camwyn | (no subject)

Did you ever see that Friends episode where Chandler introduced that as a game on Thanksgiving day, and Ross thought it was so easy until he discovered he was a couple of states short. The rest of the episode was spent with his trying to figure out which ones he missed. Joey was of course proud because he came up with 53.

I probably couldn't do it, but my son could.

How's 25 states in a minute before freezing up completely? I kept coming up with odd words.

"M is for Montana and, um, Madagascar. Oh, wait."

I know that the only state name with only one syllable is Maine! But that is as far as my useless USA knowledge goes...

Just to see how many I knew, I tried this. Got up to thirty before I blanked.

I don't think I saw that, no. I can understand Ross's position, though. Usually I get to the three minute mark and I'm short by two states; which two seems to change every time, but I have to sit there and pound my head until the last two come loose. I'm happy if I can hit all fifty in less than five minutes.

I don't know how people do it with lists. I have to mentally walk across the map of the United States, filling in names as I go, so all of my lists run north-south west-east (I start with Alaska, then Hawaii, then Washington, and so on). Just having a list of names doesn't tell me where any of the states are.

Twenty-five in a minute is better than my own performance over the first minute, so that's cool.

Hey, no knowledge is ever entirely useless. I mean, I bet that comes in handy with crossowrd puzzles.

US States I can name off the top of my head: 11
After thinking about it for a bit: 15

Counties in England I can name off the top of my head: 11
After thinking about it for a bit: 17
Counties I named with 'shire' on the end: 9

I was planning on concluding something from all this, but I can't remember what.

Heh. I'm sure it would, if I ever did crosswords! I'm too impatient.

Although it did once when we did a quiz in English on the last lesson of term before Xmas.

I just had a moment of absolute terror that I'd forgotten someone when I tried to do all the Territories and provinces. For some reason I was just sure there was one more province left... and then I counted. Nope. Ten provinces, three territories (so far), and all of them covered in the Worms' "Toronto Song". So that's okay then.

Well, you're ahead of me on that front. I don't think I ever learned the names of counties in England. Countries in South America, yeah, countries on other continents, but not internal divisions of England. I can get some of Ireland's counties, though, mostly 'cos my own family hails from Tyrone and thus the 26 + 6 division's sort of in the back of thoughts about the country. But that's it for the British Isles for me.

I can manage four from Nothern Ireland, which is pitiful seeing as I'm currently doing History coursework on it!

Have to say, this brain-wracking is far more fun than I'd though 'twould be!

Maine! I was missing that one!

I got up to 46 in 5 and a bit minutes, and I'm not American nor have I ever lived in the US.

Like everyone else, I had to try it once you mentioned it. In two minutes I got up to 28, then completely blanked.

Now I want to learn the song from Animaniacs where Yakko sings the names of all the countries. Come to think of it, they also had a song about all the states and their capitals, the presidents, and the parts of the brain.
Neo-cortex, frontal lobe, Brainstem! Brainstem! Hippocampus, neural node, right hemisphere.

At one point I used to have all the bones of the skull memorised, beginning with the occipital bones, then working forward, then down, ending with the hyoid. Haven't tried that one in a dog's age, though.

I'm guessing there's not a mnemonic, cause that would be a little too long. Pity. I do really well with those. Still got "King Phillip Came Over For Ginger Snaps" and "Oh Hell Another Hour Of Arithmetic" in my head.

I don't recognise the 'Oh Hell' one. What's that... oooh RHODIE!... for?

(Sorry. CNBC is doing a story about how pets and their related merchandise affect the American economy and they just had a Rhodesian Ridgeback on the screen.)

I always heard it as "King Phillip Cares Only For German Shepherds" myself. It's the biological taxonomy groups - Kingdom Phylum Class Order Family Genus Species.

No, no, I know that one. I've never heard 'oh hell another hour of arithmetic', though.

It's for Trig. sin = Opposite over Hypotenuse, cos = Adjacent over Hypotenuse, tan = Opposite over Adjacent. My math teacher expressed it as "soh cah toa." The "Oh Hell" version is courtesy of my mom.

Also: My Very Educated Mother Just Sat Upon Nine Pins.

The planets!

... I can do the states in 45 seconds, and have been able to do so since fifth grade. Why? There's a song. I have to sing it in my head, though.

Well, yeah. Not really surprised about that.

Fun way to torment most native speakers of the English language: ask them to recite the alphabet. No singing. No rhythm. Just recite the letters one after another. The looks on people's faces as they try to overcome the conditioning laid down by generations upon generations of teachers, family, etc. to SING THAT DAMNED SONG are priceless.

*tries it*

I can manage not to sing it, but I have to pause in the places where the song draws out notes. You know, ABCDEFG - HIJKLMNOP - QRS - TUV - WX - YZ.

42 in three minutes. I thought I'd do better.

at work, we've had a lot of changes to the filing system in the past year. i have logged many, many shifts as a temporary file clerk.

if it had gone on much longer, i'd be able to sing the song backwards.

I didn't know of the state song. And in Canada we don't exactly have one of that type. Unless you count a verse of Canada's Really Big.

I am, however, aware of Tom Lehrer's The Elements Song. One day I will know the words.

There's antimony, arsenic, aluminum, selenium....

I think that one wasn't Yakko; it was The Brain (with Pinky doing the interjection of "Brainstem! Brainstem!").

I just tried doing the states out of alphabetical order (in alphabetical order is easy, thanks to that song. I can even do it without the tune or rhythm). Took less than five minutes to get them all in a sort of geographical order.

Never did manage to memorise the Lehrer song, but that's oen of the areas where I'm willing to do without. Every chemistry lab in the world that would be willing to let me through the door will have a periodic table somewhere on the premises. Why should I have to learn all the elements off by heart? I'm not going to be allowed to set foot in a chem lab more advanced than a basic college one anyway.

On a somewhat similar note, this is an interesting way to waste a bunch of time.

I've done that one repeatedly, and I have a gripe with the early stages of it when there is no frame of refernce(like when they tell you to drop West Virginia in with nothing else around it). I still manage to make it with about 9 miles of accuracy though...but it helps that I'm a mapgeek :-)

See, I learned this STUPID song in like 2nd grade. Can rattle 'em all off in 30 seconds....

There is SO much useless crap in my brain. :D (Well, I suppose it's not totally useless, but really, why can't I ever remember if the index in my road atlas is at the fRONT or the back of the book?

Hey, if wossname... Sherlock Holmes... could yell at Watson for burdening him with the useless (to him) fact that the Earth goes around the Sun and not the other way around, you're entitled to complaints about other useless material!