A Mind Is A Terrible Thing

The mind is a strange thing, isn't it? Mine is, especially.

I have one of those brains that seems to retain information easily. Trouble is, none of it is the useful kind. My Grandfather was the same way. He often referred to his own mind and mine as being 'a mine of useless information'. I can remember license plates of old cars, old expired bank account numbers, phone numbers, addresses, all of them useless. I have a remarkable ability to retain facts about movies, actors, directors, who was the key grip and the best boy, musicians, defunct record labels, old TV shows that only I and two other people watched... the list goes on. And just five short minutes ago I did it again, surprising even myself this time.

I don't know if you are familiar with this thing they call Facebook. It is this 'website' made for 'social networking'. Do you know it?

Well, on the Book of Face there appear in the sidebar little suggestions of people that you might want to have as your 'friend'. 99% of the time these are useless. Occasionally they work. On my friend list, there are a few notables such as Nick Heyward, Tony Hadley, Richard Hell, and Chris Frantz. A lot of the time these friend suggestions are based on who your friends have as friends. Today a suggestion came up that I might want to be friends with Patrick Juvet. Suddenly a spark ignited in my brain, and I said, out loud, to no one in particular (the house was empty),"Patrick Juvet? Didn't he sing 'I Love America' or some shit?"

He's big in France, apparently.

In order to verify this I went to the fount of all human wisdom, Wikipedia. Sure enough, in the late '70's, Patrick Juvet, this poncey disco-era French tunesmith, had a hit in the UK with "I Love America". I was gobsmacked. How had I retained that info? I had forgotten completely about Juvet's very existence until the moment Facebook decided to suggest him as a friend. The mind is a marvellous thing, but really, Patrick sodding Juvet? I need to get a life.

How is it I can remember that? Why does my brain even assign that to memory? It's not like it's even worth remembering... trust me, if you'd heard "I Love America" you'd agree.