Begins here a list of memory lapses, items I reach for mentally before drawing a blank. I am not counting things I forget because I was incapacitated. (E.g., stuff I buy on Amazon when drunk or sleepwalking.) I put an asterisk after anything I actually went and Googled, or otherwise hunted around for.
Stuff I Forget
- Name of resort town near Rimini, where I was for WMA in Sept. 2007. (Riccione*)
- That 1910s recording star and performer who sang ‘Over There.’ (Nora Bayes*)
- 18th century German homosexual art historian and Italophile. (Winckelmann)
- The bibulous ‘red brick don’ with mustache in ‘Tinker Tailor.’ (Roy Bland)
Stuff I Forget: Addendum, May 23, 2017
- 5. What was the number on my last mailing address in London? 305? 503? (405)
- 6. Chicagoland guy now in Oxon at SoftPress? Richard Morgan? (Richard Logan*)
Stuff I Forget: Addendum, June 15, 2017
- 7. What was the name of David Byrne’s singing group? (Talking Heads*)
- 8. What was boychik’s real name? (Leave this blank.)
Stuff I Forget: Addendum, July 14, 2017
Now, I’ve been collecting some at random for a couple of months and not putting them in here. But these are some of the best.
- 9. The gory Gore Vidal movie with Malcolm McDowell about the Roman emperor? (Caligula)
- 10. The James Bond after George Lazenby? (Timothy Dalton*)
- 11. Swedish actor who was in The Seventh Seal and Hannah and Her Sisters? (Max von Sydow*)
- 12. The Negro-Thai golfer, big in the 90s, on skids since? (Tiger Woods)
- 13. Simone Veil, Simone Weil, Edith Stein: who is who? (Veil’s the one who just died, Weil is the crazy philosophe who worked herself to death, Stein the one who became a nun and died in a concentration camp.*)
- 14. Pop novelist and Thatcherite pol who got convicted of some obscure crime years ago? (Jeffrey Archer…couldn’t come up with his name on a day in May till I shook my brain a little.)
- 15. Name of that Scottish c&w girl singer with the 2008 hit about the black oak tree?
(KT Tunstall — Big Black Horse and the Cherry Tree, actually, and the song is older, 2004. (This is about the third time in six months I was stumped, had to look up an e-mail I sent someone.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zq8hiZPqj_U ) - 16. That quasi-3D kind of photo or illustration, like lenticular, but not lenticular? (Oh holograph. Took me a few seconds.)
Stuff I Forget: Addendum, August 19, 2017
- 17. The Alsatian bistro across the street from the Café de Flore. (Brasserie Lipp. It’s mentioned in Hemingway and a Maurice Chevalier song but I gave up after ten seconds and Googled.*)
- 18. Jewish lawyer and Harvard LS professor who was always on TV and who defended Claus von Bulow. (Alan Dershowitz. Really drew a blank on this one. You can search for, Whom did Ron Silver play in Reversal of Fortune, but that works only if you know the other pieces.*)
- 19. Word for when someone is older than one ought to be. (Superannuated.)
- 20. Who was the gourmet popcorn man? Oscar Fliegenheimer? Oscar Redenbacher? (Orville Redenbacher.)
- 21. French Jew operetta composer who did Orpheus in the Underworld? (Offenbach.)
Stuff I Forget: Addendum, December 2, 2017
- 22. Ludwig II ‘Sleeping Beauty’ castle. (Neuschwanstein.)
- 23. Nobleman with eyepatch who ran off with Marie-Louise when Napoleon went to Elba. (Neipperg*)
- 24. The dotted wire-photo process. (Halftone*)
- 25. Duchess of Cambridge, maiden name. (Kate Middleton*)
- 26. Upscale shoe chain with $800 over-the-knee boots. (Stuart Weitzman)
- 27. Name of Jewish communists who disappeared into Czecho, late 40s, while searching for a relative. (???)
Stuff I Forget: Addendum, April 2, 2018
- 28. Floyd guy caught in Crystal Cave in 1925. (Floyd Collins*)
- 29. Harvard math teacher and comedy songster. (Tom Lehrer)
- 30. What is this familiar tune:
dih-DAHH-dih-dih-dah
dih-DAHH-dih-dih-dah
dih-DAHH-dih-dih-dah
dah-DEE!
Thought maybe G&S, but no: Kander & Ebb. Had to whistle it into Vocaroo before I got it. (“Tomorrow Belongs to Me”) - 31. Who played Don Barzini in The Godfather? He was in a Rat Pack movie too. (Richard Conte)