Interesting, the odd things that stay in our auditory memories. Snippets of TV and radio commercials, the way a colleague said a particular word, the sound of a wedding ring clicking against a stainless steel sink when your grandmother or mother shook water off her hands after washing dishes. I think I probably remember a little more than average, since I’m more auditory than I am visual, but everyone has some sounds they remember. I once had a discussion with B. about that. If P., for instance, liked a particular song, he just likes it. Not me. For me, it has to be the same version of the song, exactly as I remember it. A live version or even a different studio version just won’t cut it because it’s not the same as I remember. Hell, I can even remember exactly where Andy Kim’s “Rock Me Gently” used to skip on the K-tel record we had when I was a kid. I have a digital copy, which doesn’t skip, of course, but my brain still listens for the skip in that spot.

Put it in a song, and I can remember fairly long strings of random numbers. If you asked me to write the number from The IT Crowd episode where they changed the number for Emergency Services, I couldn’t do it unless I sang it first: 0118999881999119725…3. (Hee–I love you, Moss!) I was telling B. that I can still remember a commercial for PEI tourism from the 70s that featured Stompin’ Tom Connors, singing the toll-free number. He said he can remember one for Radio Malmöhus from ten years ago (and AFAIK, he did–the number was 040-73910). Although I hadn’t heard “eight-double-zero, five-six-five, seven-four-two-one” for probably thirty years, it was still stuck in my mind, and I remembered every word of the commercial jingle. Out of curiousity, I did a quick search to see whether the number was still valid. If it is (dunno, got distracted), it’s not the number for PEI tourism anymore, but someone dug up the old commercial and they have 30-second and 60-second versions available for download. Also, if you go to www.8005657421.com, you’ll be redirected to the PEI tourism web site; it would seem I’m not the only one who remembers Stompin’ Tom. I remember both the short and long versions of the commercial, but the long version was the one I heard most often.

It’s odd…how memory works. I’m still looking for the “right” Zoodles commercial, and the Cadbury Caramilk one where the two guys are trying to buy the Caramilk secret from the devil.

“My people are prepared to pay…fifty million!”
“Not enough!”
“Seventy-five million, for the Caramilk secret.”
“Not enough!”
“A hundred million, tops!”
“Sorry!”
“I’m willing to pay…anything.”
“Anything…thing…ing?”

Heh…and if you’ve ever eaten an elephant, chewed on a kanga-roodle, or bitten a buffalo, then you must’ve been eating Zoodles. Zoodles…that’s “oodles with a zed!” 🙂

OMG! Astar is on YouTube. This absolutely fascinated me when I first saw it and I totally wanted my own robot. Still do. 😉