Mnemonics

[DesertDog]

I'm fascinated by mnemonics, those phrases and poems to help you remember stuff.

As an electronicer I well know the one for the color code order: Bad Boys Rape Our Young Girls But Violet Gives Willingly

From my interest in astronomy, the order of the planets: Mother Very Thoughtfully Made A Jelly Sandwich Under No Protest -- guess that one will have to be edited with Pluto's demotion.

One of my interests is heraldry. Blazoning is in a world of its own with terms and usages seen no where else, mostly in French (gemel? mullet?). Since I don't do it regularly, I have to refresh it from time to time and yesterday I came across a neat primer by the SCA. One of the things I could never remember are the gouttes (drops). They're just a stylized shape in the standard tinctures (colors) but can they be described with the usual names for colors? No, they are described by what kind of drop (French bastards).

Anyway, the primer had a neat song useful for correlating the goutte to its proper tincture (Earworm warning!)

SPOILER:

D'eau: a goutte, a silver goutte.
D'or: a drop of golden sun.
D'huile: a name for olive gouttes.
Poix: a pitch-drop on the run.
Sangue: a needle-prick that's bled.
Larmes: the tears of blue that flow.
Vin: a drink with thou and bread
That will bring us back to d'eau d'eau d'eau d'eau ...

Here is the page in question.

So, what mnemonics do you know?

[Colibri]

A couple from biology:


Classification: Kingdom Phylum Class Order Family Genus Species.

King Philip came over from Germany stoned.




The 12 cranial nerves: Olfactory Optic Oculomotor Trochlear Trigeminal Abducens Facial Auditory Glossopharyngeal Vagus Spinal-Accessory Hypoglossal

Clean version:

On old Olympus towering top,
A Finn and German viewed some hops.

Dirty version (the one everyone actually used)

Oh oh oh! To touch and feel a girl's vagina! Such heaven!

[vetbridge]

Originally Posted by Colibri

Classification: Kingdom Phylum Class Order Family Genus Species.

King Philip came over from Germany stoned.

I learned King Peter Could Only Fuck Golden Sheep. Also, I never realized a "clean" version existed for the cranial nerves!

[pendgwen]

I also know a variant of the dirty cranial nerve mnemonic. Of course you also need to know whether each cranial nerve carriers sensory information, motor, or both giving you this mnemonic:

Some Say Money Matters But My Brother Says Big Boobs Matter Most

And there are various ways to remember the branches of cranial nerve 7:

Temporal, Zygomatic, Buccal, Mandibular, Cervical
To Zanzibar By Motor Car
Two Zebras Bit My Cock
Two Zebras Bit My Chihuahua

[tbdi]

Originally Posted by DesertDog

From my interest in astronomy, the order of the planets: Mother Very Thoughtfully Made A Jelly Sandwich Under No Protest -- guess that one will have to be edited with Pluto's demotion.

Mary's Violet Eyes Made John Sit Up Nights (Planning)

[Colibri]

Originally Posted by vetbridge

Also, I never realized a "clean" version existed for the cranial nerves!

I used to teach anatomy lab for pre-nursing students, almost all of whom were female. We had to have a clean version for public consumption.

[wolf_meister]

DesertDog
I'm surprised that you don't know another astronomy mnemonic. This is for memorizing stellar spectral classes from hottest to coolest:
O B A F G K M R N S

Oh be a fine girl, kiss me right now sweetheart.
I bet someone will come along with the "dirty" version.

[Sternvogel]

Two earlier threads you may enjoy.

[hocow]

Originally Posted by DesertDog

From my interest in astronomy, the order of the planets: Mother Very Thoughtfully Made A Jelly Sandwich Under No Protest -- guess that one will have to be edited with Pluto's demotion.

Thoughtfully? Shouldn't that be an 'E' word?

My Very Eager Mother Just Served Us Nine Pies

[Larry Borgia]

Originally Posted by hocow

Thoughtfully? Shouldn't that be an 'E' word?

My Very Eager Mother Just Served Us Nine Pies

Now it's "My Very Eager Mother Just Served Us Nachos"

[ryobserver]

Here's a local one:

Old Maids Never Wed and Have Babies

That's for the first stops, outbound from Philadelphia, along the Main Line (yes that Main Line) of the old Pennsylvania Railroad (now SEPTA's R5 Paoli). Overbrook, Merion, Narberth, Wynnewood, Ardmore, Haverford and Bryn Mawr, all in order.

[Just Ed]

Originally Posted by hocow

Thoughtfully? Shouldn't that be an 'E' word?

It's "T" for "Terra".

There's a couple I learned back in high school:

• Colors of the spectrum: Roy G Biv (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet)
• The Great Lakes: Super Man Helps Every One (Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, Ontario), which has a slight advantage over "HOMES" in that it's in order from West to East

[Joey P]

Originally Posted by Larry Borgia

Now it's "My Very Eager Mother Just Served Us Nachos"

Ahh youngens
My very educated mother just showed us nine planets.

Yea that's right, Pluto.

[pool]

I remember another one for Biology:

Kevin Please Come Over For Gay Sex

Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species

[DesertDog]

Originally Posted by wolf_meister

DesertDog
I'm surprised that you don't know another astronomy mnemonic. This is for memorizing stellar spectral classes from hottest to coolest:
O B A F G K M R N S

Oh be a fine girl, kiss me right now sweetheart.
I bet someone will come along with the "dirty" version.

I knew that one, Wolf, but I didn't want to list every mnemonic I knew in the OP. Besides, I didn't think of it.

I knew the On Old Olympus mnemonic for cranial nerves, but the names of the nerves themselves had faded in the mists of time.

Keep 'em coming, folks.

[Chessic Sense]

Please Excuse my Dear Aunt Sally
Parentheses, exponents, Multiply/Divide, Add/Subtract (Order of operations)

I always hated Mnemonics. It's so much easier to remember PEMDAS. I know it's much easier to remember RBBSFBH (Responsiveness, breathing, bleeding, shock, fractures, burns, head injury...steps to evaluating a casualty) that it is to remember...eh, whatever sententce it was they taught us to remember. I also prefer the planets as MVEMJSURP. Am I alone on this?

[Delly]

The lines on a music scale, EGBDF - every good boy deserves fun, that and the my very educated mother just showed us nine planets which Joey P already mentioned are the only ones I remember learning

[Alive At Both Ends]

I learnt the colours of the spectrum at school using the mnemonic "Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain".

The "dirty" version (in reverse order) was more popular: "Virgins In Bed, Get Your Organs Ready".

[elfkin477]

Am I the only one who doesn't get the point of such things? Why is it easier to memorize two things (the menmonic+the words the represent) rather than just memorize the thing you actually need to remember? OTOH, I never had a problem with memorizing things by rote.

Besides HOMES (great lakes) and Roy G BIV (colors in a rainbow) the only one I can recall learning is Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge... but I forget what it was for!

[Delly]

Originally Posted by elfkin477

Besides HOMES (great lakes) and Roy G BIV (colors in a rainbow) the only one I can recall learning is Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge... but I forget what it was for!

The lines on a music scale, I mentioned it already but we had fun instead of fudge

[wolf_meister]

Yes, the lines for the musical notes are memorized by
Every Good Boy Does Fine and FACE
However, that only applies to the treble clef (or G clef).

When you are dealing with the bass clef (or F clef) then it's
Great Bears Do Fine Acts and
All Cows Eat Grass.

(We now return you to our regularly scheduled programming.)

[Colibri]

Originally Posted by elfkin477

Why is it easier to memorize two things (the menmonic+the words the represent) rather than just memorize the thing you actually need to remember?

Why is it easier to remember (or difficult to forget) the words to an advertising jingle than sentences from a textbook?

The mnemonic of course is much much easier to recall than what it represents. After 30 years I could easily recall both mnemonics for the cranial nerves, but I had to look up the nerves themselves. Back when I originally learned them the mnemonics easily enabled me to remember the names of the nerves in correct order.