Memories... holding onto them

First off - Yesterday's winner of a copy of Diane Kelly's FOUR ALARM HOMICIDE is Julie Bush! Congratulations, Julie! Contact Diane via her website contact link: https://www.dianekelly.com/contact/ 

HALLIE EPHRON: Dual factor identification is a scourge. You type in your user name and password and instead of opening sesame, back comes a message that you’re about to receive a text with a security code.

Now this security code is often 6 characters long, sometimes more, and it appears on your screen (heaven help you if it’s a cell phone screen because you have to know how to switch around among your apps) for about 4 seconds. Barely long enough to scratch an itch. Definitely not long enough for me to memorize a 6-8 digit code.

But, I’ve discovered that if I say the number (out loud) when it flashes, it seeds itself in my brain long enough that I can type it into the waiting prompt.

I was pleased to see similar advice in a New York Times review (“A Neurologist’s Tips to Protect Your Memory” ) of a book (“The Complete Guide to Memory: The Science of Strengthening Your Mind,”) by neurologist Dr. Richard Restak.

Memory decline, according to Dr. Restake, is not inevitable.

The review praises the book’s abundance of tips to protect your memory. These include VISUALIZE. For instance, when you meet someone new and want to remember their name, visualize it.

I once met a doctor named Gabriel something. I can’t remember his last name but his first name pops right into my head because when I was introduced to him, I visualized him as an angel wearing a doctor’s head mirror.

I've used a similar strategy to remember a shopping list. Suppose I need to buy hamburger, toilet paper, milk, a cucumber, and raspberry soda. I imagine them in band of colors: two reds, two whites, and a green. Easier to hold that picture in my brain rather than the list itself.

Another piece of advice: Turn off your GPS. I can testify to the way relying on it to get me everywhere has clouded the maps in brain.

My favorite of his advice (I'm not making this up): read novels!

Dr. Restak claims that when people begin to have memory difficulties, they switch to reading nonfiction. Reading a novel keeps your brain agile -- you have to keep track of the characters, plot lines, and most especially with MYSTERY novels, there are the clues red herrings that often start dropping in Chapter 1 and don’t get resolved until the end.

So I hope I've given you more incentive to buy more mystery novels. What are your strategies for keeping your memory sharp and remembering those 8-digit codes?

Do you need a song to remember your social security number?

 

***LUCY SAYS: thank you for all the amazing comments about cookbooks and the Key West mysteries this week. I'm sorry I only have two to give away.

The Key West Woman's Club Cookbook 1949: Debra Ball

The Key West Woman's Club Cookbook 1988: Tina D.

Also Tbone suggested we give away runner-up prizes, your choice of any Key West mystery or UNSAFE HAVEN  to Patty Jean, Lynda, Shelia, and Debra T. Email me at raisleib at gmail dot com to claim your prize!

And now to our regularly scheduled program...

HALLIE EPHRON: I have a terrible memory for things that should be easy. I confess, I do not know birthdays other than my own. I get the last two digits of my social security number wrong unless I remember they rhyme with V8. The juice. Fortunately I'm a champ when it comes to coaxing out of Google whatever refuses to bubble up out of my brain.

But Google can't find everything.

Two years ago (could it have been that far back?) I remember waiting waiting for my number to come up on the Jumbotron outside Gillette Stadium, alerting me that it was my turn to come inside and get vaccinated. It was seniors-only time.

I'd been watching streams of shaggy (we hadn't been to the beauty salon in months) graying souls exited the stadium to return to their cars. As they arrived and searched for their cars, car horns went off all around me like poor lost souls bleating for their owners.

I remember thinking maliciously, Next time buy a yellow car.

My turn came up and, of course I forgot to write down the number of my parking row. I returned and wandered around hopelessly paging my car. My daughter who was waiting for me in the car got out, stood on tippy toe, and flagged me down. Good thing, too, since easily one out of every ten cars in the lot was a black SUV approximately like mine.

I remembered those poor wandering souls in the Gilette Stadium parking lot recently when I rented a black SUV. I knew I'd never find it if I couldn't remember the license plate, or at least part of it. And I knew that if I wrote it down, I'd probably forget where I put the paper I'd written it on.

The car's license plate was something like 8XDPMT02. Good luck remembering that! So I came up with a visual:

A row of dead deer lying on their backs withtheir crossed legs sticking up in the air.
Which made me think: EIGHT DEAD DEER.

Which got me to 8XD

 

Which was enough to find the license plate of my rented black SUV in a sea of them in a motel or mall parking lot.

Another trick I use when I wake up in the middle of the night and something pops into my head that I need to remember. I associate the thing I need to remember with an object, and then visualize that thing sitting on the bottom step of the staircase in my house.

Once it was a chicken.

Of course I can still picture the chicken (it's brown) but I have no idea what it was supposed to make me remember. But the next morning I did.

Anyone have any handy dandy tricks for remembering the name of someone you've been introduced to so you can recall it five minutes later? Or other ways that you make sure you can remember something when Google wouldn't have a clue?