Not a damp squid

28 Feb 2013

Last night an inaugural “memo geeks” meet-up was held.

Topics of conversation of course included memory and Anki.

Some bullet points on other areas we talked about:

“reading” an audiobook is just like reading a book. In the latter, writing is used as a way to transfer ideas from one brain to others. In the former the transfer just uses recorded audio instead. Readers of audiobooks might therefore be expected to encounter words which they can pronounce but not spell. Reminds me of my best friend at University, who was (is) very studious and well read, but had a poor attendance record at lectures. The first time Nicky pronounced “boron” as “bowron” led to a running joke that continues to this day.
related to the above. We learned that the correct name for those situations when you mis-hear the lyrics in a song is “Mondegreen”. Thanks Quentin!
related to the above. I once encountered an inverse Mondegreen. “What’s she gonna look like with a chimney on her?” is the chorus from Feel It by The Tamperer. Until I researched it just now, I assumed this was just one of my own Mondegreens. Debate rages on the Internet, but it seems likeliest that it refers to Northern Irish slang for a black eye.
related to the above. I got excited about eggcorns. I found out about eggcorns by listening to Adam & Joe: they are closely related to Mondegreens. The title of this blog post is a deliberate eggcorn. Turns out there is even a database of eggcorns. Isn’t the Internet amazing?

With thanks to Quentin and Billy for a great evening. Special thanks to Billy for taking it very well when I spilled beer onto his lap.

Here’s to the next memo geek outing. Cheers!