Thursday, September 7, 2017

Name: Whoosis

whoosis

or whosis

[hoo-zis]
noun, plural whoosises. Informal.
1. an object or person whose name is not known or cannot be recalled:
It's the whoosis next to the volume control.
2. a person or thing considered typical or illustrative:
the usual paragraph about the party given by Mme. Whoosis.
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He knew these people.  They were his coworkers.  They had been his coworkers for years.  How many years?  He forgot.  But he knew them.  He remembered many things about them, so he knew who they were.  He just could not remember their names.  He used to know them, he was sure about that.  But for some reason, he simply could not place any of the names to the faces that he knew so well.
In fact, he could not remember his own name either.  He could remember everything else, just not that.  He knew his age, his birthday, his wife’s birthday.  Everything that was worth remembering about his life, he remembered.  He even remembered a few things that were not particularly worth remembering.  But his name.  That was the one thing he could not remember no matter how hard he tried.  It was like it had been erased from his mind along with all the other names he should know.
“Tony, there you are.” The statement came from a small, round man.  He knew the man to be his boss.  Was Tony his name?  It felt familiar.
His boss went on giving him his daily assignments and praising him for a job well done the previous day.  He remembered why.  He had given a presentation that had earned the company a substantial contract deal.  The only reason the short, round man had not thrown him a party was because everyone involved had to remain professional.  Besides, there was still work to be done on the contract before it took effect.
He promised his boss to keep up the good work and that he would get all the accounts and such squared away as soon as he could.  His mind went through the conversation.  There was a name mentioned at the beginning that was presumably his.  What was it again?  Tom?  Terry?  It was a T name, he knew that much.  But the specifics escaped him.  Why was that?  It had been less than five minutes since the name was mentioned, and yet he could not for the life of him remember it.
Nobody else seemed to be having troubles with names.  They called out to him, greeting him with that name that simply would not stick in his mind.  He answered his coworker’s greetings with as much enthusiasm as he ever had.  He did not want anyone to think anything was wrong.  That would only bring unnecessary trouble.
He sat down at the desk he knew for sure to be his.  He started to do the job he had been doing for nearly a decade.  It was practically second nature to him by now.  He knew that he was not losing his memory.  He could remember his first girlfriend from high school, after all.  Well, everything but her name.  He had remembered it yesterday, just not today. 
His fingers moved over his keyboard as he thought about his recent predicament.  How could he suddenly forget everyone’s name?  It did not make any sense.  He had not done anything unusual, certainly nothing that would create a loss of such specific memories. 
He came to the conclusion that he would not find an answer while sitting at his desk.  He would start investigating as well as he could after work.  He just had to hope that he could get through the day without needing anyone’s name.

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I have some trouble remembering names.  It takes me a few days to really remember names and faces and such.  Of course, that assumes that I see the person or persons in question often enough.   
Also, this word definitely sounds like something Dr. Seuss would have come up with, doesn't it?

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