Herbs and memory

Photographic memory is often confused with another bizarre???but real???perceptual phenomenon called eidetic memory, which occurs in between 2 and 15 percent of children and very rarely in adults. An eidetic image is essentially a vivid afterimage that lingers in the mind`s eye for up to a few minutes before fading away. Children with eidetic memory never have anything close to perfect recall, and they typically aren`t able to visualize anything as detailed as a body of text.

In every case except Elizabeth`s where someone has claimed to possess a photographic memory, there has always been another explanation. A group of Talm udic scholars known as the Shass Pollaks supposedly stored mental snapshots of all 5,422 pages of the Babylonian Talmud. According to a paper published in 1917 in the journal Psychological Review, psychologist George Stratton tested the Shass Pollaks by sticking a pin through various tractates of the Talmud. They responded by telling him exactly which words the pin passed through on every page. In fact, the Shass Pollaks probably didn`t possess photographic memory so much as heroic perseverance. If the average person decided he was going to dedicate his entire life to memorizing 5,422 pages of text, he`d probably also be pretty good at it. It`s an impressive feat of single-mindedness, not of memory.

Truman Capote famously claimed to have nearly absolute recall of dialogue and used his prodigious memory as an excuse never to take notes or use a tape recorder, but I suspect his memory claims were just a useful cover to invent dialogue whole cloth. Not even S, the Russian journalist and professional mnemonist who was studied for three decades by psychologist A.R. Luria, had a photographic memory. Rather, he seemed to have implicitly mastered a set of mnemonic techniques that allowed him to memorize certain kinds of information.

A flavorful bounty

Though some plants—like peppers and onions—are eaten as garden vegetables, their virtues as flavor enhancers qualify them as herbs. Valuable addition to any herb garden, the Welsh onion provides good salad makings practically year round. Two onion relatives are joined by nature in garlic chives, whose growth is encouraged by nipping the flowers. Like all chives, they are used uncooked, chopped in salads, dips, or vegetable dishes. Known as herbe royale in France, sweet basil improves almost any dish. But its affinity for the tomato and its key role in pesto sauce make it indispensable to Italian cooking.

Equally important to Mediterranean cuisine is thyme. Many relatives of the hardy lemon-scented species grow wild on the heaths of both northern and southern Europe. Staple of the "French method" of cooking—a pinch of this, a pinch of that—thyme is almost always present in a bouquet garni, a small bundled mixture of herbs simmered in stews, soups, and sauces.

Fresh is best when it comes to herbs, as their increasing presence in produce bins and natural-food restaurants attests. At the Golden Lamb Buttery in Brooklyn, Connecticut, whose owners, Bob and Virginia Booth, specialize in herb cookery, freshly harvested plants add zest to the fare. This meal includes a salad of garden rocket with dill dressing, crab meat garnished with fresh tarragon, and liberal doses of garlic. "I use more garlic in a month than most small restaurants would use in a year," says Virginia, who is also a proponent of the herb`s acclaimed healing qualities.

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