Do you find that you can start a scavenger hunt in your mind-memory, just letting one thing lead to another until you find yourself in a rabbit hole or a treasure cave? It's fun if you have the time and can let it happen. I came home from Stratford by a local bus yesterday and I wasn't feeling well enough to read or sleep so allowed my mind to go free-fall. It's amazing the associations and memories that pop up. It's almost like playing Charades with yourself, and you have to guess who's acting. It really makes me wonder why people all around me, mostly young ones, are punching away at their iPhones or iPads in order to distract themselves. What are they discovering? I am not criticizing. I admire their dexterity and the skill of their opposable thumbs, the fine-tuning of their fingers, even without sharp, adorned nails. But I wonder if Proust's essence des choses would have a chance in their crowded minds? And what happens to layers (and layers) of memory?

I remember an idea that came up in a movie I saw so long ago that it cost me only a dime to attend. A little girl in the story was given a blood transfusion by a friend of the family When she had recovered she wanted to know: "If I cut myself would Bob run out or would I?"

My analogous thought - question - is: "If you gave an ambidextrous thumb-pusher an association test, whose associations would pop up?"