Why ‘Memory Token’

NYC Subway Tokens

Originally uploaded by photoshoparama

Originally I was going to call this blog If I Had Alzheimer’s.

Then I read a post on Daily Blog Tips called The 7 Characteristics of Good Domain Names that recommended choosing a domain name that is short and easy to remember and spell.

I thought: If I have to think at my keyboard to type “ifihadalzheimers.com,” no one else is going to bother.

So I began thinking of potential two-word domain names that had to do with memory — because this blog plans to look at different aspects of memory (more on that later).

I had an MTA pass tacked on my bulletin board from my last trip to New York, and I thought back to the years I lived there (1988-1992), when New York was about the only city that didn’t offer a pass of some sort. You had to buy tokens, which cost between $1 and $1.25 during those years.

Because I took the bus constantly (no easy way to get from West 82nd Street to East 55th Street at 11 pm), I often bought tokens 10 or more at a time, and they jangled in my pocket if I was wearing shorts. They were known as Bullseye tokens, brass with a steel center.

I loved those things and can’t believe that I didn’t save one. I guess I didn’t think New York would start offering passes like everywhere else (or truly I didn’t think about it at all). But “Memory Token” came of it, and amazingly, the domain was available.

And here we are…