During my French quiz on Friday, I couldn’t seem to focus on the questions I was being asked. It probably wasn’t a good idea to listen to Macklemore’s “Thrift Shop” right before sitting down to take my quiz because that catchy saxophone riff just kept playing over and over again in my head. Instead of filling in the blanks with conjugated verbs, I felt compelled to write about how “I’m gonna pop some tags,” and it wasn’t my fault. The “earworm” embedded in my head was to blame.

No, not an actual worm, an earworm is a fragment of a catchy song that gets stuck in your head for no apparent reason. Earworms are a nuisance to everyone at some point, and it can sometimes be debilitating when trying to complete a task, like when attempting to ace a test. Luckily, I can provide you with information about the triggers for earworms and with solutions for getting rid of them.

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Researchers from Goldsmiths, University of London published a study in the journal Psychology of Music in 2011 about how earworms start. Through their study of over 600 participants, they discovered that there are four conditions that cause earworms: music exposure, memory triggers, affective states and low attention states. Music exposure is probably the most common origin of an earworm because it involves either recently hearing a song or hearing it repeatedly. Memory triggers are defined as associating a tune with certain people, words, beats or situations. Affective states refer to an individual’s emotional frame of mind where certain feelings may cause songs to get stuck. Lastly, low attention states are circumstances in which the mind is engaged in monotonous activity.

Since it can be almost impossible to consciously prevent these situations from happening, a recent study published in the journal Applied Cognitive Psychology by Dr. Ira Hyman from Western Washington University discovered that solving anagrams can be used to eliminate the dreaded earworm from one’s consciousness. An anagram is a word or phrase formed from another by rearranging its letters. For example, the word “safer” can be transformed into the word “fears.”

Dr. Hyman’s research found that focusing on five-letter anagram puzzles is the most effective method of removing an intrusive song because it cognitively engages the brain, limiting the ability of songs to get stuck inside. In this respect, solving Sudoku puzzles, reading novels or playing sports are also useful means of eliminating earworms since they dominate the mind’s focus. However, there is a catch to the success of these methods. The level of difficulty needs to be in the moderate range, for if the activity is too easy or too complex, then the earworm will creep back into your consciousness. This has to do with the degree of engagement of the brain. Both limits of difficulty levels will not successfully engage the mind, leaving plenty of room for a song to play internally.

No song is safe from becoming an earworm. Dr. Hyman concludes that obnoxious songs are not the only ones that can get stuck, songs that people know and love can become annoyingly embedded. The chorus of a song is most likely to continue replaying in a person’s head because of the fact that unfinished thoughts often return to the forefront of one’s mind and because we don’t usually know the lyrics to an entire song.

Conduct an experiment on yourself by listening to the following song. See if it gets stuck in your head over the course of the day. If it does, then use one of the above methods to test their effectiveness in removing it.

I am extraordinarily blessed, as my shiny new laptop announces ostentatiously.  I can also take long, hot showers, buy chocolate and candy, and nap in a warm bed whenever I want.

I’ve never gone without food.  It’s nearly impossible for me to try and imagine it.

North Carolina is one of seven states that exhibits statistically significant higher household food insecurity rates than the U.S. national 2009-2011 average, according to hunger-relief charity Feeding America.  Furthermore, it states that more than 1 in every 5 children are regularly hungry.

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Again — I can’t imagine that.  It’s so easy to remove yourself from the problem.

But one organization has done just the opposite, tackling the issue of hunger right in the gut –  pardon the pun.

PORCH is a grassroots hunger-relief organization benefiting hunger-insecure people right here in Chapel Hill and Carrboro.  It’s run entirely by devoted volunteers.

It stands for People Offering Relief for Chapel Hill-Carrboro Homes, but the acronym also works because of the process.  One of PORCH’s three branches is Food for Families.  Once a month, generous neighbors leave canned food on their very own porches — as much or as little as they like.  The monthly donation is picked up, sorted, packed (along with fresh produce, eggs, ground beef and milk purchased from local stores with monetary donations) and delivered straight to the families at convenient drop-off locations, like apartment complexes and schools.

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Last month alone, PORCH distributed 672 bags of non-perishables and 350 bags of perishables.

Social workers in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro public school system determine which students and their families might need a little extra help.  These families are then referred to PORCH.

PORCH also greatly enhances local food pantries’ stocks through another one of its branches, Food for Pantries.  It communicates with the pantries to determine what they’re most in need of, and the request is passed along to neighborhood volunteers, who are in charge coordinating their own neighborhoods.

Food for Thought, the final branch, refers to PORCH’s mission to spread hunger awareness, and how a community can help.  Its website states that 1 in 6 families in Chapel Hill and Carrboro now live at or below the poverty level, which is $22,000 a year for a family of four.  Many of these families, it believes, are comprised of the “working poor” who work long hours for little wages.

I recently went to the home of one of the founders — she has a beautiful home with a screened-in porch of her own — and spoke to her and another co-founder (there are three).  I was struck by their easy-going friendship.  They’re just normal mothers who wanted to help, and who couldn’t bear the thought of their children’s classmates possibly going hungry.

Listening to them discuss their organization, it was easy to see how passionate they were about PORCH, something they never expected to balloon to such an impressive size (they have over 165 neighborhoods donating food, and help feed over 200 families).

When their plans began to fall into place, they were particularly surprised by the relentless generosity of volunteers.  They tell them thank you when they arrive to help sort the food, and the volunteers say, “No — thank you.”

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Poverty is a massive problem that likely isn’t going to be solved anytime soon.  But PORCH is making a notable difference in so many people’s lives, one porch at a time.