In high school did you have to memorize the Gettysburg Address or Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll? Today we can rely on gadgets outside our brains, so why memorize a poem or practically anything when we can look it up at our fingertips?

But I’ve found there is one thing I do need to memorize: my grocery list. And that has become my weekly memory test.

How? I usually start by writing the list of grocery items on the back of the closest piece of paper. Then at the store, when I check my pockets, I realize I left the list on the kitchen table! And the test begins. How many of the items can I remember? I don’t usually do too bad – around a B-, although I do get an F for forgetting the list!

But I’ve learned I can improve my grade by using a memory palace. In a 2011 New York Times article adapted from Joshua Foer’s “Moonwalking With Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything,” Foerexplains “…just about anything could be imprinted upon our memories, and kept in good order, simply by constructing a building in the imagination and filling it with imagery of what needed to be recalled. This imagined edifice could then be walked through at any time in the future. Such a building would later come to be called a memory palace.”

Another tip. When creating your memory palace, use images that are bizarre, unbelievable, or even lewd, because we don’t generally remember the ordinary.

So, let’s say at your Medicare Wellness Exam, your doctor tests your memory by asking you to remember three items: potato, umbrella, piano. You don’t want the doctor to know how bad your memory really is, so you create a mental picture of Mr. Potato Head waving an open umbrella while dancing on the top of a piano in the corner of the living room. Pretty ridiculous, right? But memorable! (Next week I’ll ask if you still remember the three items.)

Creating a memory palace is one way that can help us remember things. But as we worry about our forgetfulness, Joshua Foer reminds us that “our biggest failing may be that we forget how rarely we forget.”

The Klickitat County Senior Newsletter is an informative resource for those of you living in Klickitat County. In this month’s newsletter, you’ll learn about the Volunteer Connection Program seeking volunteers, (call 509-493-3068 or 509-773-3757), Veterans Service Office, the monthly Grief Group, AARP Tax-Aide, utility senior discounts, and more. You can view the newsletter online by searching for Klickitat County Senior Newsletter. To be added to their mailing list call 509-493-3068 or 1-800-447-7858.

Brain Tease: A man is asked what his daughters look like. He answers, “They are all blondes but two, all brunettes but two, and all redheads but two.” How many daughters did he have?

The name of the innovative and supportive bed that was invented in the late 1960s and was a rage in the 70s and 80s was a waterbed. I received correct answers from Diana Weston, Doug Nelson, Melissa Hayes, Dave Lutgens, Marlene and Keith Clymer, Jeannie Pesicka, Rhonda Spies, Rose Schulz, Mary Pierce – who I missed last week, and this week’s winner of a quilt raffle ticket Bruce Johnson who shared his story of his cat thinking the new waterbed was a scratching pad. It did not end well, but the cat won!

With all the talk about the advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and how it will save or destroy civilization, it reminds me of the 1968 science fiction film 2001: A Space Odyssey which follows the voyage by astronauts and scientists on a spacecraft whose operations are controlled by a 9000 supercomputer with a human personality. For this week’s “Remember When” question, what was the name of this supercomputer? Email your answer to mcseniorcenter@gmail.com, call 541-296-4788, or send it with a recording of Richard Strauss’s Also sprach Zarathustra.

Well, it’s been another week, trying to pay attention to what I’m doing and not to what I’m not. Until we meet again, just because you’re slower doesn’t mean you shouldn’t enter the race.

“Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion. I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do afterward.” Kurt Vonnegut

Nutritious home-delivered and in-person meals are available at noon Monday through

Friday unless otherwise noted.

Seniors of Mosier Valley (541-980-1157) – Mondays and Wednesdays; Hood River

Valley Adult Center (541-386-2060); Sherman County Senior and Community Center

(541-565-3191); The Dalles Meals-on-Wheels (541-298-8333)

For meal sites in Washington, call Klickitat County Senior Services – Goldendale office

(509-773-3757) or the White Salmon office (509-493-3068); Skamania County Senior

Services (509-427-3990).

Answer: He has 3 daughters. One blonde, one brunette, and one redhead.