of your everyday life revolves around numbers: serial numbers, computer password numbers, telephone numbers, style numbers, stock numbers, license-plate numbers . . . numbers of all types.

Just as you probably thought there was no way to picture names, you may be skeptical about a simple way to picture num-bers. They are, by definition, abstract. The next few chapters will let you see how easy it can be.


Portable Random Number GeneratorThroughout the remainder of this book, I’ll be asking you to

use your “Random Number Generator.” More on this later, but for now—for numbers up to ten—simply look at the minute hand on your wrist watch or a clock on the wall. Use the last digit. That’s it! If the time when you glance at your watch is 9:53, your randomly generated number is 3. If the time is 4:30, your randomly generated number is either 0 or 10, depending on the particular lesson. (You’ll know which one applies.) If you need a fast series of random numbers, you can do the same thing by using the second hand on your watch, taking the last digit of the number (56 seconds = 6, etc.).

31

ChAPter 4 Body Parts as Number Pictures

Yeah, really!

This will be a quick-start guide to everything you do with num-bers. Some of these “rules” will seem arbitrary, but follow them exactly. You’ll soon see why. In any case, they are easy to learn. As with everything else in Memory Shock, the key will be in making and seeing shocking pictures.

Because virtually all the numbers in our daily lives revolve around the decimal (“based on ten”) system, we will start with the numbers from 1 to 10. Just think about it. When you were a young child, you learned to count from 1 to 10. Then you soon realized that everything beyond that was basically the same. 1 to 10 is pretty much the same as 11 to 20 (or 31 to 40 or 81 to 90 or 141 to 150). Things fell into place once you mastered counting from 1 to 10.

Memory Shock number pictures will be quite similar. We will start off with a trick to help with those first ten, and then move on to mastering all the others. The trick is based on body parts: very simple—and always with you. J

We’re going to start at your big toe and move up the body. Here’s the list, and a cartoon drawing of a man, to lay it out. Again, although it may seem silly at first, follow along exactly as we discuss it. Notice that the numbers actually go up the body


from one (TOE) to nine (BRAIN or PATE), and then start back at the toes (plural of toe) for number ten. The reason for that will be explained a little later. For Number 6 see/say both Chin and Jaw, and notice that “Pate,” an old-fashioned word for the top of a head, is used along with Brain for the Number 9. See/say both Brain and Pate while you’re learning this.

It will be a good idea to spend some time with the body parts from Toe (1) to Larynx (5), before moving on. Practice count-ing up and down, always picturing the body part. When you feel comfortable with Toe through Larynx, move on with Chin/Jaw through Toes. Then, practice all ten body parts, counting forwards and backwards, and testing yourself whenever you see numbers. One simple, easy way to do this is to look at the license plate numbers on the cars in front of you as you are driving. Like most Memory Shock practice sessions, it will take absolutely NO time from your busy schedule.

Later, when you’re using this part of the system, you’ll auto-matically sense where on the body; i.e., how high up a number, it is. That will help you use the system. Very soon, these body parts will be, well . . . part of you.

1 Toe 6 Chin/Jaw

2 Knee 7 Cornea

3 Midsection 8 Forehead

4 Rib Cage 9 Brain/Pate

5 Larynx 10 Toes

Each of these body parts has been carefully chosen to make later parts of the system easy to learn. So, while number 3 points to the area that you might think of as “belly” or “stomach,” be sure to think “Midsection.” (And, of course, SEE that picture.)

I’ve divided the parts into two groups of five for ease of learn-ing. For example, when you want to use the body part for num-ber 5, you’ll know that it’s (the larynx) at the top of the bottom half of the body part group. Similarly, it will be easy to focus in on the body part for number 9 because it’s at the very top of the upper half. As with everything in Memory Shock, picture the

Body Parts as Number Pictures 33

parts as you say them. It is not enough to know that the number 5 is represented by the larynx. You must SEE the larynx (voice box/Adam’s apple area) as you review. So see the area and think larynx. Take several minutes now to practice, first 1 to 5 (toe to larynx), and then, after you are confident that you have them down, move on to 6 (chin and jaw) to 10 (toes—plural of toe).


When you have spent a few minutes to have them down pat, forwards and backwards, we can move on to how this will open up a whole world of remembering things by the numbers. Put this book down now, and practice a bit.

This might also be a good time to remind you that one of the exciting parts of learning the system is that your practicing can be almost any time—driving to work, folding laundry, mowing the lawn. When I ask you to practice your lessons, I am really not asking you to give up any time at all.

Become very comfortable with these body parts before you move on to the next pages. Remember, it’s especially easy, because you are moving up the body, and not jumping around—except for important big jump down to number ten (toes).

In the next chapter we’ll start to put all this together in a way that will be surprisingly easy to use.

Practice:• Count to yourself from one to ten and back, using your new

number pegs.• Use your “random number generator”* to pick a starting

number. Now PICTURE your way up, then down, from that number. Remember, always SEE the pictures of your Body Part list.

• Use the seconds on your “random number generator” and speed drill on the pictures of your Body Part list as the sec-onds change.

* Described in the Introduction to Numbers Chapter.

35

ChAPter 5 Body Part Hooks—A Numbered List

Now what? How does this help me?

A “hook”9 is something to hang something on. If the hook repre-sents a number, and we can hang something on its proper Num-ber Hook with a shocking association, we can do what other people cannot: We can SEE that Number Hook (like we are now able to SEE names).

As a simple example, if I were going to the Post Office because I needed to buy eight postage stamps, I might see a giant stamp glued to my FOREHEAD—number 8. (I would NOT have to see eight stamps, because the forehead in the picture IS the number eight.) If I have really seen that picture, when I get to the Post Office I can’t possibly forget what I want to buy (stamps) and how many (eight).

It’s important to keep in mind that the “re-usable” thing here is the forehead (number 8). Consider the body part numbers as a permanent new “vocabulary.”

Now let’s try something a bit more complex. I have composed a temporary list. I’m going to surprise you later in this chapter as to why I composed the list the way I did. For now, play along.

9 Some systems refer to these as peg words, because like hooks, we can hang pic-tures from them. Others say folders, because we can file information in them. I use them all interchangeably.


This is just a practice list, but I think you may want to retain it—and you will!

1 Speech from a pulpit 6 Race track

2 A rifle 7 Jury box

3 Soldier 8 Whip

4 Julius Caesar 9 Last rites

5 Double image in a mirror 10 License plates

If you are not yet comfortable with your body part list, stop here and review it. Now, I’ll give you some help in making up the shocking pictures that you might use for this temporary list. Important: SEE the pictures that I give you. (Where have I heard that before?)

# List Item Picture of Item with Body Part

1 Speech from a pulpit BIG TOE giving a sermon (or speech)

2 A rifle KNEE smashed by rifle butt

3 Soldier MID-SECTION of fat soldier pops his uniform buttons (look like quarters.)

4 Julius CaesarCaesar searching for something through a plate of greasy BBQ’d RIBs.

5 Double image/ mirrorYour LARYNX covered by a small mirror, and seen in bathroom mirror.

6 Race trackCHIN/JAW racing around track instead of horses.

7 Jury boxCORNEAS instead of people in a jury box. (Oh my!)

8 Whip A whip bloodying a FOREHEAD

9Rites (Like last rites of the Church)

A priest giving the last rites to someone’s exposed BRAIN.

10 License plates TOES in place of car license plates.

Body Part Hooks—A Numbered List 37

As you go over this list, don’t think in terms of memorizing it by rote with constant repetition. Instead, just see the pictures. That’s the beauty of the system. As the body parts become second nature to you, you will NOT have to remember that “number 7 is a jury box.” All you have to do is see a picture of a jury box that is filled with corneas instead of people. Once you have seen that picture, can you possibly forget it? Of course not.

Now, when you want to remember “What was the seventh item on my list?”—don’t even try to remember it! All you have to ask yourself, “Where have I seen a cornea?” As a matter of fact, you probably won’t even have to ask that question. If you were to print out the list and hand it to a friend, and they asked you “What is number 7 on your list?” you can’t help but see corneas—and you’ll see them in a jury box. That is because your system memory is working together with your natural memory without your even trying.

Those last two paragraphs are super important. The more familiar you become with your body parts, the easier this part of the system becomes. From there, it is a short step to being able to picture ALL numbers. But for now, let’s return to our prac-tice list. When you’ve reviewed the ten pictures, SEEING them clearly, you’ll be ready for the next chapter—and a fun surprise.

39

ChAPter 6 the U.S. Constitution’s Bill Of Rights

How many of the First Ten Amendments do you know?

One could study the Bill of Rights—the first ten amendments to the U. S. Constitution—for a lifetime. But for most of us, it would be wonderful to know at least the basic concept of them. That would allow us to cite which amendment prohibits cruel and unusual punishment or which grants the right to a speedy trial. Too many Americans never learned them in school. Sure, everyone has heard that the Second Amendment has to do with the right to bear arms. But most people aren’t familiar with much more than that and maybe one or two more. You, on the other hand, now know the basic premise behind all ten!

Do you know what I mean by that? Let’s take a look. The list that you just pictured to practice your all-important body part num-bers was a short-hand version of the Bill of Rights. Let’s take a look at the amendments, together with our practice list to see how our pictures are all we need to remember the basic premise behind each.

The following table presents the amendments, followed by the explanation of why our pictures were chosen. As always, other pictures might have worked just as well. Feel free to replace my pictures with other shocking pictures of your choice.

Don’t lose sight of the fact that the reusable thing here is the Body Part list.


AMENDMENT 1: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establish-ment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”

NUMBER 1: TOE—Making a speech from a pulpit. So when your TOE (number 1) makes a SPEECH from a PULPIT (religion), you’re seeing the basics. Want to go further? Picture your toe reading the speech right from a NEWSPAPER (freedom of the press).

AMENDMENT 2: “A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.”

NUMBER 2: KNEE—Smashed by a rifle butt. Even if you didn’t know that before, your picture made it clear that the right to bear arms is discussed in Amendment Two (KNEE). Now certainly there are serious disagreements among people who honestly differ on the interpretation of the words. But without this starting point, you can’t be part of the discussion.

AMENDMENT 3: “No soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but in a man-ner to be prescribed by law.”

NUMBER 3: MIDSECTION—Fat soldier popping his uniform buttons. (I see those buttons as 25¢ pieces. That reminds me that this amendment speaks of soldiers being QUARTERED.) I don’t think I’ve ever heard this one brought up in conversation or on a talk show. But I have heard some-one say that something unrelated was covered by the Third Amendment. I was able to politely, but firmly, correct him.

AMENDMENT 4: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”

NUMBER 4: RIBS (or RIB CAGE)—Greasy ribs being searched through by Julius Caesar, who then wipes his hands on his white toga. When you think of Number 4 you see RIBS, and when you see RIBS, you will instantly see a “searching Caesar.” (Are you laughing yet?) Get it? SEARCH and Seizure! Is that dopey? Is it silly? Is it wacky? Yes! Yes! Yes! And that is what makes it work. Unreasonable searches and seizures are one of the most commonly discussed legal terms. It seems that it is in the plot of every television crime show. “Sorry, Detective, that bloody knife can’t be admitted into evidence blah, blah, blah.” You will be the one who knows the basis of those story lines. Hmmm. Unreasonable search and seizure? Oh yeah! Julius Caesar searching through his greasy ribs. Number four! Make sure you see him wiping that greasy barbecue sauce all over his new white toga. (Mrs. Caesar will have to take it to the dry cleaner now.)

The U.S. Constitution’s Bill Of Rights 41

AMENDMENT 5: No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or oth-erwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

NUMBER 5: LARYNX—Double image of a mirror pasted on your LAR-YNX being seen in a bathroom mirror. That one picture gives you a key to two prominent parts of the Fifth Amendment: protection against double jeopardy, and protection from being forced to witness (testify) against your-self. If you want to take this a bit further, make it a public bathroom because your own bathroom was taken from you. (That will remind you of depriva-tion of property, and that it was “taken for public use.”)

AMENDMENT 6: In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and dis-trict wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defense.

NUMBER 6: CHIN/JAW—How about a racetrack to represent “speed.” Now, instead of jockeys racing horses around the track, let’s have JAWS riding those horses. Yup, chins and jaws bouncing up and down as they sit in the saddles of those horses. (Or, jockeys riding on CHINS and JAWS instead of riding on horses.)

AMENDMENT 7: In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.

NUMBER 7: CORNEA—There you are on the witness stand. You look over at the jury box, and instead of seeing people, you see CORNEAS sitting there. If you SEE that picture, you’ll remember the 7th Amendment forever.

AMENDMENT 8: Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

NUMBER 8: FOREHEAD—Picture a FOREHEAD being whipped viciously to a bloody mess. Cruel and unusual, isn’t it?

AMENDMENT 9: The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

NUMBER 9–BRAIN/PATE—You’ve pictured a priest giving the last rites to someone’s BRAIN. The basic concept of this Amendment is to say that “if we forgot something, that doesn’t mean that you necessarily don’t have that right.”


AMENDMENT 10: The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

NUMBER 10: TOES—Few common items symbolize the states as much as license plates, each with different colors. Your picture of TOES in place of car license plates will remind you about “states’ rights.”

As always, the key to using these shocking pictures is NOT to frantically try to remember the Ten Amendments. Rather, it is to ask yourself what you saw in the shocking picture associated with the number in question. In other words, if someone asks me the focus of the 3rd Amendment and it doesn’t spring to mind, I DO NOT try to remember it! I just ask myself what Bill of Rights picture was associated to midsection? Oh yes! That fat soldier popping his 25¢ buttons all over the house. Now, without trying, I know the answer because the picture tells me it’s about soldiers quartered in my house.

Similarly, if you are asked which of the Ten Amendments talks about cruel and unusual punishment, do NOT worry about it if it doesn’t come to mind instantly. Just ask yourself what Body Part received cruel punishment. OH, I know! It was my forehead. Now I know—for a certainty—that it is the 8th Amendment that I want.

Does this sound too easy? It is!Using the Body Part system to remember the Bill of Rights is

an example of the ways you will use your new skills to remem-ber sales presentations, speeches, and even your doctoral thesis. More on that in later chapters.

Practice:• Start using Body Parts every time you want to remember a

list of numbered items (up to ten).• Try it with any of the zillions of lists available on a Google

search: top ten songs, top ten baseball batting averages, ten biggest countries in order, etc.

43

ChAPter 7 A Little Bit More About Body Parts

Trust me. Have I been wrong yet?

Before we move on to the next concept, I want to expand our Body Part system just a bit. If you need a little more familiarity with Body Parts, go back to chapter 4, then return here.

We’re going to add just a few additional thoughts that will pay dividends in the upcoming chapters.

First, to Number 1, TOE, we’ll add “DIGIT.” This is pretty easy, because in addition to being defined as “one of the ten Ara-bic number symbols from 0 to 9,” digit also means “a human finger or toe.”10 So our picture can remain the same, a TOE, but we can let our natural memory also include DIGIT. Number 1 is now TOE and DIGIT—but with the same picture.

Next, to Number 8, FOREHEAD, we’ll add “VEINY.” That should be easy; it’s the same picture, a forehead, but now it’s got a lot of veins showing. This just makes a more vivid picture—for now. But in a little while, you’ll see how it helps you learn the important material to follow.

10 http://www.thefreedictionary.com


Body Part SoundsThe other idea I want to add is that in addition to SEEING these Body Parts, notice their beginning sounds.

• For TOE and DIGIT, we’ll hear the T and D sounds.

• For KNEE, we’ll hear the N sound. (Important: while knee starts with a K, we don’t hear it. The sound we need to associate with knee is the sound of the letter N. (Why? The explanation begins in the next chapter.)

• Number 3, MIDSECTION, of course is the M sound.

• Number 4, RIB CAGE (or just RIB) is the R sound,

• Number 5 is the L sound.

• Number 6, CHIN or JAW is the CH or J sound. It’s also the soft G as in George. All those squishy sounds.

• Number 7, CORNEA, sounds like the hard letter C, and also the hard G. Notice that it is the hard C, like the sound of the letter K, and the hard G as in gorge.

• Number 8, VEINY FOREHEAD, sounds like a V or an F.

• Number 9, BRAIN or PATE, sounds like a B or a P.

• This brings us to 10, TOES, on the Body Part list. Let’s discuss this a bit. Actually, the sound we are going to focus on is the S sound at the end. We used that S (or 0) to plu-ralize toe. In the next sections we are going to be focusing on the individual sounds of the ten decimal digits, so let’s start to think in terms of that zero, and its S (or Z) sound. Note that it is also the sound of the soft C as appears twice in Cicero.

So our complete Body Part list is now upgraded to include these few additions:

A Little Bit More About Body Parts 45

# Body Part Letters Sounds

1 Toe / Digit T, D

2 Knee N

3 Midsection M

4 Rib Cage (or Rib) R

5 Larynx L

6 Chin/Jaw CH, SH, J, soft G

7 Cornea Hard C, K, G

8 Veiny Forehead V, F

9 Brain/Pate B, P

10 Toes S, Z, soft C

This will be a good time to stop and review all you have learned. Spend a little time with this slight variation on your original body parts list. Coming up, I have a wonderful surprise for you. Most people find it the most challenging part of a good memory system, but you already know most of what others dread. Curious?

Practice:Mentally go trough the Body Parts, but this time, as you see

each part, hear the sound of its initial letter or letters. See a TOE/DIGIT and hear the ta and da sounds. See a KNEE and hear the nnn sound.

47

ChAPter 8 Numbers—Major Mnemonic System

Don’t let the name scare you!

Ask people their phone numbers and they won’t tell you! Even good friends, people who trust you. That is, they won’t tell you until they see a pencil in your hand. That’s because they can’t comprehend that you can see pictures of ten-digit phone num-bers. But you will, just as you see the picture (bee) that is Bea-trice’s name. For most applications, your ability will be limited by neither length nor quantity of numbers.

DAVID LETTERMAN IS FUNNY, BUT HIS FEET SMELL LIKE ROTTING PUMPKINS.


OK. The Major Mnemonic system11 is where we get serious. But thanks to Body Part pictures, you already know most of it. If you aren’t totally familiar with the Body Parts now, stop here and go back. Not only will they help you with the next several chapters, they will be a system that you can use whenever you need a short list with hooks (or pegs).

Now let’s add to our Letter Sound chart with a column show-ing the “standard” ways to learn the number sounds. They are valid, and may help reinforce what you already know.

# Body Part Letters Sounds Reminders

1 Toe / Digit T, D Scripted T and D each have one downstroke.

2 Knee N N has 2 downstrokes.

3 Midsection M M has 3 downstrokes, & looks like 3 on its side.

4 Rib Cage (or Rib) R R is the last letter of the written “four.”

5 Larynx L L is Roman Number 50. Hold 5 fingers to your head to show “Loser.”

6 Chin/Jaw CH, J, Sh Script J is a backward 6.

7 Cornea Hard C, K K is made of two 7s.

8 Veiny Forehead V, F, Ph Script F looks like an 8.

9 Brain/Pate B, P P is a mirror-image 9 and lower-case B is a 6.

10 Toes S, Z, C Z is first letter of Zero.

You’ll soon know the consonant sounds without reference to the Body Parts or this chart. With very little practice, this new “alphabet” will be as natural to you as the ABC’s.

There are a few more characteristics about this alphabet that we’ll discuss as they come up. For now, I’ll mention that the

11 While some contemporary memory experts claim credit for what you are about to learn, the Major system is actually centuries old. I first learned about it over fifty years ago in the writings of the great Harry Lorayne, whose books and teachings I still highly recommend.

Numbers—Major Mnemonic System 49

sounds for the number 1, T and D, which at first glance seem to be very different from each other, are really closely related. Try this: Place your mouth in position to say “Da.” Notice that it starts to tighten up, and that your tongue automatically places itself on the roof of your mouth behind your upper front teeth.

Now form your mouth to say “Ta.” It’s exactly the same, isn’t it? Because the Major system deals with sounds and not letters, it makes perfect sense to team up the sound of T and the sound of D.

Similarly, the sound for the number 8, F and V (and Ph) sounds, use matching mouth formations. Try “fine” and “vine.” And the same type of similarity exists for the sounds for the number 9, the B sound and the P sound. Say “pa” and “baa.”

The system is based on the following “rules:”Each of the ten digits is represented by certain consonant sounds.Replacing numbers with these consonant sounds and using

vowels as “wild-cards” allows you to convert numbers into words. (Trust me. This will make sense in a few minutes.)

The words are seen as PICTURES. (Yup! Just as you can now SEE names, and SEE the numbers 1 to 10 as Body Parts, you will be able to SEE all numbers.)

Sound complicated? It’s not. Let’s take a look:As you already know, the consonant sounds for the digit 1

is the sound of a T or a D. The sound for the digit 2 is the N sound. For the 3, we use the sound of the letter M. Let’s stop here for a moment and put them into practice. If I want to SEE the number 321, I could picture a MiNT or a MiNuTe (perhaps as the minute hand on a watch), or a MiND or a MouND or MaNaTee, or a MiNueTte. All of these pictures represent the number 321. Notice that because we are dealing with consonant SOUNDS, minuette ends with only one occurrence of the “T” sound. It is 321, NOT 3211. If the number that I wanted to remember IS 3211, I would have chosen MiNTeD or MouNDeD or eMaNaTeD! Notice that last one. Emanated starts with a wild-card (a vowel).

If I must drive to 321 Walnut Street, I’ll just create and SEE a silly picture of a MouND of Walnuts instead of a building. Or I might choose to see myself arriving there and biting into a


MiNT that is really a Walnut shell, and it breaks my tooth. Or I might even SEE people throwing Walnuts at a big MaNaTee on the sidewalk. Or I might see a bunch of Walnuts dancing a MiNueTte. Any of those pictures will tell me that I must go to 321 Walnut Street!

Now, let’s add the sounds for 4 and 5, the R and L sounds, to our practice session. Don’t bother memorizing these word-pictures. Just understand the concept of working with consonant sounds and vowel wild-cards. And notice that there are some words with double letters—but they are heard only once, so they are single numbers. Remember, we are working with sounds, not letters.

142 T/D, R, N TRaiN, DRaiN, DRoNe, ThRoNe

532 L, M, N LeMoN, LuMeN, LooMiN’

134 T/D, M, R TiMeR, DiMmeR, DeMuRe

245 N, R, L uNRoLl, kNuRL (Notice silent K)

325 M, N, L MaNuaL, MeNiaL

235 N, M, L aNiMaL, eNaMeL

Numbers—Major Mnemonic System 51

2145 N, T/D, R, L NaTuRaL, uNDeRaLl

4531 R, L, M, T/D ReLiMbeD (Tree limbs reattached)

3524 M, L, N, R MiLliNeR (Hat maker)

1343 T/D, M, R, M DiM RooM

Notice that this practice list has no word pictures comprised of less than three digits. That’s because we will come back to a very special system of two-digit words in the chapter on Number Pegs.

Now I can explain the silly “story” at the top of this chapter: “David Letterman is funny, but his feet smell like rotting pumpkins.”

For advanced classes, I write the memorized number,

1815143208291081035574127939720

on the white board. Then I explain that all one needs to “remem-ber” this 31 digit number is to see a picture of comedian David Let-terman telling a joke (David Letterman is funny–18151432082), and stopping to lift one of his feet up to his nose and sniffing it (but his feet smell like rotting pumpkins–91081035574127939720). If you focus on that silly story and picture, you can’t help but know the number.

As we proceed, you will learn a zillion applications of this prin-cipal. It all comes back to your two-word system: Focus and Picture.

Practice:• Set the Random Number Generator (RNG) at the

Memory Shock website (www.memoryshock.com) to give you random three digit numbers. Then set it to give four digit numbers.

• As you go up in number of digits (5, 6, 7 . . . ) start breaking up the numbers into multiple words. Of course, you will see them as very short “stories.”

• Use the serial numbers on paper money every time you see a new one. (See the following story.)


A Story:I still occasionally practice—just for the fun of it—with

paper money serial numbers. But I always memorize the serial numbers of fifty- and hundred- dollar bills. One day I was on the express line at a super market, and received change of a twenty—after giving the cashier a fifty. I don’t think she was deliberately shorting me. It was a very busy line, and she seemed harried. I politely said, “You seem to have given me the wrong change,” and the cashier instantly launched into a rather nasty “No I didn’t! Your total was $17.37, and I gave you $2.63.” She pointed to the register receipt as “proof.” There it was: Total: $17.37; Cash Tendered: $20.00; Change: $2.63.

Sensing an attitude that might become worse upon being proven wrong, I asked her to call the manager, who was just a few registers away. He came over, and the cashier said that “this customer claims I gave him the wrong change” and adamantly repeated the facts as she knew them. Seeing the picture of a movie monster who looked like a deer tick, breaking the win-dows of a bus with a baseball bat, I quietly and politely said the numbers that I saw in my picture, tick-man bus bat: “17329091.”

The manager asked, “Sir, what is that?” “That,” I calmly replied, “is the serial number of the fifty-dollar bill I gave Patty.” (Of course, I had no problem recalling the name on her no-longer-visible name-badge; I had earlier pictured myself patting her chubby little cheeks.) “I know that she didn’t intend to short-change me. It’s obviously a busy day and the express line is particularly tough to work on days like this.”

They looked down at the fifty-dollar bill in her register drawer, and I accepted the apologies they both offered. I left the store doing my best not to chuckle out loud at their wonder-ment of the weird guy who memorizes serial numbers.

53

ChAPter 9 tips, tricks & Short-Cuts for Numbers

Here are a few extra tips that will make the Major system easier to use. Later on, you may decide to add some more tweaks and short-cuts—I encourage that.

• W, H, and Y are wild-cards, and can normally be used the same way vowels are used. It’s easy enough to remember—they spell the word “WHY.”

• When forming word pictures for numbers ending in a double number, place a Y at end of the double consonant to indicate the doubling of the last consonant sound. As an example, near the end of the previous chapter, we looked at the number 2145, and saw that one possible word picture for it is “natural.” If the number had been 21455, I would make it “naturally.” While it may sound like just one “L,” the “Y” reminds us to double that last digit.

• Compound consonants. There are a few very common combinations of consonants that occur in English. Two such combinations are NG and NK. Both can normally represent the number combination of 27. When you see a longer number containing that combination, you will usu-ally have a large numbers of words that work for you. (An exception would be NGE as in twinge. In that case the soft G makes the combination 26.)


• The very common Th sound represents the number 1. The sound is quite similar to the sound of the letter D. (Did I mention that I’m from Da Bronx?)

Other Shortcuts:Don’t forget that you can start words with vowels. Some of the words in the chart at the end of the previous chapter, such as animal and enamel are good examples.

Numbers beginning with 2 can become words that start with “un . . .” 29495 can be “unbearable.”

ALSO, you can picture words starting with 2 by putting a circle/slash around the part that follows the 2. The number 203727 (No Smoking) could look like this:

You can stretch this as far as you like. You might choose to see 258210 (No Elephants)12 as:

A 95 at the end of a number can often help us see an “. . . able” or “. . . ple” or “. . . ably” ending, as in “example.” (70395)

Did you notice in the example above that “ex” is pronounced EKS (70)?

Numbers ending with a 4, often give you a word that ends with ER, such as “timer” and “dimmer,” seen earlier.

12 While there’s only room in the graphic for one elephant, your natural memory will tell you it’s “No Elephants.”

Tips, Tricks & Short-Cuts For Numbers 55

Numbers beginning with a 4 can be words that begin with “re,” (to do again). 4921 can be “repaint” and you can see a paint brush going over and over the same thing. So, 4921820, can be a picture of you as you repaint (4921) a fence (820). Even if you see yourself repainting a fence, your natural memory won’t let you add in a 27.

Here’s a silly one: If you are stuck trying to find a word for a number that begins with 5, see a picture for the remaining digits wearing a French beret, and beginning the word with “la.” 59214 can be “La painter.”

Brain freeze? Just can’t come up with a picture for a number. Try this: Reverse it. If you can’t easily come up with a picture for 1048, make it into 8401—FROST. When your natural memory later sees the picture, it will tell you loud and clear to reverse it back to the original number.

As you can imagine, you’ll be adding your own shortcuts to your system as you go along.

Practice:• Start using your new power every time you want to remem-

ber a phone number. It makes sense not to bother with any area codes that are very familiar to you. Natural memory will tell you whether your friend Herb, who lives in New York City, has the familiar old 212 Area Code or one of the newer ones. I always break phone numbers into the natural grouping of a three digit number followed by a four digit number. If Herb’s number is 747-7434, I might see parsley and pepper (Herbs) being added to a coffee creamer (7434) made of cork (747). My natural memory will put it back into the proper order, particularly with the extra help of knowing that the three-digit word will always come before the four-digit word.

• Similarly, “ZIP Code + 4” should always be a 5 digit word or phrase, followed by a four digit word or phrase. Practice picturing them whenever you see them.

• Social Security Numbers are always three-number words, followed by two-number words, then by four-number words.

57

ChAPter 10 Number Hooks, Peg Words, Folders

They’re great, whatever you call them.

We will now venture into the wonderful world of Number Hooks.13 The Body Parts that you now know so well will remain an important “vocabulary” of Number Hooks, but we want to go further. The full system in this section will give you number pictures from 1 to 100. Don’t let that idea threaten you. You already know the basics. It will be built on the same consonant sounds that you have been learning, and is really quite logical.

It is possible to easily do all one hundred in a day or two. But, I’ve grouped them here by tens (1–10, 11–20, 21–30, etc.) You can decide to do more, but I’ll suggest just one or two groups a day. With minimal practice you will quickly have an incredible vocabulary of word pictures. Can you use the Body Parts instead of learning the new set for 1 to 10? Yes. But having two sets for that very common group of numbers will allow you to do some very interesting things later on. I strongly encourage you to make this small extra investment in time. It will pay dividends.

13 Some systems refer to these as peg words, because like hooks, we can hang pic-tures from them. Others say folders, because we can file information in them. I use them all interchangeably.


The practice drills at the end of each group of ten new hooks or peg words may become very long, because I add the new ten to everything that came before. If your time does not allow you to do an entire practice drill; e.g., count from 1 to 100 with Number Hooks, do what you can. BUT, start at a different point each time. In other words, don’t always start at number 1, but rather, start at 41, or 61. You might also try starting at the new-est group and counting backwards from there. But, occasionally, do the whole drill. And, no matter which group of hooks you are practicing, SEE THE PICTURES. (Hmm, that sounds familiar.)

In Appendix B I’ll give you the entire list from 1 to 100 for easy reference, but let’s get started with just ten per group. While you are adding groups, I’ll give you exercises to practice what you already know. I’ll also share a few ideas to make the practice sessions both fun and useful.

NUMBER HOOKS FROM 1 to 10No. Sound Picture Suggestions

1 T Tie Bow tie or long neck tie

2 N Noah Noah as an old man, or his ark

3 M Ma Your (or anyone’s) mother

4 R Rye Rye bread or rye whiskey

5 L Law Judge’s bench or police badge

6 SH Shoe Cinderella’s or Dorothy’s red shoe

7 K Cow A cow. Real or cartoon

8 V Ivy Ivy growing up a wall or trellis.

9 B Bee Bee or beehive

10 TS ToeS Toes . . . all ten

It’s important to use the same basic picture each time. In other words, if you choose Dorothy’s red shoe from the Wizard of Oz for 6, ALWAYS use Dorothy’s red shoe. By doing that, you make the process automatic. And when it is automatic, you will see a Dorothy’s red shoe EVERY time you think about the sixth item in any list without conscious effort. If the sixth leading lifetime baseball homerun hitter is Alex “A-Rod” Rodriguez (he was as

Number Hooks, Peg Words, Folders 59

of this writing), just picture a lightening rod (A-Rod) wearing Dorothy’s red shoes as he runs the bases. You will not have to think . . . “Let’s see, what is ‘six?’ Oh yes, it’s a red shoe. Now what did I picture on this list with a red shoe?” Instead, as soon as you need to know who was sixth on the list upon which you have focused, you will instantly see that picture. As with most learning, the more you do this, the easier and faster it becomes.

Of course, when you make the shocking association with whatever you want to remember, that shoe may become bigger or smaller or a different shade of red, but it will always be Doro-thy’s red shoe (if that was your choice). In this example, because Alex is a big athletic guy, I’d probably make his red shoes extra tiny to be shocking.

The pictures of the numbers do not necessarily have to be shocking AS LONG AS the association with the item you are numbering IS shocking. For example, here’s a shopping list:

Item # Pict. Suggestions

Pet Food 1 Tie SEE a bright red tie on your dog.

Bread 2 Noah SEE Noah sailing off on a piece of white bread, instead of an ark—(NOT rye bread).

Turkey 3 Ma SEE your mother riding a turkey like she would ride a horse.

Pickles 4 Rye SEE a sandwich of a giant pickle on Rye.

Soap 5 Law SEE a judge lathering up at the bench.

Shampoo 6 Shoe SEE you shampooing thousands of tiny shoes out of your hair.

Tooth-paste 7 Cow SEE yourself brushing a cow’s teeth.

Coffee 8 Ivy SEE coffee cans growing on vines.

Milk 9 Bee SEE a swarm of bees from a milk container.

Butter 10 Toes SEE yourself buttering your Toes.

Notice that I grouped my supermarket shopping list by sec-tions. The dairy items—milk and butter—are together, and the soap, shampoo, and toothpaste are together. They are also in the order I would find them walking up and down the aisles. (This assumes that it’s a store I go to regularly.)


Everyday disposable lists like this will become second nature to you. If you want to retain the information, just review the list a few times over a couple of days.

Practice:• Count to yourself from one to ten and back, using your new

Number Hooks.• Use your portable “random number generator” * to pick a

starting number. Now PICTURE your way up, then down, from that Number Hook. Remember, always SEE the pictures of your Number Hooks.

• Use your new Number Hooks whenever you are making a list. While you are learning the Memory Shock system, you may also want to have the written shopping list with you. But soon, you won’t need it.

* Described in the Introduction to Numbers Chapter


Special Number/Number Practice:This is one of the most powerful practice methods in the

entire system, and if you spend any time in a car or bus, it’s fun and easy! It combines what you’ve learned about Number Hooks and the Major system. You’ll get better and better as you use it.

1. Focus on the number portion of the license plate of the first car you see. Depending on your state, it will probably have either three or four digits.

2. Using your knowledge of the Major system, create a pic-ture for the number sounds.

3. Now, the fun part: Create and SEE a wacky association between that picture and TIE, your hook for number 1. Continue with a picture for car 2, etc. Then see how many you can remember by number.

4. As you add to your Peg/Hook vocabulary, start your road trip at a different spot—perhaps starting with 41, or 61 or whatever.

NUMBER HOOKS FROM 11 to 20(As we move along, some pictures need no suggestions.)

No. Sounds Picture Suggestions

11 T T ToT A crying baby

12 T N TiN Beer or soda can

13 T M ToMb King Tut’s tomb

14 T R TiRe Car tire

15 D L DolL A Raggedy Ann or any other doll

16 D Sh DiSH A dish with or without food

17 T K TacK A thumb tack or pushpin

18 D V DoVe A gray pigeon-like bird

19 T B TuB Old fashioned bath tub

20 N S NoSe The nose on a face.

Notice that 13, the word Tomb, has a “B.” But because this is a system of SOUNDS, not letters, we don’t care about it. Even


though the sound of the letter B has an important place in our system (it is one of the two sounds for the number 9) it doesn’t have an impact in “tomb” because it is silent.

Practice:• Count to yourself from eleven to twenty and back, using

your new Number Hooks.• Use your new Number Hooks whenever making a list. If the

list has ten or fewer items, just start with number 11 instead of number 1.

• When you are comfortable with 11 to 20, add in the 1 to 10 from your earlier lesson, practice counting from 1 to 20

NUMBER HOOKS FROM 21 to 30No. Sounds Picture Suggestions

21 N T NeT Fishing net or butterfly net

22 N N NuN Nun in a habit

23 N M NaMe Name-plate on a desk

24 N R NeRo The emperor in a toga

25 N L NaiL Carpenter’s nail or finger nail

26 N Ch NotCh Carve a notch in the association

27 N K NecK

28 N F KniFe

29 N B kNoB Door knob (K is silent)

30 M C MiCe Notice the SOFT C sounds like S

Notice that 26, “notch,” has a T. But the T is really silent, part of the ch sound. This is true of all tch and tsh sounds—they represent the sound of the number 6.

In later chapters, you’ll learn some additional ways to remem-ber calendar events. But right now you can start by associating the next thirty days of activity using you 1–30 Number Hooks. If you are reading this chapter on, say, April 14th, you can use your Hooks for events from April 15 to May 14. Surprise party


for Dave on May 2nd? Just picture NOAH (Number 2) leaping from a DIVing board!

In these charts, I’ll include suggestions only if something is not obvious.

Early in this book, I told you of the exam that fast-tracked me into nuclear construction management. Now you can under-stand the rest of the story:

Sure, I focused on the new material about nuclear propulsion systems. But, of course, I also pictured it. If valve number 27 was for discharge of reactor coolant system water into the contain-ment tank, I simply pictured cold water (Coolant System) being discharged from a hole in my neck (27). Thus the toughest part of the exam (for everyone else) was a virtual open-book test for me. I carried the book in my head, and just turned to page neck—er, I mean, page 27.

Practice:• Count to yourself from 21 to 30 and back, using your new

Number Hooks.• Use your new Number Hooks whenever making a list. If the

list has ten or fewer items, start with number 21 instead of number 1.

• When you are comfortable with 21 to 30, add in the 1 to 20 from your earlier lessons, count from 1 to 30.

• Start thinking of your important dates for the upcoming thirty days with your new vocabulary.



31 M T MaT Door mat

32 M N MooN

33 M M MuMmy Breaks double ending-letter rule*

34 M R MoweR Lawn mower

35 M L MaiL Mail box

36 M Ch MatCh Wooden match

37 M K MiKe Microphone or micrometer

38 M V MoVie Big theater screen

39 M P MaP A map, paper or on a computer

40 R S RoSe The flower(* But natural memory and practice will tell you that it is 33.)




• When you are comfortable with 31 to 40, add in the 11 to 30 from your earlier lessons, practice counting from 1 to 40.



41 R T RaT The rodent

42 R N RaiN See rain falling on it

43 R M RuM Pour rum over other object

44 R R RoweR A crew team rowing a boat

45 R L RaiL A piece of railroad track

46 R Ch RoaCh Yuck!

47 R K RocK Big boulder or small stone

48 R F RooF Cover the roof of your house

49 R P RoPe

50 L S LaCe Note soft C for the S sound





• At this point, you may want to practice remembering the states of the United States by the numbers—largest to smallest in population. The list is part of a more challenging exercise in Appendix E2.

Halfway to 100! Pretty good. I’d like to see you keep going, but at this point, you may want a break. If so, skip to Chapter 11—Combining Number Hooks with Body Parts. Then come back and do the next sections for 51 to 100.


Special Practice and An Amazing trick:• Pick up a magazine or newspaper, and associate—SEE—the

first word (or an outstanding picture) on each page with your Number Hook for that page. You will be shocked at how eas-ily you can do this. What a great parlor trick or demonstra-tion to perform for your friends—memorizing the first fifty pages of a magazine that you’ve never seen before in a few minutes! And it’s wonderful practice to make you “fluent” in your new language.

• As you become confident in that skill, you can make it even more amazing: “The first word on page 32 is ‘Table,” you say when you SEE the MOON falling from the sky and smashing a picnic table. Then you continue, “and I also see a toll-free phone number: 800-412-9420,” as you SEE the table covered with RoTteN PRuNeS.


51 L T LoT Set hooked item in a vacant lot.

52 L N LioN Real or cartoon

53 L M LaMb Note silent B

54 L R LuRe See hooked item as a fishing lure

55 L L LiLy The flower or a water lily

56 L Sh LaSH Eye lash or whip

57 L K LaKe Dunk the hooked item in a lake.

58 L V LaVa See lava flowing over the item.

59 L P LiP A full lower lip

60 Ch Z CHeeSe Whatever your favorite cheese

An easy way to make 52 and 53 “shocking,” is to make your lion (52) very timid in the picture that you use, and make the lamb (53) very menacing and aggressive.







61 Sh T SHeeT A bed sheet

62 Sh N SHiN

63 Ch M CHuM A buddy—or a pail of fishing bait

64 Ch R CHaiR

65 Sh L SHeLl A peanut shell

66 Ch Ch ChooChoo A train

67 Sh K ShacK A rickety old shack

68 Sh V ShaVe The act of shaving or a razor

69 Sh P ShiP A large cruise ship

70 K S CaSe An attaché case




• When you are comfortable with 61 to 70, add in the 21 to 60 from your earlier lessons, and practice counting from 21 to 60.

• Count from 2 to 70 with even numbers only. Then do it over from 1 to 69 with odd numbers only.



71 K T CoT An army cot or camp cot

72 K N CaNe A candy cane or a walking cane

73 K M CoMb A hair comb

74 K R CaR Your car or any car

75 K L CoaL A bucket of coal

76 K Ch CouCh

77 K K CaKe (or cookie!)

78 K V CaVe

79 K P CaPe A super-hero’s cape

80 F S FaCe

(Notice “Sound of K,” even though most words contain a “C.”)




• When you are comfortable with 71 to 80, add in the 31 to 70 from your earlier lessons, and practice counting from 31 to 80.

• Expand the use of the “Special Practice” magazine trick at the end of the section for 41 to 50.

• At this point, you can start memorizing all the Across words or all the Down words in most crossword puzzles. Even if you don’t actually do the puzzle beforehand, just associate your Number Hook with the crossword’s clue.



81 F T FaT Make your object very fat

82 F N FaN

83 F M FoaM Shaving cream foam or any foam

84 F R FiRe

85 V L VeiL Bride’s veil (or a nail file)

86 F Sh FiSH

87 F G FiG Note “hard” G (fig, NOT fidge)

88 F F FiFe

89 F B FoB A key ring attachment

90 B S BuS







91 B T BaT Baseball bat

92 B N BuN Hamburger bun

93 B M BuM Bum or, if you’re British, bum J

94 B R BeaR

95 B L BeLl

96 B Sh BuSH The vegetation or the president

97 B K BooK

98 P F PuFf Hooked item in a puff of smoke

99 P P PiPe Smoking pipe or plumbing pipe

100 Th S S TheSiS A large manuscript

Congratulations! You now have a basic vocabulary of 100 word pictures. Use some of them every day! This vocabulary of hooks, together with your knowledge of the general number-sounds, gives you an ability to remember virtually anything you want to. In the upcoming sections you’ll learn some specific applications. Even more important, you will start to see new ways that apply to your situation, effectively inventing your own variation of Memory Shock.

71

ChAPter 11 Combine Number Hooks & Body Parts

An easy way to nail a 20 digit number!

At this point, you know your Number Hooks from 1 to 100. You also know your Body Parts from 1 to 10. Here’s a super way to remember longer numbers—up to 20 digits—that is really nothing more than forming the silly kind of associations (shock-ing pictures) that you have been doing. You’ll be doing it with pictures you already know, so it couldn’t be any easier.

Let’s demonstrate this with a random 20-digit number,14 39482051408301216379. Break it up into ten pairs: 39–48–20–51–40–83–01–21–63–79. Now, we match up those pairs with ten Hook Numbers, in this case Body Parts, which are part of your new vocabulary. Notice that if you had only one vocabulary; i.e, Body Parts or Hook Numbers, this could get very confusing.

Don’t worry if two pair of digits are the same. This will occur more than one-third of the time, and won’t be a problem.15

14 A 10 digit random number generator is at www.memoryshock.com15 See the explanation of this phenomenon in Appendix D.


RN = Random NumberBody Part RN

1 Toe 39

2 Knee 48

3 Mid-Sect 20

4 Rib Cage 51

5 Larynx 40

6 Chin/Jaw 83

7 Cornea 01

8 Forehead 21

9 Brain/Pate 63

10 Toes 79

Now, as you first see or hear each one, picture it hooked to the body part it matches up to . . . .

Body Part RN Hook Suggestion (Make yours better!)

1 Toe 39 Map Driving along, looking at map on toe.

2 Knee 48 Roof Roof shingles protect knee from rain.

3 Midsection 20 Nose See a nose growing out of your midsection.

4 Rib Cage 51 Lot A giant lot with nothing but a skeleton’s ribs.

5 Larynx 40 Rose Can’t breathe due to a rose is in your larynx.

6 Chin/Jaw 83 Foam The skin on your chin is foaming up.

7 Cornea 01 Tie Your necktie is covered with real corneas.

8 Forehead 21 Net Pull up your fishing net. It’s full of foreheads.

9 Brain/Pate 63 Chum Use pieces of your brain to attract fish.

10 Toes 79 Cap Each of your toes is wearing a baseball cap.

By now, of course, you know that you can’t just say these things, you must really see the pictures. This is so powerful because

Combine Number Hooks & Body Parts 73

you already know this stuff. You KNOW that an eight looks like a forehead. You KNOW that a 21 looks like a net.

One of the good parts of remembering longer numbers this way is that a) even if you stumble on one or two, you will have the rest—each pair is independent of the others, and b) you will know exactly what digit is in any place of the twenty digits. In other words, you will know in this example that the twelfth digit is a 3.

• First, divide the position by two and round up to the next whole number if needed.

• If the position is an even number, go to the SECOND digit of that Body Part location.

• If the position is odd, it’ll be the FIRST digit of the Body Part location.

• In other words, even numbers are the second location, and odd numbers are in the first location (after rounding up).

Example 1: What is the 12th digit? Divide 12 by 2 to get 6, and use the second digit. The Body Part of 6 is Chin/Jaw, and you have seen it covered with FOAM. The second digit of FOAM is 3.

Example 2: What is the 15th digit of that 20 digit number? Divide by 2 to get 7½ then round up to 8. You know that Body Part 8 is forehead, and you’ve seen foreheads in a NET. The first digit of Net is 2.

If you are doing it as a demonstration, you can show your friends that you not only know the 20-digit number forwards and backwards; you can have them call out any number from 1 to 20, and you’ll tell them which digit is in that place.

In later chapters you’ll learn how to easily do this for much longer numbers, theoretically up to 8,200 digits (4,100 pairs). OK, the emphasis is on “theoretically.”


Practice:• Start with eight-digit numbers. Just take a dollar bill from

your pocket—the serial number of each new bill is a “ran-dom number generator.” Then move on to two bills. Then two bills plus the first half of the serial number on a third bill.

• Don’t forget(!) that you can also use the free random num-ber generator at www.memoryshock.com

• As always, practice going both forward and backward.• Include digit locations in your practice sessions; e.g., “What is

the fourteenth digit?”

Another Brief Story About Seeing Numbers

Nuclear Submarine Control Room gauges are analog regardless of the fact that, particularly during the heat of the Cold War, they were built with a spare-no-expense philosophy. Why? Well, while YOU are able to make digital numbers memo-rable—beyond anything your friends can imagine—most people can’t. For those “Nukey” sailors in the engine room, one look at an analog gauge tells them the relative position and direction of dials far better than forcing their brains to register and interpret the meaning of a “55” versus a “48.”

PARt 3LOCI

This whole section is just one short chapter. Think it’s important? Oh yeah!

77

ChAPter 12 Loci, Memory tour, Memory Palace16

By whatever name, this is good stuff.

This part of your memory system is best known by its Latin name, loci [LO-sigh17; plural of locus], for good reason: It was first used by the ancient Greeks and Romans; it means “locations.” It is said that Simonides, a Greek poet, was attending an event in a large banquet hall. He was told that he was wanted outside. After he left the building, the roof caved in, leaving no survivors. Everyone inside was crushed beyond recognition. Simonides was able to recall and identify everyone who was there, by picturing their locations at the tables just before the collapse. This brought the realization that associating people—or anything—to certain places makes them easy to remember.

The loci system is quite simple. You will plot out a tour of some place familiar, following a certain route. Start by using your home, and focusing on five things you see in each room in a certain order. If you normally come home at the end of the day through the front door, and follow the same route, say going

16 Fans of TV’s fictional “Mentalist” know that Patrick Jane uses Memory Palaces.17 Hmm. I become so emotional when I think of how important the loci system is, that I let out a “low sigh.” Remember foreign word pronunciation the same way you picture last names.


through the living room, into the kitchen, and then on to the family room, you can use that route. Or you can simply create one. Grab a pen or pencil18 and let’s take a walk.

(Actually, the Body Part system that you learned in Chapter 4 is just a form of Loci—you connected the items you wanted to remember to locations on your body.)

You will be writing down your home’s loci places. At the end of this chapter, there is a format you can follow. If you wish, you can write your data right on that page. There are a few extra forms in Appendix C for you to add more tours and palaces, and for additional readers to do so as well.

You can start outside. Perhaps you come up the driveway (1), walk up a few steps (2), check the mail-box (3), on the porch (4), and go in the front door (5). Take that trip a few times, focus-ing on the loci numbers. It will be easy enough to remember; they are in the order you come upon them. Now go into the first room you normally enter. Select items in the same order in each room. It can be clockwise or counter-clockwise, or in any order you normally come upon them; e. g., wall hangings from front to back as you walk down a long hallway. Using the rooms in your house or apartment, with or without an approach/entry route, will give you dozens of individual location-hooks in your home. Start with five hooks in each room. By using five (and later ten) you will be able to instantly identify the ordinal number of each. If the fourth room in your walk is the kitchen, and the third object in the kitchen is the oven, the oven is number 18. (Three full rooms at five each equals 15, plus number three in the kitchen makes it 18.)

Later on, you can expand the number of things in a room, as well as add other locations to walk around. In each case, commit the route to memory by walking it regularly until it is locked-in.

One of the cool parts of adding loci to your arsenal, is that you can put numbers in any location and not get them confused with your peg numbers. If you have a random list of items and ideas to remember in order, and the 22nd item is a phone number,

18 I’m suggesting that you not use your new number peg skills here, because I want these things to have neutrality as you learn them.

Loci, Memory Tour, Memory Palace 79

841-8621, you can place a FoRD (841) automobile trapped in a FiSH-NeT (8621) on top of your OVEN (loci number 22), and there will be no danger of confusing the order in your list (22) with the 21st (net), because all your locations are loci references—in this case the oven. BTW, 8621 can also be remembered as an effi-cient (eFiSHeNT) Ford. The more you practice Memory Shock, the more fun it is.

You can take this to a whole new level by using loci rooms as categories or group places. Let’s use this simple example: Tomor-row, you will be going on a shopping trip. You’ll be going to three different places: the big-box hardware store, the farmers’ market, and the supermarket.

You are driving home from work right now, so you can’t write anything down. What a wonderful time to start composing your lists. Now, you can compose your lists store by store, in order. But it never fills in completely like that, does it? As you’re try-ing to think of the supermarket list, you visualize the produce section near the front. But wait! Tomorrow will be one of those infrequent visits to the farmers’ market. So vegetables go on that list. Oh, and that reminds you that you need to buy salad dressing—but that needs to be on the supermarket list. By now, if you were going to have a numbered list for each store, you’re already behind the eight ball.

Why not use your new loci system, giving the five front walk-way items to the few items on the hardware store, the next room or two to the farmers’ market, and the rest of the house to the supermarket. As a matter of fact, you can even give a separate room to each major supermarket section. Now there are no dis-tractions as you compose your lists, and tomorrow they will be pre-sorted.

Yes, that concept can just as easily be done by giving, say 1 to 10 to the farmers’ market and 11 to 20 to the hardware store, and so on.

Also, think about this: As you use your new memory skills on a regular basis, you will pick and choose which of the many parts work best for you. For now, use them all. Later, you will be using them in conjunction with each other. You can even use playing cards (Chapter 19) as a handy reference for a 52-room “palace.”


Sample LOCI for a residence:No. LOCUS (Location) HOOK

1 Approach to house Driveway2 Steps3 Mailbox4 Porch5 Front Door6 Foyer/Hallway Umbrella Stand7 Knick-knack Table8 Embroidered “Home Sweet Home”9 Small Oil Painting10 Framed Mirror11 Living Room Large Oil Painting12 Picture Window13 Liquor Cabinet14 Fireplace15 Sofa16 Dining Room Dining Table17 Credenza18 Oil painting19 Wine Cooler20 Wine Rack21 Kitchen Refrigerator22 Oven/Stove23 Microwave Oven24 Sink25 Dish Washer26 Master Bedroom Bed27 Nightstand28 Dresser29 Mirror30 Bookcase31 Bathroom Sink32 Mirror33 Toilet34 Tub/Shower35 Towel Rack36 Guest Room Dresser37 Bookcase38 Bed39 Nightstand40 Exercise Bike

Loci, Memory Tour, Memory Palace 81

LOCI for YOUR residence:No. LOCUS (Location) HOOK

12345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031323334353637383940


Practice:• Walk around your home, defining a five-to-a-room loci

vocabulary. When it becomes automatic, use it to remember a random list—perhaps the first word on each page in a magazine.

• Use the list again to remember a random list of 2-digit num-bers. You will see that you can remember random numbers in a set order as you did earlier with Body Parts. While this sounds like rubbing your tummy and patting your head, it’s really quite easy.

• Create more loci memory walks. You can use other homes you have lived in, friends’ homes, the stores in the mall, or the buildings on your college campus. Do you commute to work on the same train every day? Use the station stops. This is really limitless. Make up several loci walks—you will be using them for the rest of your life!

PARt 4Dates/Calendars

CALENDARS/DAtES Calendars, Birthdays, Appointments, Historical Dates Happy days are here again . . . .

87

ChAPter 13 Dates—Days of the Week—Part 1

On what day of the week is your birthday?

I taught this simple technique to a group of insurance and invest-ment sales reps at a major company, and now they use it to make a big impression on clients—and prospective clients! When gath-ering personal data at a sales interview, the reps remark on the birthday of the family’s children, “Ah, so Maria’s birthday falls on a Tuesday next year.”

By the end of this and the next chapter, you will be able to do the same thing. Yup. The day of the week for any date this year—or next year—will be yours without looking at a calendar. Impress your friends and business associates, and make life easier. “Sure, Mr. Bumstead, I can have that report ready by October 14th, but that’s a Sunday. I’ll have it for you on Friday, the 12th instead.19

There’s a bit of a trick involved, but it all comes back to our system of picturing what we want to remember. First the concept, based on a Key Day of the week for each year. Thursday is the Key Day for 2013.

Imagine the ability to remember the first Key Day of every month in a specific year. Just that. One date for each month. I’ll

19 Assuming 2013.


use 2013 as our example, with its Key Day of Thursday. The first Thursday of January is the 3rd. That means that the 10th, 17th, 24th, and 31st are also on Thursdays. All we need to do is add multiples of seven to get to the week we want. From there it’s a baby-step to know the day of the week for ANY date in January. The 22nd, you ask? Well, since I know that the 24th is a Thursday, it’s virtually automatic to realize that the 22nd, two days earlier, is a Tuesday. January 12? Since the closest Thursday is January 10th, January 12 has to be on a Saturday. (Yes, you can go forward or backward.)

Hmm. It seems you are now an expert on days of the week for January, 2013. A bit limiting an expertise, but let’s call it a start.

The first Thursday of both February and March that year fall on the 7th. So, let’s think about a picture representing the first Thursday in January-February-March of that year, 3-7-7. My-Cake. Yes, a picture of a birthday cake in honor of me (or you) is My Cake—377. That’s the first Thursday of January, February and March, 2013. January 3rd, February 7th, and March 7th.

What is the day of the week for March 10, 2013? Well, since Thursday falls on the 7th, the 10th, three days later, falls on a Sunday. March 25, 2013? Since Thursday happens on the 7th, it is also on the 14th, 21st, and 28th so the 25th is on a Monday.

Practice some random dates in January, February, and March of 2013 before we go on. In a few minutes, it will be automatic. Just see your picture for the first Thursday of the first three months of that year—My-Cake-377.

I suggest splitting this chapter into four parts, one for each calendar quarter. Here is the entire 2013 calendar.20 21

20 If you are reading this long after the publication date, don’t worry about the cur-rent year right now. There’s a nice surprise to come. Learn this calendar and you’ll have the basics of dates for the rest of your life!21 It’s the same as 2019, ’30, ’41, ’47, ’58, ’69, ’75, ’86, and ’97.

Dates—Days Of The Week—Part 1 89

• Quarter 1—Jan., Feb., March—377—My-Cake

• Quarter 2—April, May, June—426—Wrench

• Quarter 3—July, August, Sept.—415—Rattle

• Quarter 4—Oct., Nov., Dec.—375—Michael

The picture I use is MY (birthday) CAKE, and as I cut a slice, the knife hits a WRENCH. As I take the wrench out of the cake, it becomes a baby RATTLE, which I give to the late pop singer, MICHAEL Jackson.

As you move on to each new quarter, do a few practice ses-sions on each month separately, then a few sessions with random


dates in the whole quarter. Put the new quarters together with the previous ones until you are comfortable with that whole year. Then we’ll put this whole day-of-the-week section together.

Practice:Test yourself with random dates in 2013 with the perpetual

calendar (well, seven centuries’ worth, anyway) at www.Memo-ryShock.com. This is really a simple skill, and the more you use it, the easier it becomes.

91

ChAPter 14 Dates—Days of the Week—Part 2

A super secret for three of every four years.

Once you are quite fluent in days of the week for the year 2013, you can easily continue with the remainder of this calendar system.

“Three of four years” in the sub-title of this chapter is a refer-ence to the three NON-leap years in every set of four consecutive years. Each of the three (seventy-five years out of every century) uses the same picture that you now know: My-Cake Wrench Rattle Michael. The trick is that each non-leap year moves up a day from the previous year. Since My-Cake Wrench Rattle Michael signifies the first Thursday in each month in 2013, it signifies the first Friday in 2014, and the first Saturday in 2015. Wow! Without any extra effort you have three full years.

OK, what’s the deal with leap years?

• No big deal at all. There’s just two small alterations:

• Move up two days instead of one, and Use 417 instead of 377 for the first quarter to account for the extra day at the end of February.22

22 Stop! There is no need to understand this. But if you insist, here it is: Because of the extra day in February, each remaining day of a leap year after that month is two days (not the usual one day) beyond that date in the previous year. We manually add two days to the entire leap year, then subtract back one of them in January and February by changing 377 to 417. If you want more details on this, you’ll come upon it in chapter 35. But for now, back to work.


My picture for the first quarter in a leap year (417) is now Erotic instead of My Cake. It’s weird enough to picture an erotic wrench being used as a rattle by Michael. (I leave you to your own well-honed silliness to create the picture of an erotic wrench.)

As you approach a leap year, toward the end of 2015, 2019, and 2023 (or later if you found this book at a yard sale in 2057), remind yourself to be aware of that slight change from My-Cake to Erotic in the first quarter.

The next chart shows Key Day of the Week for Years from 2001 to 2099. All you really need to have handy are the current year and the next. Now you’ll have them! Just keep the Key Day for those two years at hand, and use them the way you practiced for Thursdays in 2013. You’ll be a walking calendar!

2001 Wed 2021 Sun 2041 Thu 2061 Mon 2081 Fri

02 Thu 22 Mon 42 Fri 62 Tue 82 Sat

03 Fri 23 Tue 43 Sat 63 Wed 83 Sun

04 Sun 24 Thu 44 Mon 64 Fri 84 Tue

05 Mon 25 Fri 45 Tues 65 Sat 85 Wed

06 Tues 26 Sat 46 Wed 66 Sun 86 Thu



09 Sat 29 Wed 49 Sun 69 Thu 89 Mon

10 Sun 30 Thu 50 Mon 70 Fri 90 Tue

2011 Mon 2031 Fri 2051 Tue 2071 Sat 2091 Wed




15 Sat 35 Wed 55 Sun 75 Thu 95 Mon

16 Mon 36 Fri 56 Tue 76 Sat 96 Wed

17 Tue 37 Sat 57 Wed 77 Sun 97 Thu



20 Sat 40 Wed 60 Sun 80 Thu

Dates—Days Of The Week—Part 2 93

If you have a special need to “remember” the day of the week over a period of centuries—or you just want to show off—you will find an advanced system in Chapter 35.

Practice:Now that you know the secret to every year, you can test

yourself with random dates across a span of years. I encourage you to do most—or even all—of this drill within just the current year and the one upcoming. In real life, that’s probably all you need. Again, www.MemoryShock.com has a perpetual calendar to check your answers.

95

ChAPter 15 Remembering Appointments

This chapter will give you an easy way to remember appoint-ments for the upcoming week. Let’s start with a simple system for time of day. It will be based on quarter-hour segments.

While you may want to create a vocabulary specific to time of day, I just use my standard Hook Pictures. Seven o’clock is a cow. Two o’clock is Noah. There is no need to distinguish a.m. from p.m. Your natural memory (and common sense) will tell you that an 11:00 appointment with your lawyer is going to be at 11:00 a.m.

For times at fifteen minutes after the hour, use a quarter-dollar, an American 25 cent piece. For thirty minutes past the hour, cut the Hook Picture in half to represent the half-hour. For forty-five minutes after the hour, make the picture dance a waltz (3/4 time), or use an old 45 RPM record. (Are you old enough to have ever seen one?) If you need more precision than quarter-hours, simply form a word/picture using the entire number that represents the time; e.g., 7:18 might be a highway CuT-oFf.

For the day of the week, think in terms of Sundays being 1, Mondays being 2, Tuesdays being 3, etc. and use Body Parts for each. The simple progression 2—4—6 for Monday—Wednes-day—Friday (knee—ribs—chin) will be easy. If you have a hair-dresser appointment on Thursday at 9:30, the day is represented by a larynx, and the time is Bee (9) cut in half (30, the half-hour).


Putting it together, you see a hair-dresser chop a giant bee in half on your larynx.

As you go through the week and get to Wednesday evening, you can see your plans for Thursday by asking yourself what is going to happen to your larynx. Oh yes, on your larynx (Day 5–Thursday) the hair-dresser is going to chop giant bee in half (9:30).

In the practice session for the Hook Pictures for 21 through 30 in Chapter 10, I show you how this can work for the next 30 days. Frankly, I’ve never seen a need for that, but you might.

PRACTICE: Create pictures for these appointments (or use your real-life weekly schedule):

WHAt WHEN PICtURE

Auto Repair Monday at 1:30

Dentist Monday at 4:00

School Board Tues. at 10:00

Theater Wed. at 7:30

Traffic Court Thurs. at 10:30

Tennis Match Friday at 9:00

PARt 5Additional Techniques

Parts 5 and 6 are optional. Many of the chapters are simply brief ideas to be considered. They are identified as chapters to make them more easily located in the table of contents. If the topics apply to you, study them. If not, you still may find them helpful and entertaining.

99

ChAPter 16 Letters, We Get Letters

License numbers, part numbers, account numbers. Lots of numbers use letters.

“Yes, officer, his plate num-ber was, um, something, something, 3211. I know that because I have this great system for remember-ing numbers. See, I turned those numbers into letter sounds and then I turned those sounds into a word, Minted, because in this sys-tem you hear the M sound for 3, then the N sound for 2, then the T sound for 1, and then the D sound 1. Put them all together and you get Minted. Then I just saw his car shiny as a newly-minted silver dollar. Well, yes, I said that 1 was for T and then I said that 1 was for D, because . . . well anyway . . . No, I don’t remember the something, something part because I can’t do letters yet.”

Well, let’s fix that right now.


All kinds of “numbers” are composed partly (and sometimes totally) of letters, including the part numbers in your company’s catalog, email addresses, user names and passwords that you may have been assigned. (In chapter 18 you’ll learn a super way to create passwords that make them unforgettable for you.)

We have a number of techniques for remembering letters, and you’ll be using each. You’ll learn to recognize which applies to the situation. Here’s the run-down:

• If a series of letters spells a legitimate word, picture it and paint it green,23 UNLESS it would normally be green, in which case paint it something weird. Associate it with the word for the number part.

• If the letters spell a word with the addition of a letter, use that word (plus the standard letters system you’re about to learn).

• All of the above applies to wacky words as well as naturals.

• Sentences: Every Good Boy Deserves Fun. Is there a music student who didn’t get started by learning the lines of the treble clef, EGBDF by that or a similar sentence? (See Chapter 17)

The words in the following chart may be helpful in making sentence pictures. The first column for each letter is (mostly) ani-mals and bugs; the second column is verbs, actions; and the third is adjectives. Now pick and choose. Numbers and tense aren’t fixed. If the license plate on the car that hit your fender was BRG3211, you can see Bug Robbing a Gorilla’s newly-MINTed coin. As always, make the picture shocking and see it. (Another possibility is to see a MINTED coin BRaG. If you focus and see it, your natural memory will tell you about the missing A of BRaG.)

I use these words often, but frankly have never had a need to know them exactly. I kind of wing it when making up these sentence stories. If you think it might help you to memorize the chart, go for it. Each letter has a noun, verb and adjective.

23 Green: Natural, chlorophyll, you know what I mean.

Letters, We Get Letters 101

ABCDEFGHIJKLM

AntBugCaterpillarDalmatianElephantFoxGorillaHorseIguanaJackassKualaLizardMule

ArgueBurpCryDentEatForceGruntHangIgnoreJumbleKillLoseMash

AngryBrownCleanDryExtraFlatGoryHardIckyJailedKickedLazyMuted

NOPQRSTUVWXYZ

NewtOstrichPartridgeQueen BeeRoadrunnerSpiderTadpoleUkeleleViperWormX-FileYakZebra

NagOutragePunchQuitRobStingTouchUnfoldVendWiggleX-rayYankZigzag

NudeOrangePurpleQuietRuggedStupidTallUglyVioletWet(E)xtraYellowZany

Examples:• BRG3211: Bug Robs Gorilla of newly MINTed coin• LP7324: A Lizard Punching a Lemoner. (Man squeezing

lemons)• MOB5740: A Mob of Lakers (basketball fans).

Number-Letter-Number Practice:• This is one step beyond what you did earlier with just num-

bers. It combines what you’ve learned about Number Hooks and the Major system with your new knowledge about let-ters. You’ll get better and better as you use it.

• Focus on the entire license plate of the first car you see. Depending on your state, it will probably have either three or four digits and two or three letters.

• Create a picture.• Create and SEE a wacky association between that picture

and TIE, your hook for number 1. Continue with a picture for car 2, etc. Then see how many you can remember by number.

• Each day, start your road trip at a different spot—perhaps starting with 41, or 61 or whatever.

103

ChAPter 17 Acronyms and, Um, Un-Acronyms

OK. I forgot what to call them. J

Acronyms are series of initial letters (or words parts) that create words or phrases to remind us of something longer. They are commonly used by people with no other memory system. Acro-nyms can be valuable, and combined with your new memory skills, they are powerful tools.24

Often, they become so well known that the original, longer, name falls out of use. Everyone knows that SONAR is used locate underwater objects, But how many people know that it is really “Sound and Navigation and Ranging? The emergency shut-down of a nuclear reactor is a SCRAM, though few know that it is an acronym for “safety control rod axe man,” the per-son in the early days of reactors who was charged with cutting the rope that withheld the control rod above the reactor.

One area that is expanding their use is the relatively new phe-nomenon of texting. LOL, short-hand for laugh out loud, is perhaps the grand-daddy of text words, but that list has grown quickly.

There’s no reason to stop there. Many phrases, names, and concepts lend themselves to this simple device. Freely make them

24 Special thanks to Sgt Johnny Nuñez, of the NYPD Police Academy, for encour-aging the inclusion of this material.


up as you go along. Dare I say (not again!) that focusing and picturing, where possible, will be important in using acronyms as tools.

What I jokingly refer to as Un-Acronyms in the title of this chapter (I really don’t know what to call them) are effectively the opposite of Acronyms. Think of the phrase that most kids are taught to learn the lines of the treble staff in music: “Every Good Boy Deserves Fun”—a simple device to learn the order of E, G, B, D, and F. (The spaces of the staff, F, A, C, and E are remembered by the acronym FACE.)

So instead of shortening a long phrase into a word, the un-acronym lengthens a group of letters into a memorable sentence. Isn’t that similar to what we do when we turn numbers (and their consonant sounds) into words? Indeed, in the previous chapter we used that as a method for remembering groups of letters such as are found on license plates.

TTFN (Ta Ta For Now.)

105

ChAPter 18 Computer Passwords

Write them down? Why bother?

Here’s the system I’ve always used. I believe it to be a very effec-tive way to safeguard your information, yet easy for you to remember. No matter how many different websites you visit, no matter how much time passes between visits, this will be easy.

Pick a word that’s easy for you to remember, but difficult for anyone else. Do NOT choose something guessable like your current pet’s name. But you can use the name of a favorite past pet. If you do that, use the kennel name rather than the name you called it. Use the first six characters, and if shorter, repeat the first part. If it’s a common word, use it backwards. If my child-hood pet was Bart, and his kennel name was Nigel of


Barton, I might use notrab, barton backwards. Make it all lower case (for now).

Add the major system numbers for the first two consonants in the website name. (Add more digits for more security.) If you are creating a password for your login at Integrity Diamonds, at this point it would be notrab21, (Barton backwards, plus the numbers for iNTegrity.

Use the third consonant sound in the name (hard-G in integ-rity) to determine what letter to capitalize in the first part of the password. If that consonant sound gives you a number from 1 to 5, capitalize that alpha-character. If it is from 6 to 0 (ten), subtract five. In this example, the third consonant sound, hard-g, gives us a 7, so we subtract 5 to arrive at 2. Our complete password is now nOtrab21, because the second alpha-character is capitalized.

You can instantly and easily know the password for every website login you create—even if you go there just once a year. Each uses the same format. And yet theft of one password gives the thief NO way to know your others.

With your new expertise in Memory Shock, you can make the safety aspects of this as extreme as you like. For myself, I am comfortable with the simple format I showed you.

107

ChAPter 19 Memorizing Playing Cards—Part 1

Pick a card, any card.

A number of card games, such as Gin, require a facility to recall the cards that have gone by. This takes some practice, but will pay off in spades. It also gives you a great parlor trick—and more. Beyond that, even if you have no interest in card games, this (and the following chapter) give you a powerful addition to the stock-pile of memory techniques you have. Indeed, it can geometrically increase your ability to remember numbered lists. Stay with it.

Effectively, there are two parts to remembering playing cards. The first is to learn a simple vocabulary of standard pictures for each card. (Yes, it’s based on a vocabulary you already possess.) The second is a trick so simple you’ll amaze yourself the first time you perform it.

Let’s cover the first ten cards of each suit, ace through ten, first. All we have to do is use the initial sound at the beginning of the suit, and attach it to the Major system consonant sound for the value, to arrive at a simple word-picture. Notice that because we are using the initial letter of the suit, we can use the H for hearts, though it would be silent in the Major system. Also notice that the word-pictures we are using do not appear in our standard Peg Word (or Hook Word) system. That confusion avoidance will become very important later on.


Aces, while optionally both high and low in many games, can be thought of as the number one. So, the ace of spades (or spade-ace) is the sound of S for spade, attached to the sound T for number one, and form a picture—SUIT or SOOT. (A man’s dress suit, or the soot that accumulates in a chimney.) The ace of hearts, H–T is HAT. The ace of clubs, C–T, is CAT, and the ace of diamonds, D–T, is DATE (the sweet, sticky, Middle Eastern fruit).

When we get to the face, or court, cards (jack, queen and king), things change a bit, but that won’t present a problem. All jacks are simply represented by the name of the suit. But make sure you see a good picture of the word; that’s explained in the chart. Queens and kings use a combination of alliteration, rhym-ing and common sense. Give them just a little extra practice. You won’t have a problem with them.

Also notice that tens are created by merging the suit initial with a Major System 0 (S or Z). We’ve also made one queen and one king as just that; i.e., the heart queen is a picture of a QUEEN—easy to remember because of the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland, and the king of clubs is KING because . . . um, why not? (Actually, the alliteration, club/king, makes it easy.)

♠A Suit A man’s SUIT ♥A Hat HAT or Top HAT

♠2 Sun SUN in the sky ♥2 Hen Clucking chicken

♠3 Sum Calculator total ♥3 Hem HEM of a dress

♠4 Sore Bleeding wound ♥4 Hare Rabbit

♠5 Sail Boat SAIL ♥5 Hail HAIL stones

♠6 Sash SASH on a robe ♥6 Hash Breakfast HASH

♠7 Sock Under a shoe ♥7 Hog A pig

♠8 Safe A bank SAFE ♥8 Hoof Horse’s HOOF

♠9 Spa Whirlpool bath ♥9 Hub Wagon wheel

♠10 Sass A SASSy child ♥10 Haze Smoggy HAZE

♠ J Spade Shovel (not ♠) ♥ J Heart Valentine HEART

♠Q Scene Theatre stage ♥Q Queen In Wonderland

♠K Sing A king SINGing ♥K Hinge Door HINGE

Memorizing Playing Cards—Part 1 109

♣A Cat CAT or kitten ♦A Date The fruit

♣2 Cane Candy CANE ♦2 Dune A sand DUNE

♣3 Comb Hair COMB ♦3 Dam Holding water

♣4 Car Automobile ♦4 Door Room DOOR

♣5 Coal Lumps of COAL ♦5 Dial Telephone DIAL

♣6 Cash Wad of CASH ♦6 Dash Printed DASH

♣7 Cook Chef (or his hat) ♦7 Dock Boat DOCK

♣8 Cave A CAVE ♦8 Dive A DIVng board

♣9 Cab Yellow taxi ♦9 Deb DEB Norville*

♣10 Case Wooden box ♦10 Dose DOSE of meds

♣ J Club Cavemans CLUB ♦ J Diamd Gem DIAMOND

♣Q Cream Coffee CREAMer ♦Q Dream Comic DREAM

♣K King On his throne ♦K Drink A king DRINKin’

*OK, I’m dating myself here. TV personality Deborah Norville was becoming popular when I first worked on playing cards. Any vivid picture using the D and B sounds will do the job.

Invest ten or twenty minutes reviewing each suit before you move on. Then you can practice with a deck of cards when you have time, or simply practice seeing the pictures every time you are playing a card game.

Putting this to use: The trick is to visually damage or destroy each card’s picture as it passes. This can be while playing a card game, or while demonstrating your enormous ability to remem-ber. Here are a few examples:

• The ♣ - 9—CAB: When you see it, make it crash

• The ♠ - 4—SORE gets kicked. Make it gory.

• The ♠ - QUEEN—SCENE—rip up stage scenery.

• The ♣ - 6–CASH, which I always see as a banded stack of bills, has a corner of the whole stack chopped off in a giant paper cutter.

Just as you use the same picture of each card over and over, use the same means of damaging them. The more a part of your permanent vocabulary both the picture and the destruction become, the more easily and quickly you can remember them.


Change these if you wish, but remember to avoid word-pic-tures that you are using for Peg or Hook words. And, as always, when you make changes, make them permanent. If you alternate your spade four between my SORE and, perhaps, SEWER, you’re defeating the purpose of having standards. These two pictures are equally good, but only if you stick to one or the other.

Now, here’s the fascinating part. Shuffle a deck of cards. Select—face down—some of them. It can be as few as one or two and as many as half the deck. I like to use five or six for demonstrations. Now, go through the remaining cards, turning them face up one at a time, and placing them in a stack. (Once you’ve seen each card, it is covered by the next.)

As you see the picture of each card, damage it in the way you’ve been practicing. When you finish all the cards, simply go through them in your head, running through the suits. (Spade ace, spade deuce, spade three, etc.) You will be amazed to find that some of the cards—the ones you haven’t seen as the cards were turned over and destroyed—are just that: intact, unhurt. Of course, those are the cards that were selected and not seen as you went through the stack.

When I do—and now when you do—the crossword puzzle memorization shtick, something interesting happens. When someone calls out a clue number that doesn’t exist in that day’s puzzle, I instantly know that it isn’t there. The reason is that I have done something with all the clue numbers that do exist. If someone calls out 42, and it didn’t appear today, my natural memory tells me that I haven’t seen RAIN fall on anything in today’s puzzle.

It’s a similar effect when you turn over all but a few cards from a deck. As you mentally go through all the cards by suit after going through the stack, your natural memory tells you instantly that you haven’t damaged each unseen card as you come upon it.

111

ChAPter 20 Playing Cards—Part 2

More Hooks, Pegs, and Folders.

Playing Cards present a gold mine of material to use in con-junction with what you already know. Here are some important concepts:

Long Numbers. Earlier in this book we used Body Parts to remember a twenty-digit number. The use of body parts allowed us to assign Hook Numbers for ten 2-digit numbers to the vari-ous Body Parts. Because they were from two different “vocabu-laries” there was no confusion. Now, with Playing Cards, we have a vocabulary of 52 hooks. Just think! We can picture 52 pairs of 2-digit numbers and now remember a 104 digit number. With a little practice this can be yours.

Lots of Pegs. By combining our standard Peg/Hook vocabu-lary for the numbers from 1 to 100, with the 52 cards, we now have—with barely any extra effort—a new 5,200 picture Peg vocabulary! (This and the long number method in the previous paragraph are a tad easier if you stick with the lifelong familiar-ity you have with our decimal system. In other words, drop the face cards for now and go from ace through ten of hearts, then ace through ten of spades, followed by diamonds, then clubs. Of course, this limits you to only 4,100 pegs (including your original 100)!


Use playing cards for the hundreds and thousands portion. That would mean that ace (1) through 10 of hearts is for one hundred through ten hundred (one thousand), ace through 10 of spades for 11 through 20 (hundreds), ace through ten of dia-monds for 21 through 30 hundred, and ace through ten of clubs for 31 through 40 hundred.

Heart Ace—10 100 to 1,099 1XX to 1,0XX

Spade Ace—10 1,100 to 2,099 1,1XX to 2,0XX

Diamond Ace—10 2,100 to 3,099 2,1XX to 3,0XX

Club Ace—10 3,100 to 4,099 3,1XX to 4,0XX

So the Peg or Hook picture for 656 is hash (heart 6) + lash (56). You might picture a big eye lash in a plate of corned beef hash. The peg word for 2,274 is dune (Diamond 2) + car (74). Picture a car trying to drive up a sand dune. 3,643 is cash (club 6) + rum (43). Picture a wad of money soaking in rum.

Of course, the same technique of combining vocabularies can be applied to Peg/Hook pictures combined with Loci Palaces.

113

ChAPter 21 Names and Faces—Last Names

As easy as first names—and even more fun

Remembering the last names of people you meet is surprisingly easy, now that you’ve already mastered first names. You will still apply the FOCUS/PICTURE two-word system. All of the basic principles are the same. There’s just a bit more room to be creative.

Let’s discuss some of the tools that we can use. First, we’ll break down the concept into groups that can be a big help.

NATURAL PICTURE NAMES:

HarperHornBanksHall

WhyteKnightCarroll

HunterPrinceSilver

CampbellBaker

CarpenterMartini

Each of these names can be pictured without any effort at all. They are no more difficult than any of the first names in the earlier chapter. Spelling, of course, does not have an impact. Mr.


Whyte can be pictured with a gallon of white paint being poured onto his puffy cheeks. Ms Knight can be pictured with her large nose sticking out from the shining armor she is wearing, OR she can be pictured by her large eyes, dark as night.

You’re probably ahead of me, but let me mention that Mr. Campbell’s feature, whatever it is, can be dunked in a can of tomato soup.

When I was working in the submarine boatyard, I mentioned to a friend, who did not work there, something about one of my fellow nuclear supervisors, Jim Campbell. My friend, feigning surprise, said, “Did Soupy really do that?”

I was certain that I had never mentioned Jim to my friend before, so I asked, “How do know Soupy?” He let a moment go by before letting me in on his gag, and stating what should have been obvious, “Everyone named Campbell is called Soupy.”

This is a good time to point out, again, the danger of the natural-trap. It’s all too easy to meet someone named Campbell and think, “Well, I won’t have to worry about remembering this name.” Wrong! Those are the ones that will snag you. Be certain to dunk his big nose (or whatever) in a can of tomato soup.

As always, you will SEE these pictures associated in some shocking way with the person’s distinguishing characteristic

NEAR-NATURAL (AND TWISTED) PICTURE NAMES

ScheelNesbittCarmasinOakleyHerscheiser

SheveretteGallowayBlukowskiPerkinsPrefontaine

Names And Faces—Last Names 115

Let’s discuss each of these.

Scheel: I actually met a Ms Scheel, and I saw a picture of a big piece of steel in place of her most distinguishing feature. In ret-rospect, a better choice might have been a shield. But, like I said, there is no right or wrong. In any case, I never forgot Stephanie Scheel’s name, because of that STEEL STOVE (Steve/Stephanie) on her feature.

Nesbitt: Take this name apart. Nes and Bitt. How about a pic-ture of the Loch Ness Monster, after it came out of the lake and bit the subject’s prominent feature?

Carmasin: Mr. Carmasin was worried about his car, so he built a brick garage around it using his masonry skills. If he has big ears, I might see him using them to spread the mortar between rows of brick.

Oakley: A simple oak leaf cluster, like a lieutenant colonel’s insignia, pinned to the facial feature will do just fine.

Herscheiser: Too silly! A chocolate Hershey bar dunked into a Budweiser beer.

Sheverette: A Chevrolet car, a sergeant’s chevrons, teeny-weeny razor (shave-a-rette). Take your pick or make up your own.

Galloway: I might put a gallon of milk (gallo) on a scale to weigh (way) it, or see an arrow pointing the way to the gallows.

Blukowski: One of my favorites, and everyone who has ever attended one of my classes or speeches remembers my silly draw-ing of a blue cow skiing down the hill right into Mr. Blukowski’s nose.

Perkins: I just take Mr. Perkins’ outstanding feature and see it as perky.

Prefontaine: Does Ms Prefontaine have puffy cheeks. Put them in front of (pre) a water fountain.


NAME PARTS

Starters 1. Mc or Mac 2. Del or De la 3. Von 4. O’ 5. San or Santa

Endings 6. ~son, sen 7. ~berg, burg 8. ~stein 9. ~witz10.~dez11.~smith

McDonalds Burger. A wooded valley (dell)Classically Germanic. A monocle.Surprise. (Oh!)Santa Claus or a saint

A boy child or the sun in the skyMountain or icebergBeer mug or steinJoke (in German) or a brain (wits)Days or dazeA small hammer

Putting these parts together . . .

1. Mr. McNalley with a big nose? How about a Big Mac. with nails instead of pickle slices—stuffed up his nose?

2. Dela Cruz. Perhaps a cross or crucifix in his high forehead.

3. Ms Von Bargen studies a sale price-tag (a bargain) with a monocle.

4. Mr. O’Boyle is surprised (Oh!) to see his nose boiling.

5. Ms San Gennaro is generously acting like Santa Claus.

6. Mr. Merkson is a child swimming in murky water.

7. Ms Wallenberg’s eyebrows have been replaced by a wall—on top of which is an iceberg.

8. Mr. Lowenstein’s ear looks like a short (low) beer stein.

9. Mr. Borowitz’s sharp nose is boring into a brain.

10. Ms Mendez’s “big hair” is filled with men in a daze.

11. Mr. Gold Smith is tapping himself in his small eyes with a golden hammer. (A smith is someone who works with metal by heating it and then pounding it with a hammer.)

Names And Faces—Last Names 117

Practice:Create AND SEE the picture for every name you hear and

see. If you are with the person (or can see a photo) practice the whole picture—name and facial feature. This can include character names in TV shows and movies, as well as game-show contestants. It will take no time from what you are doing and your skill will rapidly improve. As stated earlier about first names, police shows are great because each episode usually has several new characters.

A Very Special Business tool:Your ability to remember names is a valuable tool in every

part of business. From your job interview (more on that in Chapter 26) to sales calls (Chapter 29) to meetings of all kinds, others will be very impressed with your confident demeanor as you address them by name. Interestingly, some will be impressed without knowing exactly why. That’s OK. They just know that you’re a cut above everyone else.

119

ChAPter 22 Driving Directions and Maps

Part memory system, part common sense . . .

Next weekend, I’ll be taking a two hour ride from my home in Blooming Grove, New York to visit my friend Pam, who just moved to Great Barrington, Massachusetts. I’ve never been there before, but I have the directions:

• I’m going to put a tie on a lion, then

• Noah will X-out an enemy with a tack, then

• My Ma will spill port wine onto Main St., then

• I’ll eat a star sandwich on rye in a cottage, then

• A judge will point to a star in the East, then

• I’ll wear a shoe full of port wine in the park, then

• I’ll see a cow wearing a star down in a quarry.

What???

Let’s first take a look at the directions I saw, together with a map, on an online site. Then I’ll show you how I took them apart.


1. Start out turning south on Tuthill Rd toward RT-94.

0.5 mi THE MAP (Simplified)

2. Then turn left on RT 94. 2.0 mi

3. Turn left onto North St. 0.5 mi

4. North Street then becomes Toleman Rd.

3.2 mi

5. Turn right onto RT-207/Little Britain Rd.

0.5 mi

6. Take the 1st left onto Drury Ln/RT-747.

2.4 mi

7. Merge onto I-84 East 20 mi

8. Turn onto Taconic State Parkway Northbound

52 mi

9. Exit onto RT-23 E 17 mi

10. Turn left onto Main St 0.7 mi

11. Turn right on Cottage St. 0.3 mi

12. Turn right onto East St. 0.6 mi

13. Turn at the 1st left onto Park St.

0.4 mi

14. Turn at the 1st right onto Quarry St. -#1 on left

15. #1 QUARRY ST on left.

Here, in order, was my thought process:

First, I looked at the map. (Yes, it was much more detailed than this. I deliberately simplified it.) I saw that essentially it was East on I-84, North on the Taconic Parkway, then East on Route 23.

A glance at the written instructions confirmed that those three roads were the only pieces of significant distance (20, 52, and 17 miles, respectively).

I also noticed that from Number 1 to Number 8 were the instructions to get on the Taconic, and Number 9 the instruction to exit it. Heck, I’ve been on that highway a zillion times. Do I really need to be bothered with directions to get there? So, now I know that I can begin at step 8.

Driving Directions and Maps 121

I also saw on the printout that the last four steps were all within about a half-mile of each other. If I have street names and turning directions I really don’t need to know if the turn is in 4/10s of a mile or 7/10s of a mile. For those short distances, I can just watch the street signs.

So, finally, here’s all that I need to remember:

Number 1 — TIE. Go 52 miles on the Taconic.Number 2 — NOAH. Exit onto Rte 23 and go 17 mi.Number 3 — MA. Turn left onto Main Street.Number 4 — RYE. Turn right on Cottage Street.Number 5 — LAW. Turn right on East Street.Number 6 — SHOE. Turn left onto Park Street.Number 7 — COW. Turn right onto Quarry Street.

Or, to paint a picture . . . 1. Tie A TIE is being worn by a LION (52 miles)

2. Noah NOAH X’s out an ENEMY with a TACK

3. Ma MA spills PORT on MAIN Street

4. Rye STAR sandwich on RYE in the COTTAGE

5. Law The JUDGE points to a STAR in the EAST

6. Shoe SHOE full of PORT wine in the PARK

7. Cow A COW wears a STAR in the QUARRY

Note that all left turns involve port wine and right turns involve stars (for port and starboard). Also note that all distances are in Hook Numbers. They were only needed for the 52 miles on the Taconic and the 17 miles on Route 23. And, to avoid confusion with my Hook Numbers, I did NOT see Route 23 as a NAMEPLATE. I saw it as an ENEMY. Whenever I’m using hooks Numbers for the steps in a procedure (or, as in this case, distance in miles) I avoid them in the other parts of the story.

Do I have a GPS instrument in my car? Yes, I do. And if I’m uncertain, I turn it on and tell it where I’m going. But I very seldom refer to it because it’s so easy to have the directions in picture-story form. Try it.

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ChAPter 23 Where Did You Put the Car Keys?

. . . and TV remote and wallet . . . and car?

One memory-related question that seems to be universal is: “Where did I put the car keys?” Let’s take a look at a solid method of making it no longer a problem for you.

Most of us know that putting our keys (or whatever) in the same pocket or the same part of a purse all the time is a big help. But then we come from the market, arms full of double-bagged groceries, barely able to unlock and push open the door. Every-thing, keys included, is just set down wherever you happen to be. That’s when the problems begin.

From now on determine to never, ever put your keys anywhere without imagining them being placed in a glass of milk—or other beverage of your choice. On the kitchen counter? Nope, put them in a glass of milk on the counter. On your desk? Uh-uh. In a glass of milk on your desk. That little picture of the messiness will be all you need to reconstruct their whereabouts. There’s no reason at all for a long screed about this; it’s just that simple. Keys, TV remote, laundry ticket—soak them all in glasses of milk.

The car? That’s something else. (Unless you have a BIG glass of milk J.) Most often, this occurs at a big shopping mall where thousands of cars are in the lot. The good news is that most of


them have numbers and/or letters on tall posts or lighting poles to mark the areas. Yup, treat them like any memory task: focus and picture. If my car is in section B36, I’m going to see a BUG lighting a MATCH to set my car on fire. As always, after I’ve seen the picture, I can’t forget it.

125

ChAPter 24 Changes to Your Normal Schedule

Everyday problems and a simple solution.

Big Slick, the poker club in Washingtonville, New York, gives me plenty of opportunity to practice my game against top-flight competition. But it also presents opportunities to spread the Memory Shock gospel.

One night, one of the women regulars, Lisa, happened to be sitting next to me, with Lee, her husband on my other side. (There are a number of married couples among the 200 members.) She mentioned to Lee that she was somewhat concerned about the following morning. Her regular pattern was to drive to her office in Morristown, New Jersey. But occasionally she had to spend the morning in a satellite office in the town of Budd Lake. Every time she had to do this, she drove halfway to Morristown, in the oppo-site direction, before realizing the mistake and turning around.

I asked her if she leaves the house through the front door or the garage in the morning. Lisa looked at me like I was nuts. But Lee, with whom I’ve discussed Memory Shock, said, “Lisa, listen to Barry and answer his questions.”

Lisa said that she leaves through the front door; the car is always parked in front of the house. I asked if the front door had a brass door knob. Now, she figured that Lee and I were both nuts. “Yes, it does,” she answered.


“Tomorrow,” I told her, “you’re going to have a problem opening the door. When you grab the knob it won’t be made of brass. Instead it will be a rose bud and get all squished. You’ll have to gently pry the door open. Can you picture that? Can you imagine the feel of a squished up rose bud in your hand?”

Before she could call for someone to lock me up, I explained that by seeing that picture in her mind’s eye, she would not be able not to see and feel it as she reached for the door knob in the morning. The door knob that had become a rose bud would remind her to steer the car toward Budd Lake.

The next time I saw her, Lisa reported on the success of her new system.

Some of the most annoying memory problems we encounter are the small things that become a pain in the neck—like driving to our regular commute instead of the special one for a given day.

At some point, you know about the change. Lisa’s boss told her that she had to go to the Budd Lake office during a meeting the afternoon before. That’s the time. Immediately! Focus on the out-of-the-ordinary requirement and create a picture. Now, as Lisa did, associate the picture to something you can’t avoid when the time comes to remember. In the example above it was as simple as Lisa’s picturing the door knob that she had to turn to exit the house as a rose bud.

Again, the trick is to create the picture immediately upon learning of the change from the ordinary. Exceptions? Sure. If you still rely on a pocket diary or smart phone calendar that you refer to every evening to plan the next day’s activities, that’s fine. But when you check your pocket calendar at night, make a Memory Shock picture for anything out of the ordinary.

127

ChAPter 25 Linked Lists, an Over-Rated technique

Good, but there’s a problem lurking

The first technique taught in most memory courses is the last in Memory Shock. Linked Lists. Can they be useful? Sure, for some things. But the flaw is . . . Wait, I’m getting ahead of myself. First, let me explain how it works . . . and often doesn’t.

With Linked Lists, you create a story moving from one object to the next on a list of any length. They can be used in place of Hook Numbers and Loci whenever the ordinal numbers of the parts of a list don’t matter—in other words, other than where you must know what, for instance, is the seventh amendment to the Bill of Rights.

Indeed, I use them frequently for short, unimportant lists such as items I need to pick up at the hardware store or phone calls that I must make when I return to my office. If I have to call the first five people whom you met in Chapter 3, I might just focus on and see a story about a BEE (Beatrice) walking across a BRIDGE (Bridget) and on the other side EATing (Eddie) near a GORGE (George) and sprinkling a lot of HERBS (Herb) on what it was eating.

The potential problem is this: If you forget any single item on the list, you may very likely lose track of everything that comes after. With the other list systems, that’s not a problem. Each item


is pictured with a hook that you can’t forget, because the various hooks are part of your permanent vocabulary.

Bottom Line: Use them whenever you feel they will be the best choice, but (usually) not when it’s an important list.

PARt 6Special Applications

Think of it this way: You now have the tools and the expertise. Here are a few specific ways to use them.

131

ChAPter 26 Job Interviews

Wow ’em like no other applicant can.

“While we’re waiting for my assistant to join us, do you have any questions about Smedley Products International?”

“Yes, Ms Hainsford, I do. When Natalie brought me to your office, I noticed that the large display in the hall included Smed-ley’s new Corko-Slinger line. But the press release for that line said that it would be sold only in the European markets. Is the display an indication that it may be brought here as well? I think Corko-Slingers would do very well, particularly in light of the successful launch of your Corko-Flingers when you brought them to market early last year. I’ve read in the industry press that first-quarter figures were beyond anyone’s expectations”

There are so many more qualified applicants than openings for good jobs that even the best feel that they have no chance.

But one—you!—will be able to conversationally talk about the company in ways that no other applicant can even hope to. Company recruiters want to see more than resumes. They want to know that you can communicate, that you show inter-est. When you do it by demonstrating that you’ve learned AND RETAINED facts about their company, you’ve gone a long way toward setting yourself apart from the pack.


Many books, pamphlets, podcasts, and websites are avail-able with advice—much of it excellent—about job interviews. But none of them can help you with this skill that will put you on any interviewer’s short-list of exceptional candidates. And you’re already an expert at being able to do it. It’s just another numbered list.

Step-by-step, here is the procedure to prepare (along with all the other good advice you’ve garnered). Obviously, each industry and job description will cause you to highlight different areas, but a general understanding of the business is important.

1. Study the company’s basic facts.

a. Every potential employer has a website. Larger ones may even have a page called “Corporate Fact Sheet” or “Investor Info.” Smaller ones may require a bit more digging. Read it all. When something strikes you as particularly interesting, jot it down. Include (at least):

i. Names of the top few executives.

ii. Plant and larger office locations

iii. Business volume and profitability.

iv. Business trends—particularly if up.

v. New or exciting product lines.

b. If the company makes a product that’s sold to consum-ers, visit a retail dealer. Become familiar with it.

c. Do some research on the important competitors. Competitor-knowledge is important to all businesses, and a well-placed comment—no, it doesn’t have to be negative—will show that a) you’ve done your home-work, b) you understand the importance of knowing the market, and c) you’ve retained what you learned.

Now, take that list of important factoids and apply your two-word system: Focus and picture. First, read through them so that you can discuss them conversationally. Next, write down the ones that strike you as most likely to impress.

Job Interviews 133

One good way to do this is in a spreadsheet.25 That allows for easy editing and moving things around. Column A will be for numbers, one per row. Start with 1—Tie (or toe or the first location in your favorite loci palace). Even if there is no order to the facts, numbering the list makes each item memorable inde-pendently. Column B will be the factoid or person or product that you want to remember.

Column C is for something that you might want to associate with that factoid. And Column D is your picture.

Certainly, as you get better and better at Memory Shock you’ll be able to do this without the spreadsheet, but for now let’s use it. Here’s one for Smedley Products International:

Fact Associate Picture

1 Mr. Martin C.E.O.–Attended Tulane University

Martini glass on a 2-lane highway

2 $1.84 billion Annual Sales in Most recent year

Deep-sea diver selling Smedley products

3 $1.72 billion Sales previous year Token sales in previous year

4 Corko-Flingers Big success Competitive back-hand cork thrower wins prize

5 Corko-Slingers For Europe only Cork-firing sling-shots with price tags in Euros

6 Australia Newest market (proj’d) $235MM

New animal on the “barbie” (for Australia)

7 Rusto Slingers Biggest competitor Giant sling-shot rusting

8 Oak Forest ,Illinois Main Warehouse Warehouse full of upright oak trees

9 April 1 (April Fool’s Day)

Fiscal year See yourself laughing at the balance sheet.

10 $65.50 Highest stock price this year

Buy their stock for a lace-stuffed (50) shell (65)

25 If you use a program such as Microsoft’s Excel, this is simple, but it can easily be done with pencil and paper.


Notes:1. No need to work on Mr. Martin’s being the President/ CEO (unless you are remembering a bunch of officers).2 and 3. Since you’ve read (and focused on) the material, the fact that sales num-bers are in the billions will be automatically recalled by your natural memory.4. I see “flingers” as backhand, the way you would fling a flying disk.6. $235 million. Animal (NML=235)8. Oak park is immediately west of Chicago. (Yes, I Googled it.) So I might see that warehouse full of upright oak trees watching a western movie.

Let’s listen to a bit more of that conversation with Ms Hains-ford (whose Ford car is jammed packed with Haines underwear). As you enjoy your conversation, know that she will be very pleased. The last applicant, whom she interviewed just before you, was also asked if he had any questions. “Um, yes, I do. How long are the lunch-breaks and how many sick-days do I get?”

Ms H: “Yes, we were surprised at the nice reception the market had for our Corko-Flingers. They topped $60 million in sales for their first year.”

You: “That’s excellent! You might say that Flingers accounted for half of your total year-over-year increase in revenues.” [You already know that the year’s total was $1.84 billion, and the previous year was $1.72 billion. The rest is simple math.]

Ms H: “Yes, we are very pleased. Of course the new Australian push will really put us over the top this year.”

You: “Sure will. A projected $235 million is a super goal, but, again, if the trade press can be believed, not unreasonable. May I ask you something about the Oak Park warehouse facility? [She nods, yes.] I understand that the computerized order picking system is state of the art. But from the interior pictures of it on the website, I think you have conventional lighting. I spearheaded a lighting retrofit at my last company, and the savings were enor-mous. I’ve also researched the Illinois Energy Department; their rebates for such retrofit projects are very favorable.”

And on and on! Who wouldn’t hire you???

135

ChAPter 27 Great tips for Waiters

Many years ago, my friends and I loved to go to Jahn’s, off the Grand Concourse in the Bronx, NY. (Oops. That’s da Bronx.) It had the best ice cream concoctions and the best entertain-ment you could ever hope to find. The entertainment consisted of a wait staff that took orders without writing them down. Young kids had the greatest time trying to “stump the waiter.” It didn’t matter if Rocky Road Crunch was their all-time favorite flavor. The multi-scoop sundaes were always ordered with no two scoops alike. (Heck, anyone could remember a triple scoop chocolate sundae.)

Without a doubt, the skill of the wait staff added to the restaurant’s business and, of course, the tip income of the staff.

Have you ever been served by a waiter or waitress who brought out your table’s order exactly the way you requested—without having written it down? This skill translates directly into income for the server who has mastered the skill.

Sure, it takes some practice, but you already have a great head start. Here’s a step-by-step system to make you the one server whose station regular customers request.


Assign a picture to each item on the menu. If this is your regular gig, it will be easy enough to do this.

Assign a number to each table in your station if it doesn’t already have one.

Picture the table as a clock face, and try to start taking orders at the same place on the dial each time; e.g., 1:00 o’clock at table 6 will be your Peg/Hook number for 61, sheet. The 2:00 position will be 62, shin; the 3:00 position will be 63, chum.

At the appropriate time before taking orders, ask if there are any questions. This will eliminate most interruptions during the order-taking process.

As the orders are spoken, put the pictures together. If the 1:00 position (sheet), orders a shrimp cocktail and the rack of lamb special, you’ll see a tiny (shrimp) bed sheet being tortured on a RACK. If the 2:00 position orders the onion soup and a very rare strip steak, you’ll see onions being rubbed into your shin, then being STRIPped off revealing the raw (rare) skin beneath.

As each order is given, repeat it out loud. That will stop any problems before they happen.

After the whole table has ordered, go around the clock, repeating them aloud again.

If this seems overwhelming, try doing it in tandem with your normal writing of the orders. After you become somewhat com-fortable with the idea, do it by your memory technique, but then write everything down after you leave the table but before calling the order in or entering it in the system.

Practice: (for professional waiters and waitresses)• Review your menu to make easy reference pictures for the

appetizers, entrees, and sides. The only thing to add each day will be the specials.

• Try this system in tandem with your normal written order pad. This will allow you to test yourself without being depen-dent until you gain confidence.

137

ChAPter 28 texas Hold’em Poker

Or . . . How I spent my summer vacation

One of thrills of my lifetime was the experience of playing in the 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event. There I was, playing my favorite game with all my heroes. 6,494 players of various skill levels, each of whom bought—or like me, won—a $10,000 entry to compete for a share of the prize pool of $61 million—includ-ing an $8.5 million first prize.

The game of Texas Hold’em, as they say, takes minutes to learn and a lifetime to master. I’ve given it close to a lifetime, but mastery has still eluded me. Many players, upon learning of my development of Memory Shock, ask how it helps. After all, poker isn’t like Blackjack, where “card-counting” can give you an enormous edge. Where do I apply my memory skills? Where can you?

The answer is best understood by examining the advice of Kathy Liebert, one of the premier professional tournament play-ers, as discussed in “Poker Wizards,” a wonderful book by War-wick Dunnett.26 No small matter to this fan that Kathy starts her advice with her specific definition of “focus.” To Kathy, it means

26 Cardoza Pub. www.cardozabooks.com ISBN 978-1-5804-2227-7


watching your opponents to know how they react in certain cir-cumstances, and to read their tells.27

Her advice is very valid. But how can you do that when there are thousands of players in a tournament that goes on for many days? It’s easier than you might think.

Certainly, you must focus on everyone at your table, learning their moves and idiosyncrasies as quickly as possible. But then, as the tournament progresses, people are moved from table to table by the tournament director. This is what can give you an edge over everyone else. As more and more players are knocked out and the field narrows, you are seated with players who may have been at your table days before.

The following chart will give you a simple idea of what you can do that virtually no one else can. Notice that knowing every-one’s name may be fun (and perhaps intimidating to the others), but is not necessary. All you need is their facial feature. Their name is replaced by their playing style and tells.

(Because this is not a book for poker players, I’ll not go into details or explain jargon. If you are a player, you’ll understand. If you aren’t a player, this will be no more than a marginally interesting diversion.)

A chart of typical actions and pictures would look like this:For example, a player with tiny ears might be seen . . .

Action/tell Picture

Aggressive Pounding the table with ears

Aggressive from the dealer button Pounding ears into the button

Aggressive on river after missing a draw

Pounding ears into the river and it floats (because it’s lightweight)

27 Involuntary mannerisms that when repetitively observed, let you know what they are really thinking. “John realized that every time Ed bluffed, he threw his chips into the center rather than push them slowly.”

Texas Hold’em Poker 139

Action/tell Picture

Folds to aggression on the river. His ears are pounded into river and sink (drown)

A calling station (calls all bets) His ears fill up a telephone booth (Get it? A calling station)

A grinder (very deliberate) His ears are ground down by a shop grinder.

These silly little pictures work just as well for remembering poker types as they do for names. It’s the same two-word system: Focus and picture.

I was hoping you wouldn’t ask, but OK, here’s the answer: I lasted only three hours into the second day. While that’s bet-ter than the fifty percent of total entries who were knocked out by the end of Day One, it was nothing to boast about. Next time.

141

ChAPter 29 Sales Presentations

My first serious sales job was for Savin Business Machines, sell-ing photocopiers on Wall Street. After a full week of classroom training, I was tossed into the most competitive marketplace in the world. Because I was nervous—maybe insecure is a better word—I stuck to the presentation I had learned in Savin’s sales class.

No, it wasn’t word-for-word canned. But it was darned close to that. Inside of a few months I started to do pretty well. I became more and more confident in my product knowledge and my sales closing skills. Over time, I began to improvise more and more of the pitch. My closing ratio was still quite high, and I was regularly at the top of the sales leader board.

Then an interesting thing happened. The sales manager started to call on me to take the new reps into my territory to show them how it was done. This had an interesting effect: The nervousness returned. I guess that being seen and judged by the new recruits put a new sense of pressure on me. This caused me to revert to the almost-canned presentations and closes I had used as a neophyte.

Guess what? My sales closing ratio became better than ever! The combination of confidence in my product knowledge and following the lessons of my training classes made me the best sales rep I could be. The new guys were impressed—as was the sales manager.

Canned sales pitch. Is there a more repugnant three-word phrase in the English language? And yet . . . Don’t you owe it to your company—and to your customers—to make certain that


you fully explain all of the important features and benefits of your product or service?

As the true story of my experience as a young office machine rep demonstrates, knowing and following the basic presentation provided by my company demonstrably added to my income.

The upcoming chapters on public speaking and acting provide the extremes—concept notes and verbatim memorization—for approaching your sales presentations. Somewhere between the two is the best approach. I would never deliver a canned, fully scripted pitch (except for some very specific telesales situations). But know-ing that script cold can be quite an asset. And knowing the key features and benefits “by the numbers” is absolutely essential.

A good sales presentation includes give and take. The best of the best know that the more your customer talks, the more inter-ested he is, and the more likely he is to buy. But those interruptions can also cause you to “lose your place,” to miss chunks of material that are important to communicating your product’s strong points.

So pick a numbered-list vocabulary and begin assigning word-pictures to an outline of your presentation, just as you will do in the chapter on public speaking. I would also suggest this, depending on the complexity of your product or service: Use the Loci method, putting each major concept in a different room. Then attach the various details within those concepts to the ele-ments within the rooms. This will give you a virtual script con-taining everything you need to cover, but with the flexibility to present it in a conversational way. It will also give you the means to get back on track after the customer takes the conversation in a different direction.

I’ve kept that lesson in mind with every new selling job over the years, and it’s paid off handsomely. And at risk of over-stating the obvious, many of the other memory skills have made me a better salesman than I would have been without them. Few things can help you get past the “gatekeeper” to the decision-maker than the compliment you pay them by remembering their name or the pretty blue dress she had on last time you were there.

143

ChAPter 30 Public Speaking without Notes

Relax. It’s so much easier than you think.

This chapter will be more of a brief reminder about everything you’ve already learned, rather than a bunch of new concepts. Early on, as an example of how to use Body Parts, we tied them to the First Ten Amendments to the Constitution—the Bill of Rights.

Indeed, I use Body Parts to remember the various parts of my shorter (45-minutes and less) public speaking scripts. During the last portion of my memory presentations, I teach Body Parts to the audience. After they learn the simple technique, I put it together with a seemingly random list of things to remember. When they demonstrate to themselves that they have the list down pat, I rhetorically ask, “Now, how can you use something like this for public speaking?

When I reveal to them that the “random” list was really a set of reminders for the talking points of the speech they just heard, there are smiles all around.

The only real decision to make is which of your many Hook/Peg lists you want to use. You are, by now, very comfortable with Body Parts, Hook Numbers, Loci, and even playing cards. Which to use? It doesn’t really matter, does it? Unless you need more than ten images, you can use any of your memory vocabularies.


Frankly, most speeches shouldn’t need more than ten. Pre-sumably, you know your material, so you just need to highlight the main points so that you can keep them in order. Word-for-word speeches are boring. They don’t sound fresh. They sound like you are reading them, and in fact, you are. The successful speaker will be thoroughly knowledgeable about the material, but sound conversational. Using one of your many numbered-list tools is the way to do it.

In the wonderful movie, The King’s Speech,28 Prince Albert, younger brother of the man who decided to give up the British crown, is accurately portrayed as a life-long stutterer. He is about to take his oath of office as the King of England, and his uncon-ventional speaking coach is prepping him for the big moment:

“That’s all you have to say. Four short responses, kiss the book and sign the oath. There you are: you’re king. Easy.”

Hearing that simple explanation of so monumental a task put Prince Albert, moments from becoming King George VI, at ease, and he made it through the ordeal.

While your speaking events call for more than “four short responses,” the major points you must keep in mind are really not much more than that for a typical presentation. And you now have the ability to keep in numbered order as many points as you choose. There you are: you’re king. Easy!

28 Copyright © 2010 The Weinstein Company

145

ChAPter 31 Acting—Memorizing Scripts

What’s My Line?

Speaking of movies, let’s talk about the specialty of commit-ting scripts to memory. Here, unlike in general public speaking, verbatim memorizing of dialogue IS a requirement. (Yes, some directors give you a free reign. But until you land the job, you can’t count on that.) You usually have to nail the lines at the audition, often having received the script only a couple of days before.

Not to worry.First, use this study technique for verbatim memorization:

Give yourself absolute silence and freedom from distractions. When competitive memory experts work at their craft, they will often wear expensive sound-limiting stereo earphones—without anything playing. This shuts out noise distractions. To guard against visual distractions, some wear home-made goggles to eliminate everything from their field of vision except the subject of their concentration.

Second, be sure to use the helpful hint I gave earlier about “sleeping on it.” If the time between script arrival and audition or performance allow for it, schedule your studying to surround your sleep schedule: last thing at night, then first thing in the morning. This is a big help for all tough memory jobs.


Now, the mechanics: Obviously, you must read the script enough to become very familiar with both the words and the thrust of the story.29 Acting roles cannot be in a vacuum. Then, focus on your lines. You may usually do this by highlighting or underscoring them. Another good way is to write them down on a separate pad or enter them into a word processor. (I think it’s a good idea to write them in a spiral-bound notebook that you use just for this purpose. Over the years, you can amass a collection of all the parts for which you have ever read.)

In any case, number each of your lines—in the margins of the script or in your copied material. Pick a key word or short phrase for each line that, if on an index card in your hand, would be enough to remember the line.

Now, unlike the numbered-list association for each general concept that you use for public speaking, you’ll have a number-picture for each line. Depending on the flow of the dialogue, you can add in your cue word. This is what a part of a scene might look like. It’s from the highly anticipated movie from the suspense book, Perpetual, by Brian Huey.30

INT. VW BUS — HWY 95 — NIGHT

Matthew fiddles with the express mail package at his side. Maria is reading. Matthew decides . . .

MATTHEW

Hey, there’s Miami Beach. Let’s go down and check it out.

MARIA

(pouts)I’m tired. Let’s just go down to your uncle’s house and then we can head to the Keys in the morning.

MATTHEW

(turns off exit)

29 This assumes that you have been given a full script for the scenes in question, and not just sides with your lines only.30 © Brian Huey www.brianhuey.com ISBN978-1-4363-0841-0

Acting—Memorizing Scripts 147

Just a quick detour. I . . . um, promised to visit with someone, he works–-

MARIA

(closes book, left eye closes slightly, she sits up)Matthew Thadeus Eaton–- who?–- what are you keeping from me?

MATTHEW

It’s no big deal . . .

MARIA

You’ve never lied to me before.

MATTHEW

If you’d let me explain–-

Cue Matthew’s Lines Picture

1 Hey, there’s Miami Beach. Let’s go down and check it out.

A TIE covered in (horses) hay on Miami Beach. Throw the tie down on a pile of checks.

2 Keys In the morning

Just a quick detour. I . . . um, promised to visit with someone, he works–-

NOAH sees a detour sign and hesitates

3 Keeping from me.

It’s no big deal . . . MA is dealing tiny cards (no big deal)

4 me before If you’d let me explain–- A RYE bread explaining.

Try this a few ways to see which works best for you. Instead of using Hook Numbers in the picture, you may decide to put the cue words in the picture. This will be a matter of personal preference after some trial.

149

ChAPter 32 Foreign Words and Phrases

- Between us, we speak eight languages.- Emilio speaks seven and I speak one.

There are really two applications for memory system in foreign words and phrases: one is for the pronunciation, the other for translation.

You saw an example of the former in Chapter 12, the Loci System. When I first read about it many years ago I wasn’t sure if it was low-SEE or low-SIGH. Hence, after looking up the pro-nunciation I created the little story about being “so emotional when I think of how important the loci system is, that I let out a ‘low sigh.’”

This usage for pronunciation of foreign words is exactly the same technique you use for names—particularly unusual last names. Nothing more need be added except to be aware when you need to be. Here’s what I mean: Just as learning to remember names and faces begins by making a conscious decision to focus and picture, you must decide to focus and picture a pronuncia-tion if it’s one that you want to retain. Sound simple? It is.

The other application is for remembering definitions of for-eign words and phrases (as well as unusual words in your native language). At this point, I need not ’splain it to you. Just this simple mention is all you need.


And this thought: A friend who helped proof-read the manu-script for this book, suggested a change to the story about the sailing ship captain who had to look at a piece of paper each morning to remember port and starboard. He liked the story, but suggested that my comment about it being “apocryphal” sent him to the dictionary. He said it might be a mistake to use too big a word.

In response, I asked him how many stories “of questionable veracity” he’d heard me tell over the years. He agreed that I have many such stories. I told him that a look at the bulge in my front-left pocket would tell him the answer. This confused him until I explained: “The bulge is from a pocketful of apocryphal stories.” A Pocketful. Apocryphal. End of discussion, and he agreed that he’ll never have to look it up again.

Yes, you can use this for English vocabulary words as well as foreign language words.

151

ChAPter 33 Parlor tricks

By now you have the makings of an assortment of mind-boggling tricks and effects.

• You can walk into a room full of strangers and instantly commit their names to memory.

• You can ask each the date and year of their birth and tell them the day of the week on which it fell.

• You can have them create a long number, and repeat it to them backwards, forwards, and by ordinal place.

• You can tell them what cards are in the group you have not seen, that were taken from a standard deck of 52 playing cards.

• You can memorize an entire crossword puzzle published that morning in the local newspaper..

• You can recite Pi to 50 or 100 decimal places.

And more!If you plan to perform these feats as parlor tricks (as I love to

do), I offer the Henny Youngman one-line response to “How do you get to Carnegie Hall?”

“Practice. Practice. Practice”By practice, I mean more than just the technique. I mean the

patter and delivery. Control the situation. Until you are very confidant in both your skill and your presentation style, stay away from obvious wise-guys, who may try to trip you up, when choosing volunteers.


Rehearse out loud. Determine the style that works best for you. For some it is taking on the mannerism of total confidence. For others, it is deliberately making yourself sound insecure, even muttering, “Gosh, I hope this works better than the last time I tried it.”

One of my favorite bits is to introduce memory tricks with, “Some guy I once met can memorize . . . .” Then I say, “This is what I mean . . . .” And I proceed to do it, even acting shocked that I was able. Watch a number of stage magicians to help deter-mine your style. YouTube is a good place to start. Which ones do you enjoy? Which ones are boring?

Here’s a trick I developed that requires two knowledgeable rememberizers. It is similar to some of the great mentalist gim-micks of the past, and has never before been published. If you have learned Memory Shock with a friend (or happen to know someone who is skilled in the Major mnemonic system), you already have the ability to do this, and utterly stump your audi-ence. One of you must not be in the room. Preferably, the absent partner should not even be in the building.

Here’s the patter:

“Did I ever tell you about my work with the Mind Reading Insti-tute? Let me demonstrate something for you. First, write down a phone number that you will be calling in a few moments. [The phone number of your confederate.] Now, select a three-digit number.” [When there are three or more people in your audience, ask for three volunteers to give you one digit each. Repeat back the three- digit number that has been created. For the purpose of demonstration in this book, let’s choose 594.]

“Let me tell you what I learned from Dr. Lipper at the Mind Reading Institute. Many years ago he began working on something with which you may be familiar. Have you ever been sitting with a close friend or your spouse and had the sense that you knew what they were thinking.” [Many people will nod their heads at that.]

“What Dr. Lipper realized is that proximity is not an issue. He began by placing people at opposite ends of a room and

Parlor Tricks 153

having them read the thoughts of their partners. Then he realized that the study participants could actually be in dif-ferent rooms at the Institute. Finally, after years of study and trial, he found that geography had nothing to do with the strength of these thought transferences.”

[Now—and this is a key part of the performance—look just a bit unsure as you ask] “What was that number that you just created?” [As they tell you the three-digit number, think about it for a moment before agreeing. This sells the idea that you mentioned Dr. Lipper’s name before you knew the number. I guarantee that they will remember it that way. Turn to a volunteer who has a strong speaking voice and say . . . ]

“Now, if you would, call Dr. Lipper at that phone number I gave you earlier, while I focus on the three-digit number. When the phone is answered, ask for Dr. Lipper. When he comes to the phone, tell him that I am with you, and that I’m concentrating on a number. Everyone please be very quiet while I concentrate.”

To make certain that this works flawlessly, your partner should not be “Dr. Lipper.” Instead, he or she should say, “Let me see if he’s here. Hold on please.” As this part moves along, you should look a bit worried. Will he be there? When your partner returns to the phone, this is the script: “I’m sorry, Dr. Lipper is not here.” To build suspense, that should linger just a second or two, followed by “But he left a note saying that his class tomorrow will be in room 594.”

Of course if the group had chosen the same digits in the order 459, you could have told them to ask for Dr. Rollup. In that case, your partner could say that “he’ll be back at 4:59 this afternoon.”

(If, perhaps because the volunteer did not enunciate “Lipper” correctly, the trick does not work, there’s no problem: The audi-ence will hear something about his room number or when he’s expected back, and believe that he simply wasn’t there.)

Practice. Practice. Practice.

PARt 7Advanced Material

157

ChAPter 34 A Large Slice of Pi

This is a piece of cake.

From basic geometry to advanced sciences, few expressions are as interesting as ∏ (Pi), representing the ratio of the circumference to the diameter of a circle; approximately the decimal equivalent of 22/7. Most folks know that it begins with 3.14, and often that’s all we need to answer most problems.

But one of the fascinating things about pi is that it never reaches an end. The decimal places keep going forever!

Here it is to the first fifty places . . .

3.141592653589793238462643 38327950288419716939937510.31

One of the fun parts about using it for demonstrations is that many in your “audience” will have heard or seen it taken to eight or ten decimal places and wished they could remember that many. Your going to fifty places is mind-blowing. Anywhere there is access to the internet (just Google “Pi”) they can follow along with you as you recite 50 or 100 places by memory. You can break up the decimal part into chunks of any size you like.

31 Want more? Pi to 1,000 places is in Appendix E1


Important:Like many other areas of the system, this can be done in several ways. Here are three examples to choose from—or make up your own.

1 14159 Dirty Lobby 1

2 26535 Unusual Mule

3 89793 Phobic Bomb 2

4 23846 Nymph Rage

5 26433 Unsure Mama 3

6 83279 Famine Coop

7 50288 Listen Fife 4

8 41971 Re-tape Cat

9 69399 Cheap M Pipe 5

10 37510 Michael Toys

All three methods begin by forming word-pictures as uniform groups. Uniformity, in this case five numbers to a picture, each as a three-digit word followed by a two-digit word, guides us in visualizing the pictures. (Notice that your natural memory will tell you that “dirty” ends with a single 1, even though in has a “y” ending.)

METHOD 1 (ONE LINKED LIST): After grouping the five digit word-pictures, each as a three-number word, followed by a 2-number word, create a story:

I’m in a DIRTY LOBBY where I see an UNUSUAL-colored MULE who has a PHOBIC (fearful) BOMB in its saddle bags. A NYMPH (a beautiful girl of Greek mythology) is in a RAGE at her UNSURE MAMA (her mother is trembling) because she caused a FAMINE in the (chicken) COOP (when she stopped feeding the chickens) while LISTENing to a FIFE. She RETAPEs the CAT (which I might see as her tape-recording a new ses-sion of the jazz musician) playing on a CHEAP M-shaped PIPE, which is one of MICHAEL (Jackson’s) TOYS.

A Large Slice of Pi 159

Don’t worry about the occasional extra “ing” or “s.” Your natural memory will know what you need and don’t need. Once you’ve pictured it a few times, boil the story down. Before each performance (or cocktail party), just review it once or twice:

In a DIRTY LOBBY is an UNUSUAL MULE with a PHOBIC BOMB. A NYMPH is in a RAGE at her UNSURE MAMA who caused a FAMINE in the COOP while LISTENing to a FIFE. She RETAPEs the CAT playing a CHEAP M-shaped PIPE, one of MICHAEL’s TOYS.

This method works well, but has the risk always associated with the Linked List system: Forget one link and the rest can fall apart. The old saying, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, holds true. Don’t discard it, but be aware of that potential problem.

METHOD 2 (FIVE LOCI PLACES): This breaks the story down into five pieces:

a. Your DRIVEWAY goes right into a DIRTY LOBBY where your car hits an UNUSUAL MULE.

b. On the STEPS is a PHOBIC (fearsome) BOMB being held by a NYMPH in a RAGE.

c. In your MAILBOX, an UNSURE (or INJUREd) MAMA has caused a FAMINE in a COOP. (Your mailbox has turned into a chicken COOP.)

d. On the PORCH, you are LISTENing to FIFE music, being played so poorly that you decide to RE-TAPE the CAT.

e. Blocking your FRONT DOOR is a CHEAP M-shaped PIPE that you recognize as one of MICHAEL’S TOYS.

METHOD 3 (TEN HOOK NUMBERS): This divides the story even further, into ten pictures, each representing a five number story picture.

a. A TIE’s dragged through a DIRTY LOBBY.

b. NOAH is bitten by an UNUSUAL MULE.

c. My MA is holding a PHOBIC BOMB.


d. A NYMPH in a RAGE is eating RYE BREAD.

e. And an UNSURE MAMA is in COURT.

f. Stick a SHOE into a FAMINE-filled COOP.

g. I LISTEN to a COW play a FIFE, and

h. A RE-TAPEd CAT is covered with IVY.

i. BEEs come out of a CHEAP M-SHAPED PIPE

j. MICHAEL plays with my TOES like they are TOYS.

Which method is best? That’s entirely up to you. This exer-cise demonstrates that there are a lot of ways to skin a cat—or, in this case, to re-tape a cat.

161

ChAPter 35 Days of the Week—for Centuries

Alex, I’ll take July 4, 1776 for $500. (What was an important Thursday?)

At the curb of certain busy streets in New York City the signs say, “Don’t Even Think about Parking Here.” I’ll borrow the thought: Don’t even think about tackling this chapter without first learning all the preceding lessons. Fuhgedaboudit. While that’s essentially true about every lesson in Memory Shock, it bears repeating here.

This is, as the chapter heading suggests, a method to remem-ber the days of the week of any year for centuries backward and forward from the present, from 1600 to 2299! But it will also be a behind-the-scenes reveal of how this part of the system came to be.

I’ve been telling you throughout this book that you should be massaging Memory Shock and tweaking it to fit your needs. This chapter will serve to demonstrate how I approached the development of an important area—Days of the Week.

I’ve long used and taught the simple method of remembering days of the week that you learned in Chapters 13 and 14. It’s so easy that I teach it to some groups in just the last ten minutes of my lecture. It doesn’t even require the use of the


Major Mnemonic system (although that does make it even easier). I encourage that system for most students who just need a couple of years.

But centuries?Here’s my proposition: If you remember one simple 12-digit

story, and a list of ten even easier pictures, I’ll show you how to know the day of the week for any date throughout the last century and this one. Trust me, this is good stuff. (But, frankly, I don’t know why you’d want to bother except to show off.)

Start with the 12-digit story. It will represent a special key-number, let’s call it “M,” for each of the twelve months in non-leap year. 144-025-036-146.

Month M Month M

January 1 July 0

February 4 August 3

March 4 September 6

April 0 October 1

May 2 November 4

June 5 December 6

Just as we did with our earlier, simpler day-of-week system, we’ll form word pictures of each calendar quarter. Here’s the one I use:Jan-Feb-Mar Apr-May-Jun Jul-Aug-Sep Oct-Nov-Dec

144 025 036 146

Dryer Snail Smash The Roach

I picture a clothes-DRYER, inside of which is a SNAIL tum-bling around. I see it SMASH THE ROACH that’s the only other thing in the dryer. Your natural memory will also learn some patterns as you use this, such as the fact that the first and last quarters begin with 14, and the 2nd and 3rd quarters begin with 0. Also, the last two quarters end with 6. You will soon be seeing this story in your sleep.

Days of the Week—for Centuries 163

Got it? OK, we can move on to the ten easy word-pictures.

Sleeper-SlimeToes-DodgeNose-RinseMice-LimeRose-TeacherLace-NooseCheese-LimitCase-JarFace-NasalBus-Meat

Now, here’s the formula for the twentieth century (1900–1999):

MOD((Y+M+D)/7) = W. [That is MOD((Y+M+D),7) = W in a spreadsheet] assuming:

Y = Key Number for yearM = Key Number for monthD = Day of the monthW = Day of the week

Let’s have that in English! OK, but keep in mind that this is all for background. You do not need to remember the theoretical and math formula parts.

MOD (or modulus) is the remainder of the division of one number by another. So MOD(22/7) is 1—the remainder left over after dividing 22 by 7. (7 into 22 goes 3 times with a remainder of 1.) MOD(19/7) is 5.

Y, the Key Number of each year in the twentieth century, can be found in Appendix E6. It comes from a formula. More on that later.


M, the Key Number for the month, is a (not quite) arbitrary assignment to the months January through December.32 You will find it a simple matter to commit the story of “DRyeR SNaiL SMaSH THe RoaCH” to your permanent number vocabulary forever.

D, Day of the month, is exactly that. The D for August 17th is 17.

W, the numeric representation of the day of the week, is a simple assignment of the numbers 1 through 7 in order, 1 being Sunday, 2 being Monday, etc. all the way to 7, which is Saturday. This is easy to visualize, and because the even numbers 2, 4, and 6 represent Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, it’s a hard pattern to forget. If the result of our little MOD formula is 4, then the answer is Wednesday.

NOTE: 0 and 7 are used interchangeably. If a remainder were 7, then it would really be the same as no remainder at all (0). That’s because it can be evenly divided by seven, which is a modulus of 0. In either case, it is Saturday, the day before Sunday—the “1 day.”

It’s always a good idea to test new systems with things that we know. Let’s give it a try.

December 7, 1941, the day President Roosevelt famously said would live in infamy, history students know was on a Sun-day. (That was important because many of our ships stationed at Pearl Harbor were in port for Sunday instead of out on training cruises. When the Japanese attacked, our ships were sitting as a convenient cluster of targets.)

Y = 2 (the Key Number for 1941)M = 6 (the last consonant sound in the roach.)D = 7 (the 7th day of the month = 7 – duh!)Therefore, 2 + 6 + 7 = 15MOD (15/7) = 11 = Sunday

Here’s another: November 22, 1963, the day President Ken-nedy was assassinated. We old-timers remember, all too well, the

32 Because this system finds the day of the week for a date, and the earlier system finds the date on which a Monday (or Tuesday or whatever) falls, they are not related. I know of no simple formula to convert one to the other. Decide which technique you want for everyday use.


terrible news that came from Dallas on that Friday, and the very long weekend of sadness and more shocking news.

1963 Key Number = 1 (from the chart.)November = 4 (the middle sound, R, in “the roach.”)The 22nd = 22 1 + 4 + 22 = 27MOD (27/7) = 66 = Friday.

There is one important exception to all of this: In January and February of leap years, subtract 1 from your answer. So that’s in two out of every 48 months, or just over 4% of the time. (I’ll explain why and how to easily do it later.)

Now, back to my problem (which is really the fun part). This seems to be working, but if I have to carry a chart around for the Year Key Numbers, it’s not a great system at all.

How to make this easy to carry around in my head? My first thought was to commit the 100 Key Numbers to memory. Actu-ally that wouldn’t be as bad as it might sound. After all, the Key Numbers are limited to 1 through 7. And a hundred of them would be just a couple of crossword puzzles’ worth of memorization.

How best to do that? Perhaps by making a phrase out of the ten consonant sounds representing the ten Key Numbers in each decade. That would mean that the hundred numbers would be boiled down to ten story-pictures. Let’s see, the Key Numbers for the first ten years are . . .

1900=01901=11902=21903=31904=5

1905=61906=71907=11908=31909=4

So, we have 0123567134. Hmm, how about PSEUDONYM (0123), LOGIC (567), DEMURE (134). The picture could be of a demure person who hides behind a pseudonym. Logical to him because he’s very shy. And then we just need to find some


picture to tie it to the first decade of the twentieth century. OK, one down and nine to go.

WAIT! There’s got to be something easier than that. (Although it really would be quite do-able for you.)

Next, I took a hard look at the first chart in Appendix E6. Do you notice the pattern? Every year increments by one except leap years, which increment by two. So it’s leap year, then plus 1, plus 1, plus 1. Then plus 2 for the next leap year, and start over. I spent some time thinking about this. In a century, there would be 25 such sequences, so if I can remember the Key Number of each leap year (which is also the presidential election year in the U.S.) this would be simple. And let’s face it, 25 leap years is just 25 simple associations that would be part of my permanent vocabulary.

And then it struck me.I can combine the structure of the ten decades, but just use

the leap years in each. Now I have ten simple pictures instead of the ten longer stories I had earlier. If a date falls on a leap year, a one in four probability, bingo! I know the Key Number. But even if it doesn’t, I can just add 1 for each year up from the nearest leap year. (Or, if it falls the year before a leap year, I can subtract 2.) Let’s put this together:

DecadeDecade Picture Leap Years Key #s Picture

1900s Zzz* ’00 ’04 ’08 0-5-3 Sleeper-Slime

1910s Toes ’12 ’16 1-6 Toes-Dodge

1920s Nose ’20 ’24 ’28 4-2-0 Nose-Rinse

1930s Mice ’32 ’36 5-3 Mice-Lime

1940s Rose ’40 ’44 ’48 1-6-4 Rose-Teacher

1950s Lace ’52 ’58 2-0 Lace-Noose

1960s Cheese ’60 ’64 ’68 5-3-1 Cheese-Limit

1970s Case ’72 ’76 6-4 Case-Jar

1980s Face ’80 ’84 ’88 2-0-5 Face-Nasal

1990s Bus ’92 ’96 3-1 Bus-Meat* “Ceases” would be more true to the system, but I just see myself awaking from a deep sleep (Zzz) at the beginning of a century.


This is the kind of thing that’s a lot easier to hear than to read, so let’s talk it through. I’ve used your old friends, the Hook Numbers for the decade, and NOT used them for the Leap Year Key Number clusters.

• 1900s, or 00s. I assigned “Zzz” and I can picture someone sleeping. Just pour a bucket of SLIME (053) all over him!

• 1910s, or ’10s. Toes. I have to be careful because someone keeps throwing a DODGE (16) ball at my toes.

• ’20s. Nose. Go over to the kitchen sink and put your nose under the faucet to RINSE (420) it off.

• 30s. Mice. I see a couple of silly little mice struggling to carry a big LIME (53) across my kitchen floor.

• 40’s. Rose. A school TEACHER’s (164) whole head is replaced with a rose!

• 50s. Lace. Let’s hang someone with a NOOSE (20) made from rope woven of lace.

• 60s. Cheese. I see a speed-LIMIT (531) sign, and the let-tering is not painted with paint, but spread on with cheese.

• 70s. Case. I open a case, and inside is a big JAR (64). It’s a container (jar) inside a container (case).

• 80s. Face. I’m looking at a guy whose face is so scrunched up around his nose that it’s making his voice NASAL (205).

• 90s. Bus. I get on a bus, and the seats are slabs of MEAT (31).

Notice that there are a few patterns here. As always, recog-nizing patterns helps your natural memory.

The Key Numbers go down by two from leap year to leap year. (Don’t forget, there are only seven numbers in our scale, so 1 minus 2 is 6.)

Each even decade has three leap years, ending in 0, 4, and 8.Each odd decade has two leap years, ending in 2 and 6.Remember, they all coincide with presidential election years

in the United States.So, while it took a while to get here because I wanted you

to see the thought process, it is really as simple as can be. One


hundred Key Numbers are remembered in ten silly little pictures. Practice those ten pictures and you will be a walking calendar.

Wait, Barry, you promised us TWO centuries. Yup. Take every-thing you’ve just learned about the 20th century (1900 to 1999) and use it in the 21st century by subtracting 1 from your answer. So, December 7, 2041, will be the same as December 7, 1941 MINUS 1. Instead of (1) Sunday, it will be a 0 (or 7), Saturday. (Yes, with a few more tweaks, you can use this for other centuries as well.)

Now I’ll ask a question I posed early in the book: Have we really memorized two centuries of calendar, or is this “cheating?” My answer: Who cares!!! We’re using our extraordinary memo-ries and applying some smart thinking to do what we want to do—and what no one else you know can even conceive of doing.

One last thought on Days of the Week: This is NOT important, but it’s fun to know. Also, by reading it, you’ll be helping your natural memory retain the concepts you’ve just learned.

Why does the system work so nicely with “leap year plus one?” Start with this: What if every year had just 364 days? Well, it’s easy to see that 364 can be evenly divided by 7. Yup, 364 divided by 7 equals exactly 52, the number of weeks in a year. There would be no modulus changes at all. If January 1st were on a Tuesday this year, January 1st would be on a Tuesday every year.

If every year had 365 days, each year’s key number would incre-ment by one. When January 1st is on a Tuesday one year, it would be on a Wednesday the next year. Why? Here’s the math:

Dividing 365 by 7 gives us 52 and 1/7th. (Our old friend, modu-lus, equals 1.) With 365-day years, we just have to add a 1 to the prior year’s answer. What prevents this simple arrangement from being applied consistently is the dynamic of leap years. On leap years, January and February are incremented by one. Then at the end of February, we have to add a second 1 because February 29th changes everything that follows. It’s easier to just increment leap years by two and deduct one of them during those first two months.

The easy way to do that is to alter the first word in your story for the key number “M” on leap years. By changing it from DRYER (144) to SUMMER (034) you automatically subtract the one place for January and February. Perhaps you will now see a SUMMER SNAIL SMASH THE ROACH by picturing that snail in a bathing suit.


Seven CenturiesAs promised, here’s the secret to making this work for every year from 1600 to 2299. (Who knows—maybe there’ll be a yard sale in the year 2246 and some lucky buyer will still have 53 years of calendar to use.)

Assume that the 20th century (1900 to 1999) is our base century. Effectively, you already know this, and are subtracting 1 from each “Y” when you do the 21st century. Now, just sub-tract 2 more (a total of 3) for the 22nd century and subtract yet another 2 (total of 5) for the 23rd century. Going backwards? Simple. First, add 2 to go to the 19th century (1800-1899) then 2 more (total of 4) for the 18th century and another 2 (total of 6) for the 17th century. Why is the change different from the others (one instead of two) when going from the 20th to the 21st cen-tury? Without getting into too much complexity, I’ll say that just as there are leap years every four years, there are leap-centuries every four centuries.33 So our chart looks like this:

Century Y

20th Century (1900-1999) Base Y

21st Century (2000-2099) Base Y minus 1

22nd Century (2100-2199) Base Y minus 3

23rd Century (2200-2299) Base Y minus 5

19th Century (1800-1899) Base Y Plus 2

18th Century (1700-1799) Base Y plus 4

17th Century (1600-1699) Base Y plus 6

Now, if you want, you can easily make up a story for this brief chart. But, frankly, the outlying centuries come up so infre-quently, it’s just as easy to intellectually know the concept and count backward or forward manually whenever you need. It’s just minus two every move forward after the 21st century, and

33 Every year that is evenly divisible by four is a leap year, unless . . . It is evenly divisible by 100, in which case it is a common year, except. . . . Years that are evenly divisible by 400 remain leap years. Bottom line? Between 1600 and 2299, every 00 year is a common year, except 2000, which was a leap year. Got it?


plus two for every move backward before the 20th century.. Really, how many times does “What day did Christmas fall on in 1732?” come up in conversation? (But now you’re hoping it does, right?)

For more on the math of this, I enthusiastically recommend “Secrets of Mental Math” by Professor Arthur Benjamin and Michael Shermer. It is a thoroughly enjoyable way to increase your math skills exponentially—and have fun doing it. (Three Rivers Press, a division of Random House. ISBN 978-0-307-33840-2.)

I’m seeing a math teacher being pushed toward a car by a kidnapper with a gun. “Back-off! Back-off! Back-off,” he says to the man wearing a mask. Then he points to a Biblical ark and says “My mover is Noah.” [Back Offs (9780)—Mask (307)—My Mover is Noah (338402). ISBN 978-0-307-33840-234

Now, hustle on over to your neighborhood bookstore and rattle off that 13-digit ISBN to the clerk from memory.

Practice:• Every time a date is mentioned or read about, use your new

skill to determine the day of the week upon which it fell.• Test your self or do speed-drills by using the 7-Year Perpetual

Calendar at www.MemoryShock.com.

34 At present, all ISBNs start with a “country code” of 978.

171

ChAPter 36 A Few Closing Words

We’ve only just begun . . .

When I was attending City College of New York—Downtown (now Baruch College), pocket calculators and personal comput-ers weren’t even a dream. Indeed, the only computer in the whole school was in a large room with its own climate control behind a glass wall. Every day, on my way to the cafeteria, I would pass that room and see its lab-coated students, and I knew, sure as anything could be known, that nothing would ever come from this computer stuff. Oh well.

Was not having pocket calculators and the like a hardship? Not at all. It was a luxury.

As part of my business major, I took a course called the Math-ematics of Finance. We learned about the “time-value” of money. It’s the concept behind all loans and large monetary transactions. (It’s the reason that a mortgage of $250,000 has payments total-ing well over $500,000.) Unlike today’s students, we couldn’t punch numbers into a financial calculator to determine the monthly payment for a 30 year mortgage on a $750,000 house, or the interest rate that was imputed when a monthly payment on a $50,000 three year loan came in at $1,566.82. Nope. We had to draw diagrams of money flows to understand the concept of time-value. Then, using those diagrams, we worked out the


answers from printed tables in the back of a textbook, interpo-lating35 data from the charts. Drawing those diagrams forced us to see the concepts.

Twenty years later, when I opened my equipment leasing/finance business, pocket financial calculators were available to all. While it is now several generations old, at that time the Hewlett-Packard 12C was the latest and greatest, giving quick answers to financial calculations. But an interesting thing hap-pened. I became known in the industry as the go-to guy for solv-ing complex problems on the HP 12C, such as “uneven payment streams” and creating schedules for step-up programs with spe-cific residual values. At one point, I was called by a well-known consultant to help devise a program for his client—a nation that had been part of the former Soviet Union.

What gave me that facility with this complex stuff? It was having spent that time at City College, forced to draw those charts and see the concepts behind what those computers later did. People who never did anything but “enter payment amount and press PMT” never have that opportunity.

In a similar way, the system you have just learned forces you to think about the things you want to retain.

Another course I took, this an elective, was the Mathematics of Probability. As I’ve already told you, I am not in the top tier of poker players on the scene. But my ability to understand the more sophisticated parts of the theoretical game is a direct result of having worked out probability problems in the days before calculators. Again, I was forced to see them worked out instead of just popping up on a calculator’s display.

OK, Barry, where are you going with this? I’m encouraging you to use your new memory skills to quickly memorize what you want and must. But also be mindful that if understanding what you learn is important, this new tool will push you to focus on and see what others merely hear.

35 Estimating an unknown value between two known values.

A Few Closing Words 173

Certainly, some of the chores for which you use Memory Shock will be temporary. Shopping lists and tasks to do usually need not be retained beyond a day or so.

But for those matters that you want to keep, to have at your fingertips, your new skills will help you not only retain them, but also digest them in a new and powerful way.

Another benefit is that your ability to lock things into memory so easily gives you a luxury. You will have more time to dwell on the important details and subtleties of things you must learn—in school and throughout your life.

When I did so well in the nuclear propulsion course that I told you about, I didn’t stop at the test. My new job in nuclear construction management allowed me to think about those sys-tems and visualize things like the flow of the coolant system. It made me a better construction supervisor.

You now have a tool that most people can’t even imagine. Use it to empower yourself. I believe that the material in this book will help you improve your life.

And this: Take what you’ve learned and practiced with this book and “grow it” with new variations. Experiment. Discard what doesn’t work and replace it with your own ideas.

I hope you’ve enjoyed the ride.What’s next?Volume 2 is scheduled for publication on May 24, 2047.J

Let’s see, that’ll be a Friday, right? It will add a number of tech-niques, but it’s going to be more a book that discusses them on deeper levels and gives more history of the evolution of various components. While it will be in the same informal style, liberally sprinkled with anecdotes and sidebar thoughts, it will be more an advanced work for those who have both the curiosity and the time to read it. If you are such a person, I don’t have to “sell” it to you. If you aren’t, I couldn’t sell it to you and wouldn’t try.

Barry Reitman

APPENDIxESPractice Material and Explanations

177

APPendix A First Name Pictures

This list of almost 500 name-pictures is NOT intended for you to memorize (although it wouldn’t hurt to do so.) Rather, it’s to give you a start to help create your own list. Have better ideas? Great! Change my list as you make it yours. But as you use the names, lock them in as your standards. That allows you to automatically see the picture instantly upon hearing the name. When you are being introduced to a guy with an odd-shaped nose and told his name is Ben, the process is completed as soon as you hear it. In a flash, you see a BEAN in place of or connected to his nose.

As you go through the list, remember to see the picture as you would apply it to a feature. As always with Memory Shock, saying it has a tiny fraction of the value of seeing it. And, of course, the more shocking, silly, violent, or wacko the picture, the better.

Also note that many different but similar names have the same picture. If you have applied the Focus/Picture method you’ll have no problem putting them back together. Likewise, there will be no problem if you meet two or three Daves at a party. Each will have his own picture.

Have fun!


NAME PICtURE NAME PICtURE

AARON Aireated AGNES Aged

ADAM Adam’s apple ALICE, ALICIA Bowling alley

ADRIAN Band-aid ALLISON Bowling alley

ALAN Alley (bowling) ALMA Almond

ALBERT Bird or “all birds” AMANDA Panda (rhyme)

ALBERTO A bird AMBER Yellow

ALEX Car axle AMY Army or aiming weapon

ALEXANDER An axle with tires ANDREA Andies mountains

ALFRED afraid looking ANGELA An angel

ALFREDO Alfredo sauce ANITA An ant

ALLAN Bowling alley ANNA, ANNE An ant

ALVIN Bowling alley/vine APRIL Rain (April showers)

ANDRE Andies mountains ARLENE Letter R leaning over

ANDREW, ANDY A drawing (drew) ASHLEY Cigarette ash

ANGEL Angel AUDREY All drying off with towel

ANTHONY Copier toner BARBARA Barbed wire or fishhook

ANTONIO Ant in copier toner BEATRICE A bee

ARMANDO An arm BECKY A beggar

ARNOLD Wresting arm-hold BERNICE Burning

ARTHUR, ARTIE Artist palette BERTHA Big cannon (Bertha)

BARRY A bear BESSIE A fish (Bass)

BEN Bean BETH Bath

BENJAMIN, BEN Bean BETTY Casino chip (betting)

BERNARD Burning BEVERLY Beverage

BILL Dollar bill BONNIE Bon fire or young Scot

BOB, BOBBY Fishing lure bob BRANDY Brandy or branding iron

BRADLEY, BRAD Small nail BRENDA Brandy or branding iron

BRANDON Branding iron BRITTANY Great Britain

Appendix A: First Name Pictures 179


BRENT Branding iron CARLA A car

BRETT Loaf of bread CARMEN A car or a man in a car

BRIAN, BRYAN A brain CAROL Christmas caroler

BRUCE Feature is bruised CAROLINE A line of Xmas carolers

BYRON Buy and run CARRIE Carrying (the feature)

CALVIN Giving birth to calf CASSANDRA A case of sand

CARL, CARLOS A car CATHERINE Cat (catty)

CASEY A wooden case CHARLENE Charred lean-to

CECIL A seal CHARLOTTE Charred vacant lot

CHAD Ballot (hang chad) CHERYL A cherry

CHARLES Charred (burned) CHRISTINE Crucifix

CHESTER A chest CHRISTY Crucifix

CHRISTOPHER Crucifix CINDY A cinder

CLARENCE Clearance sign CLARA, CLAIRE Clear as glass

CLAUDE Clawed CLAUDIA Clawed (by a cat)

CLAYTON Molded in clay COLLEEN A collar

CLIFFORD A cliff CONNIE Sub’s Conning tower

CLIFTON A cliff CONSTANCE Constant

CLINTON Bill Clinton COURTNEY A court of law

CLYDE Colliding CRYSTAL A crystal

CODY A coat of paint CYNTHIA A cinder

COREY An apple core DAISY A daisy

CRAIG Craggy DANIELLE A dam

CURTIS A curtain DARLENE Door-lean

DALE A dial DAWN Sun coming up

DANIEL A dam DEANNA College dean

DARRELL A dowel DEBORAH Debutante

DARREN Darn DENISE Dentist

DAVE, DAVID Diving board DIANE, DIANA Dining table

DEAN College dean DOLORES Dollars

DENNIS A dentist DONNA Mafia Don (or Donna?)

DEREK Constrct’n Derrick DORA, DORIS A door



DONALD, DON Mafia Don DOROTHY Polka dots

DOUGLAS, DOUG

A hole (that’s been dug)

EDITH, EDNA Circular current or eating

DUANE Dew turns to rain EILEEN Leaning

DUSTIN A feather duster ELAINE A highway lane

DWIGHT Wide ELEANOR A highway lane

EARL Oil or oily ELIZABETH Lizard

EDDIE, EDWARD Eddie current / eat ELLA, ELLEN L-Shaped

EDGAR Eddie current / eat ELSIE Elsie the Cow

EDWIN Eating window EMILY, EMMA “M”-shaped (letter m)

ELMER Elm tree ERICA A construction derrick

ENRIQUE Smelly (wreaks) ERIN An urn

ERIC Derrick or irksome ESTHER Yes sir!

ERNEST An urn ETHEL Gasoline (ethyl)

EUGENE DNA specimen EVA Evening

EVERETT Mt. Everest EVELYN The eve of a house

FELIX Felix the cat FELICIA Fleas

FERNANDO A fern FLORENCE Flowers

FLOYD Floored FRANCES Postage stamp

FRANCIS Postage stamp GAIL Wind-storm

FRANCISCO Postal stamp GEORGIA Georgia, the state

FRANK A stamp GERALDINE A German helmet

FRANKLIN A stamp GERTRUDE Intruding

FRED afraid looking GINA DNA specimen

GABRIEL Horn blowing GLADYS Glad, happy

GARY Carrying GLENDA A glen

GENE DNA specimen GLORIA The US flag (Old Glory)

GEORGE A gorge GRACE Praying before dinner

GERALD A German helmet GWENDOLYN A glen

GILBERT Fish gills HAZEL Hazey fog

GLENN A glen HEATHER Heather

GORDON Gordian knot HEIDI A mountain village



GREGORY, GREG Gregg shorthand HELEN Helen of Troy or Hades

GUY A guy wire HILDA The side of a hill

HAROLD Old (grey) hair HOLLY Christmas holly

HARRY Hairy IDA A lightbulb (idea)

HARVEY Larvae (rhyme) IRENE Rain

HECTOR Audience heckling IRMA Squirmer (rhyme)

HENRY a hank of hair JACKIE Car jack/tire changing

HERBERT A girl’s bird JACQUELINE Car jack/tire changing

HERMAN A hermit JAMIE Gym equipment

HOWARD “How are you” JANE Candy cane (rhyme)

HUGH Huge JANET, JANICE New Year party (Jan.)

IAN Iron JEAN DNA

ISAAC A sack JEANETTE DNA or very small DNA

IVAN Ivy or moving van JEANNE DNA (gene)

JACK, JACOB Car jack JENNIFER, JEN Cotton gin

JAIME Higher than me JESSICA Chest

JAMES, JAMIE Gym equipment JESSIE Chest

JARED A red jar JILL “. . . goes up a hill”

JASON Shape of letter jay JOAN, JOANN G.I. Joe

JAVIER One-half JOSEPHINE G.I. Joe

JAY Blue Jay JOY, JOYCE Happy smiles (joys)

JEFFREY Chest JUANITA Little ladiesroom (john)

JEREMY,JERRY A German helmet JUDITH, JUDY Jutting

JESSE Chest JULIE, JULIA Summer activity (July)

JESUS Jesus JUNE A June bride

JIM, JIMMY Gym equipment KAREN A car

JOE(L), JOSEPH Soldier (G.I. Joe) KATHERINE Cat (catty)

JOHN, JOHNNY Men’s room KELLY Covered in green



JORDAN The River Jordan KIMBERLY, KIM Kleenex (Kimberly Clark)

JORGE A gorge KRISTEN Crucifix

JOSE Garden hose LAURA, LAUREN A lorrie

JOSHUA Laughing/joking LEAH Sheltered from wind

JUAN Pale (wan) LENA, LEONA Leaning

JULIAN Fireworks (July 4) LESLIE Getting smaller (less)

JULIO Jello LILLIAN, LILLIE A lilly

JUSTIN Lady Justice LINDA Lines

KARL A car LISA An apartment lease

KEITH Keys- teeth/rhyme LOIS Loose or low

KELLY Covered in green LORRAINE, LORI Lorrie

KENNETH, KEN Trash can LOUISE Loose

KENT A can LUCILLE, LUCY Lucille Ball

KEVIN Cave-in LYDIA Eyelid

KIRK Irksome LYNN A line

KURT A curtain MABEL, MAE A Maypole

KYLE Killed or killing MARCIA A marshland

LANCE A lance MARGARET Margerine stick

LARRY Lorrie (small cart) MARGIE Margerine stick

LAWRENCE Lorrie (small cart) MARIAN Wedding band-marry

LEE Wind sheltered MARIE Wedding band-marry

LEO A lion MARILYN A marred line

LEON, LENNY Leaning MARION Wedding band-marry

LEROY Royalty MARJORIE Magerine stick

LESLIE Getting smaller MARLENE A marble

LESTER Listerine MARTHA A convenience mart

LLOYD A lawyer MARY, MARIA Virgin Mary

LONNIE Lawn MAUREEN In water (marine)

LOUIS, LUIS Loose MAXINE Biggest, most

MANUEL Car manual MEGAN Nut Meg



MARK, MARCUS A checkmark MELANIE A melody

MARIO A marriage band MELINDA My line

MARSHALL Marshall’s badge MELISSA A list or my list

MARTIN Martini glass MICHELLE A shell

MARVIN Marvelous/shining MILDRED Dread locks

MATTHEW Door mat MINNIE Very small

MAURICE Heaped more rice MIRIAM Mirror

MAX Biggest, most MISTY Mistiness, fog

MELVIN A melon MONICA Nameplate (moniker)

MICHAEL, MIKE Microphone MYRTLE Turtle (rhyme)

MIGUEL Microphone NANCY Ants

MILTON A sawmill NAOMI Rap (homey rhyme)

MITCHELL Itching NATALIE Gnat

MORRIS Heaped more rice NELLIE A horse

NATHAN A gnat NICOLE A nickel (5 cents)

NEIL Kneeling NINA Columbus’s ship

NELSON Kneeling in sun NORA Shaking ‘no’ (“nor a”)

NICHOLAS Nick (the feature) NORMA Thermometerat 98.6

NORMAN Thermometer 98.6 OLGA Lady Ga-Ga

OSCAR Academy Award PAMELA, PAM Cooking spray

PATRICK, PAT Pat (a light tap) PATRICIA, PAT Pat (a light tap)

PAUL Pull (the feature) PAULINE, PAULA Pulling (on feature)

PEDRO Bicycle peddle PEARL A pearl

PERRY A pear PEGGY A peg

PETER Tired–petered out PENNY A copper penny

PHILLIP Filled up PHYLLIS Filled up

RAFAEL A raffle ticket PRISCILLA Sarsaparilla soda

RALPH Rough RACHEL A roach or rachet

RAMON Sun ray RAMONA Sun ray or moaning

RANDALL Lewd (randy) REBECCA Reboks

RANDY Lewd REGINA A crown (royalty)

RAUL A ruler RENEE Rainy

RAY, RAYMOND A ray of sunlight RHONDA Reindeer



REGINALD A register RITA A reader

RENE Rainy ROBERTA Fishing bob or a bird

RICARDO Deck of cards ROBIN Robin (the bird)

RICHARD Piles of Money ROSE, ROSA A rose

RICK, RICKY Lime rickey ROSEMARY Virgin Mary w/a rose

ROBERTO Fishing lure bob RUBY Ruby (the gem)

RODNEY A gun (a “rod”) RUTH Rough

ROGER Walkie-talkie code SALLY A sailboat

ROLAND Rolling around SAMANTHA A salmon

RONALD, RON Running SANDRA Sand grains or beach

ROSS Rusty or a rose SARA Sarong

ROY A crown (royalty) SARAH A sarong

RUBEN Reuben sandwich SHANNON Shining

RUSSELL Rusty SHARON Sharing

RYAN Rain or cryin’ SHEILA A shield

SALVADOR Saliva SHELLY A shell

SAM, SAMUEL Adding machine SHERRY Sherry wine glass

SCOTT Man in a kilt SHIRLEY Shirley Temple

SEAN, SHAWN Cut short (shorn) SONIA The sun

SERGIO A flood (surge) STACEY STACY Stay! (dog command)

SETH A scythe STELLA A star

SHANE Shine STEPHANIE Stove

SIDNEY Kidny (rhyme) SUSAN, SUE Lawyer (law suit)

STANLEY Standing up SUZANNE Lawyer (law suit)

STEVEN,STEVE Stove / stevedore SYLVIA Silver

TED Tiny (a tad) TAMMY Tamping down

TERRANCE A terrace TANYA Tanning bed

TERRY Tears TARA A tiara

THEODORE Stevedore TERESA Teary-eyed

THOMAS, TOM Tom-tom drum TERRY, TERRI Terrycloth towel/teary

TIM, TIMOTHY A clock (time) THELMA A thimble



TODD A tot THERESA Terrycloth towel/teary

TOM, TOMMY Tom-tom drum TIFFANY A tiffany lamp

TONY Photocopier toner TINA Tiny

TRACY Tracing with pen TONYA, TONI Photocopier toner

TRAVIS Traveling TRACY Tracing with a pencil

TROY Helen of Troy VALERIE A valley

TYLER Tile ear VANESSA Moving van

TYRONE A tire iron VERA A veranda

VERNON A fern VERONICA Running

VICTOR Champion boxer VICTORIA, VICKI Champion boxer

VINCENT A vice VIOLET, VIOLA A violet (or the color)

VIRGIL Virgin Mary VIRGINIA Virgin Mary

WADE In water VIVIAN Lively (vivacious)

WALLACE Against a wall WANDA Wandering

WALTER Water WENDY Wind blowing (windy)

WARREN A warning WILMA Ma in a well

WAYNE A scale (weighin’) YOLANDA A yo-yo

WESLEY Western YVONNE Evened out, smooth

WILLARD Dollar bill in lard

WILLIAM, WILLIE Money (bill)

ZACHARY A shack

187

APPendix B Hook/Peg/Folder Words from 1 to 100

Hook, line and thinker

Your vocabulary of 100 Hook or Peg words will be used regularly in a zillion different ways. The more you use it, the more quickly it becomes a natural part of you. If you don’t yet have them coming automatically, use this list to practice it in groups. Perhaps take 1 through 20 for a day or two, then 21 through 40, and so on.

And remember, a great technique for making this your language is to use the later series for short lists. If you want to remember lists of ten products, you don’t have to start with num-ber one every time. If you go from, say, 41 to 50, your natural memory will know that it’s only ten items. Varying your starting point will assure your becoming an expert at all 100 pictures, rather than just the first ten or twenty.

Suggestions are not entered for obvious pictures.


Number Hooks From 1 To 10

No. Sound Picture Suggestions

1 T Tie Bow Tie or Long Neck Tie

2 N Noah Noah as an Old Man, or his Ark

3 M Ma Your mother or an old woman

4 R Rye Rye bread or Rye whiskey

5 L Law Judge’s bench or police badge

6 SH Shoe Cinderella’s or Dorothy’s red shoe.

7 K Cow

8 V Ivy Ivy growing up a wall or trellis.

9 B Bee Bee or beehive

10 TS ToeS Toes . . . All ten.



11 T T ToT A crying baby

12 T N TiN Beer or soda can

13 T M ToMb King Tut’s Tomb

14 T R TiRe Car tire

15 D L DolL A Raggedy Ann or any other Doll

16 D Sh DiSH A dish with or without food

17 T K TacK A thumb tack or pushpin

18 D V DoVe A gray pidgeon-like bird.

19 T B TuB Old fashioned bath tub



21 N T NeT Fishing net or butterfly net

22 N N NuN Nun in a habit

23 N M NaMe Name-plate on a desk

24 N R NeRo The emperor in a toga

25 N L NaiL

Appendix B: Hook/Peg/Folder Words From 1 To 100 189


26 N Ch NotCh Carve a notch in the association

27 N K NecK

28 N F KniFe

29 N B kNoB Door knob (K is silent)

30 M C MiCe Notice the SOFT C sounds like S



31 M T MaT Door Mat

32 M N MooN

33 M M MuMmy Breaks double ending-letter rule*

34 M R MoweR Lawn Mower

35 M L MaiL Mail Box

36 M Ch MatCh Wooden Match

37 M K MiKe Microphone or Micrometer

38 M V MoVie Big Theater Screen

39 M P MaP Paper Map, or on a computer

40 R S RoSe



41 R T RaT

42 R N RaiN See RAIN falling on the association

43 R M RuM Pour RUM over other object

44 R R RoweR A crew team Rowing a boat

45 R L RaiL A piece of Railroad track

46 R Ch RoaCh Yuck!

47 R K RocK

48 R F RooF Cover the roof of your house

49 R P RoPe

50 L S LaCe Note soft C for the S sound




51 L T LoT Set hooked item in a vacant LOT.

52 L N LioN

53 L M LaMb Note silent B

54 L R LuRe See hooked item as a fishing lure

55 L L LiLly

56 L Sh LaSH Eye Lash or Whip

57 L K LaKe Dunk the hooked item in a lake.

58 L V LaVa See Lava flowing over the item.

59 L P LiP

60 Ch Z CHeeSe



61 Sh T SHeeT A bed sheet

62 Sh N SHiN

63 Ch M CHuM A buddy—or a pail of fishing bait

64 Ch R CHaiR

65 Sh L SHeLl A peanut shell

66 Ch Ch ChooChoo A train

67 Sh K ShacK A Rickety old Shack

68 Sh V ShaVe The act of shaving or a razor

69 Sh P ShiP A large cruise ship

70 K S CaSe An attaché case



71 K T CoT An army cot or camp cot

72 K N CaNe A candy Cane or a walking Cane

73 K M CoMb

74 K R CaR

Appendix B: Hook/Peg/Folder Words From 1 To 100 191


75 K L CoaL

76 K Ch CouCh

77 K K CaKe (or Cookie!)

78 K V CaVe

79 K P CaPe

80 F S FaCe



81 F T FaT Make your object very fat

82 F N FaN

83 F M FoaM Shaving cream Foam or any

84 F R FiRe

85 V L VeiL Bride’s Veil (or a nail File)

86 F Sh FiSH

87 F G FiG Note “hard” G (fig, NOT fidge)

88 F F FiFe

89 F B FoB A key ring attachment

90 B S BuS



91 B T BaT Baseball Bat

92 B N BuN Hamburger Bun

93 B M BuM Bum or, if you’re British, Bum J

94 B R BeaR

95 B L BeLl

96 B Sh BuSH The vegetation or the president

97 B K BooK

98 P F PuFf Hooked item in a puff of smoke

99 P P PiPe Smoking Pipe or plumbing pipe

100 Th S S TheSiS A large manuscript

193

APPendix C Loci Blanks

Take a walk . . .

Use the blank Loci forms on the following pages to record sev-eral Loci Memory Palaces. Practice with each. You can use this technique to build a virtually limitless number of places to store material for later recall.

As suggested earlier, by combining vocabularies, you will never be at a loss for storage areas. Like everything else, this becomes better and better as you use it.


LOCI BLANKS for ___________________________________:

No. LOCUS (Location) HOOK12345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031323334353637383940

Appendix C: Loci Blanks 195

LOCI BLANKS for ___________________________________:



LOCI BLANKS for ___________________________________:


Appendix C: Loci Blanks 197

LOCI BLANKS for ___________________________________:



LOCI BLANKS for ___________________________________:


199

APPendix d Probability: the Birthday Paradox

Brain stimulating and fun to know . . .

In that Mathematics of Probability Course at City College of New York that I mentioned earlier, the instructor opened our eyes with a standard problem: The Birthday Paradox. “In a classroom of 30 students, what is the likelihood that two stu-dents will have the same birthday?”

The common, and very incorrect, answer is usually “about 1 in 12.” The thinking (or non-thinking in this case) re-phrases the question as something like, “If my birthday is January 1, and there are 30 students, each having one of 365 or 366 birthdays, the math would be 365 divided by 30.” Buzz! “You’re wrong and you’re off the show. Tell him what he’s taking home, Johnny.”

The correct way to think about it is to ask, “What is the likelihood that no two people have January 1 as their common birthday AND no two people have January 2 as their birthday AND no to people have January 3 . . . .”

The math requires the determination of the probability that none of the 365 possible dates (not counting leap years) would be “hit” by two of 30 possibilities. That is stated as the product of 365 x 364 x 363 etc. down to 336 all divided by the product of 365 x 365 x 365 . . . (carried out thirty times). Then, that answer is subtracted from 1 (the theoretical 100% probability).


The bottom line is approximately 0.7 or 70% probability that it WILL happen. (A full explanation can be found at Wikipedia’s “Birthday Problem” page.)

Applying the same math to determine the chances that twenty pairs of two-digit numbers will produce at least one duplication, the math looks like this:

100x99x98x97x96x95x94x93x92x91 Divided by

100x100x100x100x100x100x100x100x100x100

= 0.628157

1 minus 0.628157= 0.371843

In other words, it will happen about 37% of the time.Now aren’t you glad you asked?I believe that spending time with problems like this is cross-

training for your newly bulked up brain muscles.

201

APPendix e Lists of Stuff

For practice. For fun. Just for showin’ off.

Here’s a group of lists that you’ll probably never need, but may have fun with. In some, I give you ideas for pictures of the first few, then blank spaces to work out the rest. As always, nothing is right or wrong. You simply want to make and see memorable shocking pictures.

If any of these are of interest for keeping long-term, just repeat viewing the pictures every few days for a week or so. Then, as time goes by, every so often, try it again.

Whenever you see a list—or reference to a list—add it to your accumulated practice lists. Of course your employment or educa-tional specialty will also provide source lists of material.

203

APPendix e-1 More Pi, Anyone?

As mentioned, Pi goes on forever without resolving its decimal numbers. If you spent some time with Chapter 34 you already have the first fifty decimal places committed to memory. Here, if you want some practice material, are the first thousand places after the decimal point. (Fifty digits to a line.) Remember, there will be a test in the morning. J

1415926535897932384626433-83279502884197169399375105820974944592307816406286-20899862803482534211706798214808651328230664709384-46095505822317253594081284811174502841027019385211-05559644622948954930381964428810975665933446128475-64823378678316527120190914564856692346034861045432-66482133936072602491412737245870066063155881748815-20920962829254091715364367892590360011330530548820-46652138414695194151160943305727036575959195309218-61173819326117931051185480744623799627495673518857-52724891227938183011949129833673362440656643086021-39494639522473719070217986094370277053921717629317-67523846748184676694051320005681271452635608277857-71342757789609173637178721468440901224953430146549-58537105079227968925892354201995611212902196086403-44181598136297747713099605187072113499999983729780-49951059731732816096318595024459455346908302642522-30825334468503526193118817101000313783875288658753-32083814206171776691473035982534904287554687311595-62863882353787593751957781857780532171226806613001-9278766111959092164201989

Whew!


The late brilliant American Physicist Richard Feynman once said, with a smile, that he would liked to have memorized Pi to its 762nd decimal, where the digit 9 is repeated six times. It has become known as the Feynman Point. As best I can determine, he never did it. I confess that I’ve never tried, but I do remember that the Feynman Point is a German repeating No! six times (six “nine’s”) to a Fine Cajun. (Feynman Point begins at decimal place 762 CayJuN.)

205

APPendix e-2 Population and Order of U.S. States

The most recent full U.S. Census as of this writing (the next is in the year 2020) provides a list of 50 states (plus the District of Columbia). I picture them as their professional or college sports teams where possible. I give you the first ten. You do the rest.

2010 POP 5 Million Peg# tEAM

1 CA 37,253,956 37.3 Tie Dodgers Meek Ma

2 TX 25,145,561 25.1 Noah Rangers Nailed

3 NY 19,378,102 19.4 Ma Yankees Taper

4 FL 18,801,310 18.8 Rye Marlins Dive off

5 IL 12,830,632 12.8 Law Be ars Iden’ify

6 PA 12,702,379 12.7 Shoe Steelers Tank

7 OH 11,536,504 11.5 Cow Buckeye Detail

8 MI 9,883,640 9.9 Ivy Car Mfg pup

9 GA 9,687,653 9.7 Bee Bulldog Peek

10 NC 9,535,483 9.5 Toes TarHeels Bowl

11 NJ 8,791,894 8.8

12 VA 8,001,024 8.0

13 WA 6,724,540 6.7

14 MA 6,547,629 6.5

15 IN 6,483,802 6.5

16 AZ 6,392,017 6.4

17 TN 6,346,105 6.3

18 MO 5,988,927 6.0

19 MD 5,773,552 5.8


2010 POP 5 Million Peg# tEAM

20 WI 5,686,986 5.7

21 MN 5,303,925 5.3

22 CO 5,029,196 5.0

23 AL 4,779,736 4.8

24 SC 4,625,364 4.6

25 LA 4,533,372 4.5

26 KY 4,339,367 4.3

27 OR 3,831,074 3.8

28 OK 3,751,351 3.8

29 CT 3,574,097 3.6

30 IA 3,046,355 3.0

31 MS 2,967,297 3.0

32 AR 2,915,918 2.9

33 KS 2,853,118 2.9

34 UT 2,763,885 2.8

35 NV 2,700,551 2.7

36 NM 2,059,179 2.1

37 WV 1,852,994 1.9

38 NE 1,826,341 1.8

39 ID 1,567,582 1.6

40 HA 1,360,301 1.4

41 ME 1,328,361 1.3

42 NH 1,316,470 1.3

43 RI 1,052,567 1.1

44 MT 989,415 1.0

45 DE 897,934 0.9

46 SD 814,180 0.8

47 AK 710,231 0.7

48 ND 672,591 0.7

49 VT 625,741 0.6

50 DC 601,723 0.6

51 WY 563,626 0.6

US 308,745,538 308.7

Yes, the total U.S. population is a massive, girl(’s) lymph. (MaSsiVe GiRL’s LyMF–308 745 538) Be sure to decide: Is it the lymph of a massive girl, or is it a girl with a massive lymph. You must know which in order to picture it!

207

APPendix e-3 the Key to the City

New York, that is

Even if you’ll never be in New York City, this is a good system for practice sessions. If you’re a resident or regular commuter to Manhattan, the Big Apple, it’s very useful. If you’re an occasional visitor it makes for great showing off.

Most people who aren’t familiar with New York don’t know how nicely planned a grid it has. The major areas, where folks live, work and visit has been numbered so systematically that a simple formula will tell you the cross street for every building number on any of the streets or avenues (the longer roadways that travel Manhattan’s North-South length).

For numbered streets, which go East-West, the system needs no real memory skills. Fabled North-South Fifth Avenue divides the city’s East and West halves. Streets are numbered accordingly, starting at Fifth Avenue. Number 1 West 42nd Street and Num-ber 1 East 42nd Street are both at the corner of Fifth Avenue. Going west, number 100 West 42nd Street is at the corner of 6th Avenue (A/K/A Avenue of the Americas), number 200 is at the corner of 7th Avenue, number 300 is at the corner of 8th Avenue, and so on. Going east, number 100 East 42nd Street is at the corner of 4th Avenue (A/K/A Park Avenue), number 200 East 42nd Street is at the corner of 3rd Avenue, number 300 East


42nd Street is at the corner of 2nd Avenue, and so on. These simple rules apply to all the streets in the heart of Manhattan.

The basics of the system for Avenues are a bit more complex, but easily memorized. (Fifth Avenue, because it has many excep-tions, is tougher.) Drop the last digit of the building number. Then take that result and divide by 2. Now use the following chart to add or subtract a number to obtain the nearest cross-street.

Avenue Adjust Picture

Avenues A, B, C, & D plus 1st and 2nd Ave.

Add 3 Everything up to and including knee (2nd Ave) + Ma

3rd Avenue Add 10 Midsection + Dice

4th (Park) Avenue Add 34 Ribs + Mower

4th (Park Ave South) Add 8 Southern Style Ribs + Ivy

6th Avenue Sub 12 Chin—Dented* Tin can

7th Ave (1–1800) Add 12 Cornea + Tin can

7th Ave (above 1800) Add 20 Higher Cornea + Noose

8th Avenue Add 9 Forehead + Bee

9th Avenue Add 13 Brain + Tomb

10th Avenue Add 14 Toes + Tire

11th Avenue Add 15 Tot + Tool

Broadway-over 958 Sub 30 Broadway—Dead* Mice

Lexington Avenue Add 22 Lex + Nun

Madison Avenue Add 27 Mad + Neck

Here are the first few stories. They use Body Parts for the avenue names and Hooks for the added adjustments. For sub-tracted adjustments damage* the Hook.

• Picture your MA in the East River up to her KNEE.

• Roll some DICE on your MIDSECTION.36

• MOW the grass on your RIBS.

• Cook Southern-style RIBS; cover them with IVY.

36 Notice the replacement of TOES with DICE and NOSE with NOOSE to avoid the possible confusion of a Body Part for the adjuster

Appendix E-3: The Key to the City 209

• Balance a DENTED* CAN on your CHIN.

• Put CORNEAS in a TIN CAN ‘til they reach some DEVICES (1800), then hang them with a NOOSE.

To use an example, for 642 6th Avenue, drop the last digit (2) in the building number to come to 64. Now divide by 2 to arrive at 32. From the chart subtract 12, to determine that 642 6th Avenue is at 20th Street.

1385 Broadway? Drop the 5 to get 138. Divide by 2 to arrive at 69, and subtract 30 giving you 39th Street.

211

APPendix e-4 top ten Lists

Top-ten lists make great practice material, particularly if the subject matter is of interest to you. Here are the top-ten selling singles by the Beatles and by Elvis Presley. When doing lists at the same time, start at different spots. In this case do the Beatles’ list from 91 to 100. Your natural memory will have no problem at all knowing that it’s really 1 to 10, and the 90s part will tell you that it’s the list for the Beatles—9 for B.

Then do the same thing for the Elvis list, going from 51 to 60. The 50’s L sound will tell you it’s for ELvis.

BEAtLES ELVIS PRESLEY

Here Comes the Sun Let It Be In My Life Hey Jude Come Together Yesterday Blackbird Twist and Shout While My Guitar Gently Weeps With a Little Help From My Friends

Don`t Be Cruel/Hound DogLove Me TenderJailhouse RockAll Shook UpTeddy Bear Heartbreak Hotel A Fool Such As I Too Much A Big Hunk O`Love Don`t

213

APPendix e-5 U.S. Presidents

Let’s see, there was Washington, Adams, and my brother-in-law’s favorite,

President Rushmore.

Start with the president and his number. (Note that president Grover Cleveland is both 22 and 24 because there was a period out of office between the two terms.) Or, jump right in with num-bers and/or dates and/or home state

# Years President Home State

1 1789-1797 George Washington Virginia

2 1797-1801 John Adams Massachusetts

3 1801-1809 Thomas Jefferson Virginia

4 1809-1817 James Madison Virginia

5 1817-1825 James Monroe Virginia

6 1825-1829 John Quincy Adams Massachusetts

7 1829-1937 Andrew Jackson Tennessee

8 1837-1841 Martin Van Buren New York

9 1841 William Henry Harrison Ohio

10 1841-1845 John Tyler Virginia

11 1845-1849 James K. Polk Tennessee

12 1849-1850 Zachary Taylor Kentucky

13 1850-1853 Millard Fillmore New York

14 1853-1857 Franklin Pierce New Hampshire

15 1857-1861 James Buchanan Pennsylvania

16 1861-1865 Abraham Lincoln Illinois


# Years President Home State

17 1865-1869 Andrew Johnson Tennessee

18 1869-1877 Ulysses S. Grant Ohio

19 1877-1881 Rutherford B. Hayes Ohio

20 1881 James A. Garfield Ohio

21 1881-1885 Chester A. Arthur New York

22 1885-1889 Grover Cleveland New York

23 1889-1893 Benjamin Harrison Indiana

24 1893-1897 Grover Cleveland New York

25 1897-1901 William McKinley Ohio

26 1901-1909 Theodore Roosevelt New York

27 1909-1913 William Howard Taft Ohio

28 1913-1921 Woodrow Wilson New Jersey

29 1921-1923 Warren G. Harding Ohio

30 1923-1929 Calvin Coolidge Massachusetts

31 1929-1933 Herbert Hoover Iowa

32 1933-1945 Franklin D. Roosevelt New York

33 1945-1953 Harry S. Truman Missouri

34 1953-1961 Dwight D. Eisenhower Kansas

35 1961-1963 John F. Kennedy Massachusetts

36 1963-1969 Lyndon B. Johnson Texas

37 1969-1974 Richard Nixon California

38 1974-1977 Gerald Ford Michigan

39 1977-1981 Jimmy Carter Georgia

40 1981-1989 Ronald Reagan California

41 1989-1993 George H. W. Bush Texas

42 1993-2001 Bill Clinton Arkansas

43 2001-2009 George W. Bush Texas

44 2009- Barack Obama Illinois

“Home state” is the state of residence at time of election to the presidency. Some were born in other states, such as President Bush, the Younger, who was born and raised in Massachusetts, but is associated with Texas, and President Obama, who was born in Hawaii, but is associated with Illinois.

If you want to incorporate the year of election, remember that it is the year before the first year served (if a normal election, and not an assumption of office).

215

APPendix e-6 20th and 21st Century Key Numbers

1900 0 1925 3 1950 6 1975 2

1901 1 1926 4 1951 0 1976 4

1902 2 1927 5 1952 2 1977 5

1903 3 1928 0 1953 3 1978 6

1904 5 1929 1 1954 4 1979 0

1905 6 1930 2 1955 5 1980 2

1906 0 1931 3 1956 0 1981 3

1907 1 1932 5 1957 1 1982 4

1908 3 1933 6 1958 2 1983 5

1909 4 1934 0 1959 3 1984 0

1910 5 1935 1 1960 5 1985 1

1911 6 1936 3 1961 6 1986 2

1912 1 1937 4 1962 0 1987 3

1913 2 1938 5 1963 1 1988 5

1914 3 1939 6 1964 3 1989 6

1915 4 1940 1 1965 4 1990 0

1916 6 1941 2 1966 5 1991 1

1917 0 1942 3 1967 6 1992 3

1918 1 1943 4 1968 1 1993 4

1919 2 1944 6 1969 2 1994 5

1920 4 1945 0 1970 3 1995 6


1921 5 1946 1 1971 4 1996 1

1922 6 1947 2 1972 6 1997 2

1923 0 1948 4 1973 0 1998 3

1924 2 1949 5 1974 1 1999 4

21st century simply subtracts 1 from each cell . . .

2000 6 2025 2 2050 5 2075 1

2001 0 2026 3 2051 6 2076 3

2002 1 2027 4 2052 1 2077 4

2003 2 2028 6 2053 2 2078 5

2004 4 2029 0 2054 3 2079 6

2005 5 2030 1 2055 4 2080 1

2006 6 2031 2 2056 6 2081 2

2007 0 2032 4 2057 0 2082 3

2008 2 2033 5 2058 1 2083 4

2009 3 2034 6 2059 2 2084 6

2010 4 2035 0 2060 4 2085 0

2011 5 2036 2 2061 5 2086 1

2012 0 2037 3 2062 6 2087 2

2013 1 2038 4 2063 0 2088 4

2014 2 2039 5 2064 2 2089 5

2015 3 2040 0 2065 3 2090 6

2016 5 2041 1 2066 4 2091 0

2017 6 2042 2 2067 5 2092 2

2018 0 2043 3 2068 0 2093 3

2019 1 2044 5 2069 1 2094 4

2020 3 2045 6 2070 2 2095 5

2021 4 2046 0 2071 3 2096 0

2022 5 2047 1 2072 5 2097 1

2023 6 2048 3 2073 6 2098 2

2024 1 2049 4 2074 0 2099 3

217

APPendix F Resource

Keep this going!

Keep your new skills fresh by visiting the Memory Shock website,

www.memoryShock.com

• Random Number Generator

• 7-Century Calendar

• Practice Lists

• Helpful Hints

• Free Newsletter Sign-Up

• Contact Information

• Barry’s Speaking and Teaching Schedule

Documents

What they are saying about...What they are saying about “Secrets, Tips and Tricks of a Powerful Memory” With both wit and wisdom, Barry Reitman’s “Secrets, Tips, and Tricks