How I did it: technically, this was never on my 43 things list. i was forced to do it in the 8th grade (1990!), but it comes in handy all the time. plus, it's my only good parlor trick. (i can still shoot them all out in under 30 seconds, even now with 4 presidents extra). my history teacher would give us roughly 5 new presidents per class, give us some backstory about each, and then drill us on that group (coupled with the groups from previous days). it was just the right balance of learning some interesting facts, and turning it all into a big classroom game.  once we had learned them all, we had a big showdown where people competed for the fastest individual times, and the fastest tag team times. simple, fun, and effective. 20 years later- i'm still able to rock it (as is my sister who learned them 2 years before me). the power of repetition!

Lessons & tips: make it into a game, and focus on how impressive you'll be once you've got it firmly ensconced in your repertoire. also, hello- JEOPARDY ("this 33rd president...)!

Resources: mr. hickey (my eighth grade history teacher). repetition. my pretty excellent memory.

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Jan 20, 2009, 08:06AM PST | 1 comment | 3 cheers