Memoratorium

Me: What's that game called again? The one that you played as a kid with the farm animals and the cards, and you match them up?

Bruce: Um, Memory.

****

Earlier this week, I had that exact exchange. My ability to retain information is startling low. Like, chronic amnesia low. And as my pot intake has decreased over the past few months, it has become increasingly clear that the blaze wasn't solely to blame for the haze. In my case, it just might be a question of intelligence.

But there is hope. A recent study published on Monday in the The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (a title I would never be able to remember) describes the correlation between memory games and the increase of "fluid intelligence.

Will farm animals cards be able to undo that semester in college that I ate extacy as if it were Flinstone vitamins? Probably not. But would I be the lovably spacey, serotonin-deficient depressive had I not gone on weekend-long pill binges, thereby altering my entire identity? Definitely not.