President aces memory test, but little else
Person, man, woman, TV, camera …
Donald Trump has that down pat, in the right order, earning him extra points, he said. It is part of a simple test to see if one is losing brain power because of age.
A doctor giving the test reads off a list of five things and in a few minutes you are asked to read them back from memory. The president not only remembered them, but in the same order the doctor gave them, or so he said.
He quotes the doc saying “nobody does that,” proving that our president is not deteriorating because he is getting older. Getting older is not part of the test. I have yet to meet someone who isn’t.
I have taken the test. It showed that I was doing slightly better than average, unlike my wife, Janet, whose doctor said she tested “average.”
She was furious. “I have never in my life been called average by anyone about anything,” she said, which if you know her rings more true than the Liberty Bell.
The best score ever came from my friend David Singer.
He was read a five-word list, then was asked to repeat them after a few more questions 10-15 minutes later.
“Please repeat the list I gave you,” the doctor asked.
“What list?” Dave answered. “Oh my, did I forget to give you the list?”
“I don’t know what you are talking about,” Dave continued.
The doctor had to back up and do it all again, having just been outfoxed by Dave, who had made doing pranks as part of his life’s script.
Trump brings up the test when a reporter asks him anything, including such minor matters as the coronavirus, our relationship with China and whether the Russians were putting bounties on American soldiers.
But, fear not, things aren’t all bad. Trump is not the first dictator who has sicced uniformed, but unidentified, troops on his own people. Trump’s troops made illegal arrests and even tear-gassed a group that included the Portland, Ore., mayor. It is scary.
Some might argue with calling Trump a dictator, but that is what he thought he was when he took office and has acted like one with such proposals as selling Puerto Rico, or inoculating against the coronavirus with household disinfectants.
When the coronavirus came along Trump tried to dictate methods of controlling it until a bunch of governors and big-city mayors screamed that such would be unconstitutional. He backed down within 24 hours and has mostly kept hands off since, sending the medical community into chaos and the virus into a pandemic more widespread and more deadly than any of us thought possible.
He has proffered and then backed off more bad ideas than any president, ever.
He loves to set records.