It happened again the other night at a party. This just drives me up the wall.
A woman came up to me at a party and said, "Do you remember me? Who am I?" and then stood there waiting for an answer.
I dimly recognized her, and I had a pretty good idea about who she was (a friend of a friend whom I've met a couple of times when she came to our town for family events; my husband had mentioned the day before that "that friend of Durwood's who's Lulu's aunt" would be in town this weekend), but it didn't bubble up to the surface fast enough. I certainly don't remember her name. (I bet she didn't remember mine, either -- I'm probably just "Durwood's friend" to her, too, which is fine.) I managed to get out of it fairly gracefully somehow.
What is the point of that question? Haven't they ever been in that situation themselves? Why would they do that to someone? Yeesh.
I hate hate hate when people do this. I used to joke that if I ever had a huge pile of money, I'd fund a foundation to stamp out the practice.
What do you say when people say that to you? (If no one ever has, lucky you, and I sincerely wish no one ever will.) All I can think of is "Oh, PLEASE don't do that to me!" or on a bad day, "Yes, I remember you -- you're one of those jerks who loves to put people on the spot and embarrass them by forcing them to insult you." No, I'd never say that! But I'm stumped for a polite answer.