Thinkalink - Making the Forgettable Unforgettable?
Many of the more popular connections devised by Thinkalink are those that combine a series of words to form a new one. Again, the convention will be familiar to solvers of crosswords: a clue that once appeared in The Times was "That's how bus in Essen achieves this unique quality (4,8)". The answer here was 'show business', and Thinkalink exploits the same technique to guide its readers (or participants) towards the Harmattan wind, which blows across the Western Sahara: "the harm a tan from the Sahara can do is frightening!"
In Thinkalink, however, words don't need to be adjacent to have a similar effect. Here is its answer to remembering that the capital of Madagascar in Antananarivo: "My nan, she's mad. She has a gas car. I'm expecting her for lunch but I don't think she'll make it in that contraption. I'm anti-nan arriving."
Another favourite technique developed by Thinkalink is the natural association between famous individuals and certain words or expressions. "Wasn't Tommy Cooper a barrel of laughs?" is therefore a way of remembering that a cooper is a barrel-maker. "M. Ali is Mohamed Ali, who has just knocked out George Foreman: Bam! A! Ko!", meanwhile, is the link for committing the capital of Mali (Bamako) to memory.
Salmon readily accepts that a number of his links will be seen as over-contrived, which is why he has designed his website as an interactive forum which encourages others to adapt or to improve upon what is already available on the site. "I'm sure people will have their own methods of linking words, which is the idea behind the website," says the Thinkalink founder. "It is intended to function as a meeting place allowing everybody to share their ideas and tricks of the trade. I've aimed to bring tried and tested methods under one roof to educate people and give them the opportunity of having some fun at the same time. Thinkalink is a forum for 'Linkers' and 'Learners' alike.''
