Hot topic

Events of July 25 -

1975 Friday - A Chorus Line premiers on Broadway. It runs for 6137 performances.
1985 Thursday - A spokeswoman for Rock Hudson publicises that he has AIDS.
1990 Wednesday - Roseann Barr sings the National Anthem at the San Diego Padres game.

     Last week the Midwest had one of the biggest heat waves ever. The east coast experienced it the past few days. In my area, Atlantic City had it's second hottest days ever on July 22 and 23. The official high was 105 degrees. Only Saturday June 28, 1969 was hotter at 106 degrees. The heat index was over 120 degrees on Friday.
     Almost everything that I know is connected to a date. Not only do I remember the date of the information but I remember the dates I learned it. For example, recently somebody asked me when was the last Beatles concert. I said Monday August 29,1966. Then they asked me did I know about it then because I was only six years old. I did not know about it as a six year old but then I proceeded to tell them the date I learned it. On Friday October 6, 1978 I bought a book entitled The Beatles Forever by Nicholas Schaffner at my college store at La Salle College. The book contained the information in it about the last concert.
     You may be thinking, well that's how you remember information, but what about someone who knows nothing about dates. Everyone has something, and when you think about it, many topics that they know something about. The idea is to connect information about something you do not know with information you know.
      Ask yourself this question. What am I interested in. It could be a hobby, something with your career. Maybe you know a lot about prime time television, old movies, sports, housecleaning, webkins ( yes even children can become an expert on something as I did). Once you recognise what you know about you have a tapestry of knowledge which you can connect anything to. The remainder of these blogs will be about using what you know to learn what you do not know.
      When I learn new things I find that I am constantly making associations between seemingly unrelated topics. For example, with the Atlantic City heat records I noticed that the record of 106 degrees on June 28, 1969 was a few weeks before Apollo 11, the first moon landing. Now the second hottest on July 22 and 23 2011 was a few days after the final space shuttle flight. I have now connected two seemingly unrelated topics and used then as a aid to remember each one. You can learn this too, and get good at it.