你的名字，我的姓氏？

Right. For the over-50 generation， who can’t remember 1）proper names， as in book and movie titles， actors， 2）acquaintances and the like， rather than 3）stumbling and 4）mumbling for a few minutes and slowing the conversation down， let us adopt a new 5）convention. When that moment of non-remembering occurs， we are now allowed to fill the 6）void with the 2-word expression， “proper name”. Or， if we get very 7）abbreviated， “P-N”. Thus， instead of boring everybody who is around by saying， “You know， he’s that actor， you know， the one who was married to what’s her name， and they were in that film with the other guy”. One simply and efficiently says “It was that actor， proper name.”Everyone knows that the actual name will 8）surface within minutes， if not seconds， so the conversation can continue to flow without embarrassment or boredom.

沒錯。對于那些年過半百而記不起諸如書名、影片名、演員的名字、熟人的名字的人來說，比起讓他們猶豫不決、喃喃自語半天來拖慢談話速度，讓我們來訂立一個新的約定。當記不起名字的時候，我們現在可以用“專有名稱”這個詞來填補這個空白。或者，我們可以簡寫為“PN”。因此，我們不用說：“你知道的，他就是那個演員，那個和誰誰誰結婚的人，他們又和誰誰誰在同一部電影里”來讓身邊的人感到無趣。（我們只需）簡單有效地說：“他就是那個男演員，專有名詞”。每個人都知道那個實際名字會在幾秒或是幾分鐘內浮現在腦海里，那么談話就可以在沒有尷尬或者掃興的情況下繼續進行。