BE A GENIUS AT A PARTY

"Make a list of fifty words, unrelated to each other, and read them to me five seconds apart, and I will repeat them back to you, in order."

That's a challenge that most people would like to see you attempt. I can do it, and so can you.

The key is the five seconds from one word to the next. During that five seconds you make the unrelated words relate to each other, no matter how bizarre it might be to do so. Let's say someone makes up the following list:

box

submarine
pickle
song
toothpick
angel
mud
pencil
barbecue
bride
belly
horse
nightmare
boss
yellow
marijuana
telephone
motorcycle
fairy
vomit
tooth
bathtub
sliver
giant
lock
Chinese
fingernail
yoyo
map
butt
history
hello
donkey
cackle
pipe
gravel
rabbit
burn
tornado
silly
thumb
eighteen
tonsils
fun
candy
feathers
money
elephant
queen
kindergarten

As you close your eyes and listen and let your imagination go wild, these words are read to you. You remember only the first word, "box," to begin. But in your mind's eye you see a little submarine taken out of the box, a submarine shaped like a pickle, and out of it you hear a song sung by someone with a toothpick in his mouth. An angel is sitting on the toothpick, an angel covered with mud and holding a pencil, and on the pencil is a barbecue given in honor of a bride. Her belly is big, and she rides a horse, a ferocious black horse out of a nightmare that scares your boss away because he's yellow, jaundiced from bad marijuana. He dropped his telephone and a motorcycle ran over it, ridden by a fairy who spewed vomit all over the gas tank and a tooth came out in the vomit. Very messy, so the fairy got into a bathtub. The bottom of the tub was wood and the fairy got a sliver. But then a giant stepped down and crushed her flat. The giant was holding a lock, a Chinese lock that could be opened by a fingernail. The giant also played with a yoyo and the yoyo had a map on it. He tossed it forward and it hit someone's butt. It was a history professor who turned around and said hello. Then he got on a donkey and the donkey gave a cackle like a witch. The professor hit it on the head with a pipe to shut it up, which frightened the donkey into a run that kicked up gravel which hit a rabbit. The rabbit had a big burn on its side and was caught up into a tornado. A flying rabbit looked silly, but the tornado tore off your thumb, which was okay because you had eighteen more thumbs. It also tore out your tonsils, which was not fun. So to make you feel better someone gave you candy, but it turned to feathers inside your mouth. They wanted money for the candy, but an elephant trampled them, an elephant ridden by a queen who never got beyond kindergarten.

The weird visions stick in your memory and you repeat the words and surprise those around you. It's a fun thing to do at a party or while traveling, and a good mental exercise. Give it a try.




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For the complete contents of the Butter Rum Cartoon, click here.