Not Me Taking Presidents' Day Off

Throughout last week, I had an idea brewing about what I might write you all for today. Something about sirens half-waking me in the night, and me dreaming that I should try adding a noise reduction filter to remove the unwanted sound. It was a work in progress.

Then, this weekend came, and with it, the death of an old friend of mine. Everyone else who is grieving his loss is so far away from me. Amid an increasingly heartbreaking series of text messages between people I love but never see, who live in different time zones (both from me and from each other), my inability to do much of anything but send thoughtful words became undeniable.

In short, all I can think about is what I want to write for Cole. More specifically, what I want to write TO Cole. Simultaneously, I really don’t want to write it, because I know it will be hard and sad. Even writing this paragraph has been hard and sad.

On Sunday, my friend Daniel (hi Daniel!) asked me what I had planned for Metaforia this week, and I shared this dilemma with him (in more words, but saying less). I think my grief must’ve shown through, and perhaps, too, the way I was ignoring the grief in service of my mission to honor my friend somehow (while also trying not to make the whole thing “about me,”). Quite matter-of-factly, he observed that maybe I could just give it a little more time.

Which: duh. But it honestly hadn’t occurred to me that I am in charge of this whole publication, and can decide to call time out. What’s more, it’s a holiday (of sorts). So I am going to give it a little more time. I’m going to give myself some time to grieve before I attempt to put that grief to work.

But I do want to send you something so,

[Prepare for impending tonal whiplash…]

Since it’s President’s Day, here’s a brief presidential trivia anecdote, one that I think Cole would get a kick out of:

My first year — hell, probably my first month — of college, I learned that my new friend Gabe had all the U.S. Presidents memorized. At 18,  I found this patently ridiculous. Then, maybe 8 years later, I decided to give this same feat of memorization a try. I have no idea why I decided to do this, other than the mental exercise of it. This is not something that Americans are really expected to know¹, let alone by heart.

Ok, so there was one x-factor in my decision to memorize the presidents: the dawn of YouTube had brought the following Animaniacs clip (which has aged somewhat strangely) into my life:

Memorizing a list of over 40 names with very little context seemed absurd; memorizing a song seemed almost…normal? Even if it was a very strange song, from a very (delightfully) abnormal cartoon show.

This trivial knowledge has been my secret weapon at many a pub trivia night. And sometimes, just for fun (?!) I put my brain to the test and see if I’ve still got it. So far, so good.

Enjoy. And if you’re cracked like me, or maybe just want something to occupy your brain, give it a try yourself². Whatever you need.

1. tell me I’m wrong!

2. Just don’t forget to put Grover Cleveland on the list twice. And, you know, the presidents that have come since the year 2000.