A couple of weeks ago I was in Receiver Coffee to pick up the peppermint tea that I often pick up on my way to the office.

While I was waiting for the tea to be assembled, I heard personable Joel, my server, refer to one of his co-workers by name.

“Can you get that for me, Alex?”, he said. Or something to that effect.

Which is how I came to know that Alex’s name is Alex.

I thanked Joel for his service, and he repaid the thanks by casually referring to coworkers Lauren, Luke and Danielle by name.

So now I know their names too.

I immediately made a note on my phone of these names so that I would recall them in the future; names are not my strong suit, so I need all the help I can get.

With echos of Michael Scott, I made a brief notation beside each name, so that I now have memory aids like:

Lauren (that will pop right up)

and

Alex (scruffy hat band guy)

This is an echo of a conversation I had over dinner at my parents’ house with my friend Morgan and his consort back in November. The conversation at the table turned to lubricants for the social graces, and Morgan offered up the suggestion that, upon being introduced to someone, you immediately turn around and call them by name.

“Morgan, this is my father Norman,” I might say; and Morgan would return “Hello, Norman, pleased to meet you.”

Thus imprinting my father’s name in is memory.

The Morgan Strategy (or the Joel Strategy, as it were) has been a great help to me in the closing days of 2017; I’m well on my way to learning the names of all the box office staff here at The Guild (a minor miracle, as there are seemingly dozens of them).

This is a first in a series of year-end blog posts I call Things I Learned in 2017; stay tuned for more.