3.24 Seminar 4; Super Memory

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24. Seminar: Memory of Numbers

Ali stands at end of table; Tommy, Boris and Olga sit to her left, Kimura at her right and Kimi at other end of table.

   “OK, Cabal! Today I volunteer to make you super memoryists. I am gonna commence by saying: A New People person never asks a question such as ‘What use is this to me?'; a New People person knows that knowledge is power. It's like readin' a booka wisdom through and through insteada skimmin' it.

   “I'm gonna show how to remembah numbah. It's based on a true fact I will demo’in the memo.” She turns to the blackboard on which is written in chalk

Christopher Columbus

74,018,475,390

   She picks up a blackboard chalk eraser and rubs out the chalk name and number, and says: “You been seein' dat name and number. Now no more. Izzere anyone here can't name the name I just erased?”

   No one says a word.  She turns to Kimi
   “Kimi, you know who?”
   “I know Ali!  Even dumb uneducated me know Christopher Columbus find USA.”

   ”America, Doll,” corrects Tommy, adding soothingly, “but basically correct.”

   Ali says, “Now, anyone! Give back the full number?”

   Silence.

   “Proves m'point. Words are more memorable than numbers. And the longer the numbah, the harder to remembah. Now listen to the sentence I will recite: 'A byoodiful, naked blonde jumps up and down.'  I’ll bet my vaginal virginity, you guys, and here I mean, guys, will remember that: because I – a B-U-T-ful blonde, if I do say so m'self, who is at this moment not naked but will happily noblesse oblige - tell it here now.”

   “Harumph!” Kimura loudly clears throat blocking the other seminarans from hearing Ali's offer to be an ecdysiast (a striptease girl).

   Ali writes on the board: “91,852,719,521,639,092,112”.

   Boris says. “A 20-digit number! Are you a cryptographer, Tovarisha?  My embassy can use that.”

   “The New People do not get involved in native nationalisms,” interrupts Tommy, but his smile signals he is not being serious.

   “Well, not to keep you guys in suspense allow me to demo’ this memo.” Ali picks up and exhibits a big white cardboard:
    1 = the d or t sound and may be visualizing as necktie, whose sound is t (“tie”) or d and whose single down stroke recalls the #1 digit.

   2 = the n sound shows 2 down strokes.
   3 = the m sound. shows 3 down strokes.

   4 = the r sound. R ends the number four.

   5 = the L sound. Hold right palm facing and spread your five fingers; the thumb and forefinger make the letter L.

   6 = sh, ch, zh, j and soft g (as in “gentle”) sounds (All variants on the one basic). The digit 6 (without loop closed) and capital J are almost mirror images.

   7 = k or hard c or hard g; and note that two 7's, one right side up, the other upside down and slightly oblique, form K.

   8 = f or v sound (includes ph) and can be remembered by seeing the 8 as a tangle of ivy.

   9 = the p or b sound: the number 9 and the letter p are almost mirror images.

   0 = z, s, or soft c and is recalled by connecting 0 and z in “zero”

Ali switches to normal English as is her habit when being scientific “What you see are ten consonant sounds for the nine digits and zero. Combining them, you may translate any number into a meaningful sound. And any word in any language, including your personal word, can be made a number.”

   “You can easily memorize each sound from the hints. With practice it can become like 1-2-3 or A-B-C. It's the sounds that count and not spellings. ‘Condition’ is 72,162, because it's ‘kondishion.’ Also vowels and consonants not assigned a number are left out in decoding a number from a word. This adds to variety to give same number. So ‘oodles’ and ‘dells’ are both 150. And, in ‘A byoodiful naked blonde …’, ‘A’ is given no number, and needs none. You easily fill in the vowel to a sounded phrase as you like.

   “Now you see why "Christopher Columbus" codes for 74,018,475,390: Ch (like K) =7, r=4, s=0, t=1, ph (like f)=8, r=4, and C=7, l=5, m=3, b=9, s=0. Long numbers can be memorized quickly and retained.

   “And like I imply, the user of this system don't even have to pronounce words correct. It's a personal system, so how you say a word is how it translates to a number.”

   Boris adds, “Very Xorosho, Mademoiselle Ali, for making secret code words or quickly memorizing safe combination lock numbers and even our names”.

   “It sho is Xorosho, Boris bo'." Ali rhymes his word for Xorosho, or "OK" in Russian and looks around. “So here are each of our names. I am 5, or if you take m'full name Alison, 502.
   “And I, 940,” says Boris, quickly getting into the game and adding with a finger at Olga “my Olenka, by the diminutive is 527 and by formal given name 57.”

   Tommy says, “I am 13, or one and three, which rhymes with me.”

   “Well, I guess my name makes me 734,” adds Kimura.

   Everyone looks at Kimi who sticks out her tongue and says in her best Americanese ala Brooklyn, “Ta hell wid youse, I refuse!”

   Harumi signals that they break for lunch. Everyone is happy to have acquired the newly learned power.
For more on the Numbers Memory System, click 1.8 Secrets of Memory/Digit Memory System and scroll to Number Memory
 
To read on next, now, click 3.(25-26) Seminar 5 - IQ