Does this happen to you?

You’re discussing a TV show with your wife and she asks, “What was the name of the guy who played the detective?”  You are now in big trouble because you remember his face, the part he played but damned if you could remember his name.  You know that at some time in the future it will come to you, but when?  Might be five minutes, five hours, tomorrow or a few weeks from now.  To shorten the time you start straining to remember, then you play the alphabet game starting with A to see if by magic his name pops into your mind. A similar problem occurs when during a conversation you are trying to use a word that just will not come to mind.   How many of you have gone through that?  I know I have.  I can remember occasions where, as a result of one of my wonderful wife’s questions, spent a great deal of time coming up with the name she asked about.  You finally stop the mental search (giving up that is) and put it out of your mind, then days later the name pops into your mind.  Why?  Has your hard drive been silently searching and searching to come up with that answer.  Don’t know, but it always makes me marvel at what a strange and fabulous thing the human brain is.

Sorry, I’m straying from the reason I started this blog.  Did you know that there is a name for these strange lapses of memory?  It’s called Lethologica and is a psychological disorder wherein an individual temporarily forgets things like key words, phrases, or names in conversation.