A few times, I'd get to a story that Heisig came up with and think, "god, what a terrible story". But, I'd end up using it anyway and then it just stuck. I just passed "urge" once again and I distinctly remember thinking that the story was a bad one. The joke's on me, though, because I've never once forgotten that kanji thanks to Heisig's story! Has anyone else had this experience?

Yeah, one example would be "display", the story Heisig gives there just seemed so arbitrary and not anything I'd ever have come up with, yet it works like magic.

Sevenhelmets already mentioned "kind of thing" on another recent thread (http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?tid=1537).

There was actually one story for 'overnight', that consisted of the three words "overnight water white."

I saw this once while in the story section, and immediately dismissed it as not helpful. After formulating my own nice story with all kinds of pictures, when reviewing that kanji a week later, I was surprised to have the phrase 'overnight water white' pop into my head while in the middle of viewing my story.

Early on I never understood the reason for the "baseball" primitive, in a way I actually hated it,, "hey, it's #9 James!!..." as of now I rarely fail any of the kanji containing it. Although it looks more like "t-ball" than baseball to me.