That old devil memory…

“Why do we instantly remember the smell of school hallways and classrooms if we happen to revisit them again twenty years later? Why do our brains retain these silly details; what use are they? Why don’t we get to choose what memories we keep alive — smells, sights, sounds… and not our shadowy, inscrutable minds which often work in such mysterious, sometimes frustrating ways? We remember the face of our third grade teacher but not the face or name of the first person we kissed. Why?”

That old...