I was listening to Vishy Anand being interviewed and discussing many of his chess matches. No matter what was brought up, he remembered the game, move for move, and why he made the moves he did, even decades ago. I heard Nate Silver do the same thing on his hands in the recent World Series of Poker. I have heard baseball pitchers remember any at-bat in their career, and heard Bill Belichick answer a question about a game thirty years ago by describing every play in the drive in question, including how much time was on the clock throughout. CS Lewis could have a line read aloud to him from any book picked at random from his library and not only identify the book, but continue on from that point as long as one cared to listen.
There is no topic I can do this with.
Once in Atlanta, a friend of mine met a lieutenant in a deploying military force who was there with his unit celebrating before heading back to Iraq. They both remembered a game played by -- I think -- the Yankees and the Red Sox, and they went over it play by play for as long as I could stand to listen. They remembered every detail, and each play in order, and replayed the game together through conversation with great and obvious pleasure.
ReplyDeleteI went to drink with the rest of the soldiers.