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A MEMORY FOR ALL SEASONINGS
Stephen Singular
Memory is one of the most important functions of the mind. Without our memories, we would have no identity, no individuality. The following article is about a mnemonist, a person with an extraordinary power of remembering. The title includes a pun, a form of humor based on a play on words. The usual phrase to describe something constant and dependable is "for all seasons"; here the phrase is changed to "for all seasonings." (Seasonings is another word for spices, such as salt, pepper, and curry.) What hint does this give you about the mnemonist? (Early in the article you will find out.)
One evening two years ago, Peter Poison, a member of the psychology department at the University of Colorado, took his son and daughter to dinner at Bananas, a fashionable restaurant in Boulder. When the waiter took their orders, Poison noticed that the young man didn 't write anything down. He just listened, made small talk, told them that his name was John Conrad, and left. Poison didn 't think this was exceptional: There were, after all, only three of them at the table. Yet he found himself watching Conrad closely when he returned to take the orders at a nearby table of eight. Again the waiter listened, chatted, and wrote nothing down. When he brought Poison and his children their dinners, the professor couldn 't resist introducing himself and telling Conrad that he 'd been observing him.
The young man was pleased. He wanted customers to notice that, unlike other waiters, he didn 't use a pen and paper. Sometimes, when they did notice, they left him quite a large tip. He had once handled a table of nineteen complete dinner orders without a single error. At Bananas, a party of nineteen (a bill of roughly $200) would normally leave the waiter a $35 tip. They had left Conrad $85.
Poison was impressed enough to ask the waiter whether he would like to come to the university 's psychology lab and let them run some tests on him.
Stephen Singular
Memory is one of the most important functions of the mind. Without our memories, we would have no identity, no individuality. The following article is about a mnemonist, a person with an extraordinary power of remembering. The title includes a pun, a form of humor based on a play on words. The usual phrase to describe something constant and dependable is "for all seasons"; here the phrase is changed to "for all seasonings." (Seasonings is another word for spices, such as salt, pepper, and curry.) What hint does this give you about the mnemonist? (Early in the article you will find out.)
One evening two years ago, Peter Poison, a member of the psychology department at the University of Colorado, took his son and daughter to dinner at Bananas, a fashionable restaurant in Boulder. When the waiter took their orders, Poison noticed that the young man didn 't write anything down. He just listened, made small talk, told them that his name was John Conrad, and left. Poison didn 't think this was exceptional: There were, after all, only three of them at the table. Yet he found himself watching Conrad closely when he returned to take the orders at a nearby table of eight. Again the waiter listened, chatted, and wrote nothing down. When he brought Poison and his children their dinners, the professor couldn 't resist introducing himself and telling Conrad that he 'd been observing him.
The young man was pleased. He wanted customers to notice that, unlike other waiters, he didn 't use a pen and paper. Sometimes, when they did notice, they left him quite a large tip. He had once handled a table of nineteen complete dinner orders without a single error. At Bananas, a party of nineteen (a bill of roughly $200) would normally leave the waiter a $35 tip. They had left Conrad $85.
Poison was impressed enough to ask the waiter whether he would like to come to the university 's psychology lab and let them run some tests on him.