As the old joke goes, there are three things I have trouble remembering: names, faces and ... I forget the other one. But I certainly can have trouble with names. I often find during conversation that when I am about to refer to some acquaintance or famous figure, I suddenly find that the name has completely gone from my head, even though I may have a vivid mental image of the person. It happens to me all the time. But the weird thing is that it is selective. There are some names I can always remember, even though I would sometimes rather not, and others that I regularly have trouble with. And for some reason the phenomenon is particularly apparent in the world of music, one of my major interests. For instance, much to my embarrassment I can still invariably name all the Spice Girls but I can never remember the name of that famous eccentric Australian composer ?you know, whatshisface* ?and for years I had trouble with a world-renowned reggae star, although I now seem to have recovered from that particular failing and can usually remember that he was called Bob Marley.
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