The Brain

The brain’s a strange beast. Well, it’s not technically a beast, it’s more an organ, but you know where I’m coming from. But anyway, it’s weird the sort of things it remembers. For example, I know that at any point in time 0.7% of the worlds’ population are drunk, or that if you look at your reflection in the back of a spoon you will see Pete Townsend looking back at you. (It’s true, if you don’t believe me, go fetch a spoon). However, I can’t remember the capital of Vietnam, which is probably a far more useful thing to know (in as much as that I’ve never been asked what percentage of the worlds population are drunk right now, but I have been asked what the capital of Vietnam is).

I’m assuming that it’s not just my brain that does this, and that there are millions of people out there who can name all the different species of head lice, but don’t know the name of the plane that carried the atomic bomb that destroyed Hiroshima. So therefore, there must be a market for some sort of brain training school where you can learn to forget useless facts and remember useful ones instead. As there’s a market, I’m assuming it has therefore already been done. However, I won’t be going. Personally I don’t care what the capital of Vietnam is, but I do care that donkeys sink in quicksand but mules don’t.