Fun & Famous
TOTALLY NO IDEA WHO YOU HAVE IN FRONT OF YOU?
These tricks will save your life
She comes laughing towards you. Spreads her arms wide, already shouting from a distance: ‘Hey, how are you?’ and you have No Idea. Or you just really don’t remember someone’s name. The most brilliant anecdote comes from Daphne Deckers who was signing her book when her neighbor suddenly stood in line too. Of course, she recognized him and greeted him warmly, but his name… That was gone for a moment. She thought it was particularly tactful to solve this by asking: ‘How do I spell your name again?’ And then came his answer: ‘J.A.N.’
My hard drive is full. Must be the age (or the drinks). Or too many people met in my life. Anyway. My hard drive is full. Luckily, I’m not the only one. Even my colleagues with crisp fresh brains (like this) complain about it. So I’m going to assume for convenience that you have that too. And because I have experience with this kind of embarrassing situations, I have a few solutions for you.
1. Find help
When someone comes towards you like that, just kiss along. Say ‘Hey, how are you?’ and throw in some other superficial questions that you can’t go wrong with. Meanwhile, you look for help in the form of someone you do know and whose name you do know. Then you introduce the Total Stranger and the one you already knew to each other. You mention the name of the one you know and say: ‘Hey, do you guys know each other? This is Bart and this is…’ And then the Total Stranger will fill it in themselves. Then it’s just a matter of listening well and never forgetting again.
2. How do I spell your name
Another intensely embarrassing situation. Saving each other’s number and you have a temporary blackout. While you’re typing in the number, you already know that the intensely sad moment is approaching when you have to type in the name. And you don’t know it. I often type in a description (mother of that cute girl with the curls). But the best solution is to do a ‘Daphne Deckers’ and ask this question: ‘How do I spell your name again?’ Tadaa. And then hope and pray that he’s not named Jan, Piet, or Herman.
3. Refer to something vague
Ask the Total Stranger how it is and then inquire (the trick is to do this as lightly as possible) if you had to email each other and then ask what that was ‘again about’. Then you have a hint and the puzzle pieces fall into place.
4. Confess
In case of really having no idea, there’s only one thing to do. Confess. Recently, a girl came up to me. The location was the swimming pool where I was looking for the changing room with a daughter (who was on the verge of a nervous breakdown) by my hand. ‘Hiii, don’t you remember me anymore?’ she asked. I was out of options because I saw no one around me to whom I could introduce her (and why would you actually in a swimming pool?). Asking how I spelled her name again would also come out of the blue, so I just said it. ‘I have no idea who you are. Sorry.’ It turned out she had given me a glass of soda at the preshopping sale of Alexander Wang for H&M. Yeah, sorry, I really had something else on my mind then. In this case, I found my total blackout completely explainable.
