Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site gloria.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxl!ihnp4!zehntel!hplabs!hao!seismo!rochester!rocksvax!rocksanne!sunybcs!gloria!colonel
From: colonel@gloria.UUCP (George Sicherman)
Newsgroups: net.chess,net.games.trivia,net.med,net.nlang
Subject: the Pillsbury list
Message-ID: <488@gloria.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 17-Aug-84 11:37:33 EDT
Article-I.D.: gloria.488
Posted: Fri Aug 17 11:37:33 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 30-Aug-84 06:42:27 EDT
Organization: SUNY/Buffalo Computer Science
Lines: 29

[Emiyel uge, Veriyer ende]

Here is Chernev and Reinfeld's account of an incident well known to
chess players (_The Fireside Book of Chess_, Simon and Schuster,
1949):

	Dr. Threlkeld-Edwards of Bethlehem and Prof Merriman of Lehigh
	University once tested [grandmaster H. N.] Pillsbury's memory
	for things other than chess, by giving him this list of words
	to memorize:
	  Antiphlogistine, periosteum, takadiastase, plasmon, ambrosia,
	Threlkeld, streptococcus, staphylococcus, micrococcus, plas-
	modium, Mississippi, Freiheit, Philadelphia, Cincinnati,
	athletics, no war, Etchenberg, American, Russian, philosophy,
	Piet Potgelter's Rost, Salamagundi, Oomisillecootsi, Bang-
	mamvate, Schlechter's Nek, Manzinyama, theosophy, catechism,
	Madjesoomalops.
	  Pillsbury looked at the list for a few minutes, repeated the
	words in the order given, and then backwards!

This incident has been retold many times, yet I have never seen an
explanation of the words and phrases in the list!  Some are medical,
some historical, and some philosophical.  How many can YOU identify?

I will post a summary.  This in an open question - I do not have all
the answers!
-- 
Col. G. L. Sicherman
...seismo!rochester!rocksanne!rocksvax!sunybcs!gloria!colonel