My entry has nothing to do with the title, but I recently read a history paper with this title and I went into hysterics. It’s too bad my blog can’t readily change its title the way I change its headers. There are so many fun titles. “Forbidden Yeats” and “Yellow Gumdrops Please” come to mind.
Recently a patient thought me very clever, for I can recite all the Presidents of the United States. I don’t think this is a barometer of brilliance (although it may reflect my good University of Michigan education!). It is more likely a demonstration of my panache for lists.
In my house, I am List-master, for I am constantly putting things in list form to combat chaos in dark satanic mills of the mind. Some people (when bored) pull out their smart phones and play games. I read my lists.
Here’s a game – “Can you stump Spo?”
Which of these can you do? I list them from easy to hard.
The 3 Fates
The 5 Marx Brothers
The 7 dwarfs
The 8 levels of scientific classification
The 10 Commandments
The 12 cranial nerves
The 13 Canadian provinces*
The 39 plays of Shakespeare
The 44 Presidents
The 50 states
The 50 capitols
The Kings and Queens of England (William I to Elizabeth II)
If you can do them all, you win a Spo-prize, individually determined to the appropriateness of the Spo-fan !
*Clever Canadians need not remind me there are 10 provinces and 3 territories !
Spo-Reflections 
31 comments
September 21, 2012 at 8:50 PM
Raybob
I can name the Norns, but not the fates. Can’t do any of the others. I know “kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species”, but have no clue what the eighth one would be. Genera? I used to know the Greek alphabet and could write it upper and lower case. I know powers of 2 up to about 16 (computer programming thing). I do know all the human bones, bony landmarks, muscles, attachments, and their actions. I don’t know how many roads a man must walk town before you can call him a man.
September 22, 2012 at 5:51 AM
Urspo
The eighth one is “variety”.
I do not know the Greek alphabet, that would be a good list to create!
September 22, 2012 at 7:16 AM
Harper's Keeper
If think “Bony Landmarks” would be another good blog name.
September 21, 2012 at 9:48 PM
wcs
I know the song by Sting that includes the line “dark satanic mills.”
September 22, 2012 at 11:59 AM
Paul Brownsey
Who got the line from William Blake’s Jerusalem…
September 21, 2012 at 10:17 PM
zeph
Well, aren’t we just the little list-master? Whip me! …err… I didn’t say that.
Fates. Nope, forgotten them. Marx Brothers, sure, Seven dwarves, no problem, err. What scientific classification? Hmm, I can probably still do the scale of hardness, the rainbow colors, and somewhere in here I think I’ve got a mnemonic for the order of the planets.
10 commandments. Nope, maybe half a dozen of them, and anyway, they’re redundant. Nerves? Not a one. Provinces? Oh, they’ll be obsolete next year when Canada’s annexed by Argentina. Shakespeare, don’t care, Presidents, meh, States and Capitols, I knew those when I was seven but it’s been a while. Kings… and Queens… of England? Egad.
Pass!
Now count to 65,536 in powers of two, or I shall look at you cross-eyed.
September 21, 2012 at 10:33 PM
Erik Rubright
I have a sad. The only one I can do is the 7 dwarfs. Not that I’ve ever done a dwarf. I blame growing up 30 minutes from Walt Disney World for this.
September 21, 2012 at 10:36 PM
zeph
Wait! How about the resistor color values! I have the mnemonic right… err… actually, that one’s become seriously politically incorrect.
September 22, 2012 at 5:52 AM
Urspo
In medical school, we had many mnemonics and they were all dirty or doggerel. The point of a mnemonic is to remember something easily. It’s terrible that we do a better job when things are smutty.
September 21, 2012 at 11:18 PM
anne marie in philly
oh shit. dwarfs and marx brothers, no prob. commandments and provinces probably, with some thinking AND writing down as I go. same with states and capitols and presidents.
fates and cranial nerves – WTF? shakespeare and science and kings – some of them.
I’m smart, but not THAT smart! 🙂
September 21, 2012 at 11:21 PM
Raybeard
If your list starts with ‘easy’ then, to my shame, I had to look up the very first!
Next came a cropper with ‘scientific classification’, then the ‘cranial nerves’.
The thirty NINE plays of Shakespeare? All right, we all know that there are disputes over the authorship of some of them, and several are clearly collaborations, so we won’t split hairs. Otherwise, easy-peasy – but it helps having been a lifelong Bardophile.
The 44 Presidents – quite a challenge for us Brits, but I’d be disappointed if I couldn’t name over half of them. On the other hand, the monarchs of England/Great Britain I find fairly straight-forward. It used to be something all British schoolchildren knew – but rarely nowadays. Most adults in this country would be hard-pressed to name even half of them now. Any American, or ANY non-British person, who can get them all earns my very high esteem.
The Canadian ‘provinces’ – to be honest, I failed to get the full list until I kicked myself after looking in the atlas…..
……though did manage the 50 US states.
However, listing their state capitals is another matter. Some, like those of Michigan and California, linger in the brain but there’s nothing to stop the others disappearing into the fog of forgetfulness without the crutch of occasional reminders through American domestic politics.
I suppose today’s ultimate brain teasers would something like listing the actors who’ve played Bond villains or Dr Who.
September 21, 2012 at 11:43 PM
Raybeard
Btw: regarding general knowledge or, in this case, appalling LACK of it, not long ago I happened to catch a radio phone-in quiz which asked “Who was the first British Prime Minister?”. Not a single person who rang in knew the correct answer. (Robert Walpole 1721-42) But what made me shake my head in despair was that easily the most popular answer was………Mrs Thatcher!
September 22, 2012 at 5:53 AM
Urspo
Even I know Walpole. Heavens to Betsy, what do they teach children these days?
September 21, 2012 at 11:26 PM
anne marie in philly
I wanna know who wrote the book of love, and why do fools fall in love, and where are you little star, and how do I live without you?
September 22, 2012 at 3:07 AM
Buddy Bear
Just looking at your list of lists gave me a headache. As I get older, my goal is to unclutter my brain of useless (to me) information …. so I do not want to know about cranial nerves or American presidents.
But I do quite well remembering things which I care about. The Canadian provinces and territories are a given since they are all so spectacular in their own way and I`ve been to them all many times in my life. I can also list the 50 states but the capitals? Forget it!!
September 22, 2012 at 5:54 AM
Urspo
Can you list the capitals of all the provinces and territories? Can you list all the prime ministers?
September 22, 2012 at 3:17 AM
Cubby
I can’t list any. Do I get the booby prize?
September 22, 2012 at 8:24 AM
anne marie in philly
aw cum ON, cubby, I KNOW you are smarter than that! 🙂
September 22, 2012 at 4:26 AM
Blobby
I can do all but the plays of Shakespeare, the cranial nerves (even though I ran a neurosurgery dept), the canadian provinces, or the scientific classifications. But why did you leave out the 7 deadly sins? I got those down too!
September 22, 2012 at 6:22 AM
Urspo
I did not list the 7 deadly sins for I dont know them! I remember gluttony, sloth and lust, as I suffer so from all three…..
________________________________
September 22, 2012 at 5:38 AM
Jay
I can do Santa’s reindeer if you wil let me sing them.
September 22, 2012 at 5:38 AM
Jay
will
September 22, 2012 at 7:39 AM
Harper's Keeper
Fates nope;
Marx – yep (there are 6 if you count Karl);
“Dwarfs” – yes, but I think the plural of dwarf is ‘ dwarves’ Dwarfs is a verb as in; Jupiter dwarfs Mars in size
Scientific classification – nope
10 Commandments – both Protestant and Catholic versions
Cranial nerves – only the last one
13 Canadian provinces- thought I could but I was wrong – only got 11
Shakespeare – pretty sure
44 Presidents – yes, but not in order
States & Capitols – yes/yes
Kings and Queens – I think I could if you started with Henry ViI. so I guess that’s a ‘no’
September 22, 2012 at 7:42 AM
wcs
“Dwarfs is a verb…” Oh, boy, you two were meant for each other.
September 22, 2012 at 8:27 AM
anne marie in philly
braggart!
September 22, 2012 at 7:43 AM
Shawn
I’ll just keep being pretty.
Thank you!
🙂
September 22, 2012 at 8:26 AM
anne marie in philly
bwhahahahahaha! spo doesn’t have a list for that; I would probably be in first place anyway! 🙂
September 22, 2012 at 12:54 PM
Nik_TheGreek
I’m sorry I can’t. You’re giving me a headache. I can do Fates, even most of Hercules’ labors but after that I’m lost…
September 22, 2012 at 2:43 PM
Urspo
The 12 labors of Hercules is a list I should know !
Sent from nowhere in particular.
September 22, 2012 at 12:59 PM
Old Lurker
I cannot stump Spo, but here is an interesting comic with lots of mnenomics for Spo-fans everywhere: http://xkcd.com/992/
September 24, 2012 at 4:20 AM
DougT
I don’t think that variety is part of the formal scientific classification system. If you want to go beyond the traditional KPCOFGS, there are additional categories: all of the sub- and super- categories plus other oddities like Tribe. The difference between all of them and variety is that any changes or additions to the Linnean classification require publication in the formal literature. Varieties do not.