Hal's eidetic memory and academic dominance (the "dictionary-page" trick)

texture · YDAU, 3 Nov

• When: Tuesday 3 Nov YDAU (2009), 1640h, E.T.A. locker room
• What: Post-drills, the upperclassmen tease Hal ("Inc," "the Incster") about his near-photographic recall: he can mentally "scan the page, rotate it, fold the corner down and clean under his nails with it," and is asked to "do a dictionary-page." He quietly out-corrects the group on the prescriptive-grammar exam and defines "acutance" cold. Documents Hal's eidetic/lexical faculty in casual practice, and his placid tolerance of the ribbing. (Nicknames catalogued here: the Halster, Halorama, Halation, the Incster.)