Baltimore native Gary Marcus is introducing a new word to the pop-psyche lexicon and a new way of thinking about thinking. Kluge (rhymes with stooge) is what Marcus, professor of psychology at New York University, calls “a clumsy or inelegant — yet surprisingly effective — solution to a problem.”  The human mind, he says, is not an intelligently designed supercomputer but a kluge -- a cobbled-together, patched-together contraption that, while allowing us to function from day to day, also plays tricks on us. At least, that's what my mind tells me Gary Marcus' book is about. The book is called Kluge, the Haphazard Construction of the Human Mind. In the book, Marcus distills theories and anecdotes about language, memory, learning and evolution into long and challenging essays -- challenging because his ideas seem a bit abstract at first. He's an energetic thinker and engaging conversationalist, and during an hour-long interview Thursday I got a better understanding of the kluge-brain thing. Marcus has 13 suggestions for how we can adapt and make our kluge function better and maybe even live a happier life. We'll air Marcus's kluge-provoking interview on the Midday show Wednesday. He speaks Saturday afternoon at 3 at the Barnes and Noble in Ellicott City.