Forums IMPORTANT: PLEASE READ PhotoReading, Memory Optimizer 50 states

started playing with learning the states by heart. I learned them when I was in fourth grade, of course... but when I make a list to kill time I will often as not come one or two short and for the life of me cannot figure out which one I left out.

So, I decided to try linking the states to the anchorman list. Some letters will have several states, others, none. I'm playing with making an elaborate, kind of wild, sceene which indicates how many states I have on that letter.

So for example on "A" I have the Anchorman wearing a US Flag shirt, sitting in a tree (Arizona) that my father is working on, being attacked by a bear (Alaska), while someone is trying to saw (Arkansas) the tree down and BamBam (Alabama) from the flintstones is happily bonking the Anchorman on the head from above. The cameraman is indicating 4 fingers (in the countdown before recording).

In C (which is a three ring circus for me) I have a dog on skis with a huge collar racing down a slope in one ring, the beach boys with surfboards in the next, and people throwing knives and playing with whips made of electric cables... for Colorado, California and Connecticut. I don't have a number indication, because I have one ring for each.

For "D" I have the Devil working furiously on a DELL laptop computer... Delaware.

And so on. I haven't worked through all the states yet (I do this while walking to and from work), but it is fun.

Any other ideas on how I could organise a "learn the 50 united states" list?

Yep! Here's what I did using the ideas I got from Trudeau's "Mega Memory" which is still good to own, by the way, even if you do have MO.

I made ridiculous associations so that I could link each capital to each state.

Columbus - Ohio
I had an image of Christopher Columbus landing in America and saying "Ohayo" while bowing deeply (Ohayo is Japanese for Good Morning)

Boston - Massa??? - well I can't spell it, but you know which one I mean.
This one, my dad made a rude joke about which made me laugh so much I will never forget it... I imagined two female mud wrestlers writhing about, butt naked, and one of them was doing the BOSTON crab (a wrestling move).

For Salem-Oregon I used a link bewteen the SALEM brand of cigarettes, and as someone gets one out to smoke, it maked a hell of a smokey cloud because they are filled with OREGANo, and not tobacco.

You can imagine a Lake full of tar UH! TAR! for Salt Lake City.

Augusta-Maine both sound like the months of August and May, so they get grouped together.

By the same token, Annapolis and Maryland both have a girl's name at the beginning ANNA and MARY so they get paired off.

Well, you get the idea. It worked for me, and I'm not even American - I just thought I'd learn them for the pop quizzes!

[This message has been edited by Sandy Millies (edited October 13, 2003).]

You are right, the more outrageous, or funny, or corny or explicit, the more likely we are to remember!

Keep in mind, that while we appreciate your examples, kids may also read these posts with their parents. If you need to apologize for being vulgar, then your post may not be completely appropriate, even for other adults. You can share your examples without being specific, especially if you think your comment might offend, or make someone uncomfortable.

Thank you for your cooperation!

My apologies. I certanly didn't want to offend anyone. My example was not given for the sake of gratuitous vulgarity, I gave it just for information, but point taken, all the same.