# Looking for clever mnemonic devices **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 16, 2006, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-clever-mnemonic-devices/380702 "2006-11-16T17:03:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Kizarvexius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/da6949/32.png) [@Kizarvexius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kizarvexius)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2006, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-clever-mnemonic-devices/380702/1 "2006-11-16T17:03:43Z")
My fifth grade teacher taught me the phrase “she made Harry eat onions”, which one may use to help recall the west-to-east order of the Great Lakes: She = Superior Made = Michigan Harry = Huron Eat = Erie Onions = Ontario Now I can’t recall any instance in my life where this has ever proved remotely useful. I don’t think I’ve ever even _seen_ any of the Great Lakes. But, I’ll always be prepared for the day when it happens. [Walter Middy-esque Segue] **Wolf Blitzer** : The masked gunman’s motives are unclear, but he has threatened to execute the hostages in less than five minutes unless _someone_ can tell him the correct order of the Great Lakes, from west to east. For all their sakes, we can only hope that there’s a person nearby who had a good fifth grade teacher… **Kizarvexius** : Stand aside, ladies and gentleman. I can help. I was taught by Mrs. Fitzsimmons. **Crowd** : Ooooooohhh. [/WMS] Besides, being a trivia nut, I can’t help collecting such little tidbits. Kizarvexilla brought one home a couple of weeks ago that was new to me, one that in light of certain recent events, may be in need of revision. But I still thought it was cool. “My very energetic mother just served us nine pizzas” is a mnemonic for the order of the planets. My = Mercury Very = Venus Energetic = Earth Mother = Mars Just = Jupiter Served = Saturn Us = Uranus Nine = Neptune Pizzas = Pluto Got any more? ---
**Author:** ![Br\_er\_Lapin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e79b87/32.png) [@Br\_er\_Lapin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Br_er_Lapin)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2006, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-clever-mnemonic-devices/380702/2 "2006-11-16T17:26:51Z")
I usually make up my own that make little to no sense, but I end up remembering them somehow anyway. Example, for the prefixes in naming compounds in organic chemistry, I invented “Mary eats peppers but peppers hate her.” (meth-, eth-, prop-, but-, pent-, hex-, hept-) Good luck remembering that one. 🙂 In a slightly similar vein, a few years ago I was cramming for a history exam where I had to memorize a very long list of people and the thing they were most famous for (or what my Professor decided they were most famous for, at least). I was at a diner with friends while doing this, and my (slightly eccentric) friend told me to remember that Archimedes discovered the formula for pi because Archimedes was the name of the owl in The Sword in the Stone, pies sit on windowsills, and if you look out the window you might see an owl. 😕 Completely off the wall, but obviously I’ve managed to remember it. ---
**Author:** ![Santo\_Rugger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Santo\_Rugger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Santo_Rugger)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2006, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-clever-mnemonic-devices/380702/3 "2006-11-16T17:37:40Z")
[QUOTE=Kizarvexius] My = Mercury Very = Venus Energetic = Earth Mother = Mars Just = Jupiter Served = Saturn Us = Uranus Nine = Neptune Pizzas = Pluto Got any more? [/QUOTE] No, she simply served us nine. ☹ I’ve heard it as: Mother Very Enthusiastically Made Jelly Sandwiches Under No Protest. Looks like she’s protesting now! Also, for order of operations: Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally Parenthesis, Exponents, Multiplication and Division, Addition and Subtraction ---
**Author:** ![PoorYorick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecccb3/32.png) [@PoorYorick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PoorYorick)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2006, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-clever-mnemonic-devices/380702/4 "2006-11-16T17:39:00Z")
[QUOTE=Kizarvexius] My fifth grade teacher taught me the phrase “she made Harry eat onions”, which one may use to help recall the west-to-east order of the Great Lakes: She = Superior Made = Michigan Harry = Huron Eat = Erie Onions = Ontario [/QUOTE] I learned “HOMES:” Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior I love mnemonic devices; it’s like a way to cheat memory. A few that I remember: [ul] [li]“On old Olympus’s tower top, a Finn and German viewed a hop:” The twelve cranial nerves.[/li][li]“How I need a drink, alcholic of course:” The first few numbers of pi (count the number of letters in each word). This is the beginning of a great long poem, which I can’t remember of course.[/li][li]“Leaping zebras pounce down drains:” The stages of prophase in meiosis: Leptotene, zygotene, pachytene, diplotene, diakinesis[/li][li]“Egad my tiger has cancer:” I can remember this mnemonic device, but can’t remember what the heck it means.[/li][/ul] ---
**Author:** ![PoorYorick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecccb3/32.png) [@PoorYorick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PoorYorick)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2006, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-clever-mnemonic-devices/380702/5 "2006-11-16T17:43:14Z")
Er, my favorite got lost for some reason: “Never lower Tillie’s pants, mother might come home.” These are the eight carpal bones (the wrist), although two of the names are a bit archaic: Navicular (scaphoid), lunate, triquetrum, pisifom, multangular majus (trapezium), multangular minus (trapezoid), capitate, hamate ---
**Author:** ![An\_Arky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2006, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-clever-mnemonic-devices/380702/6 "2006-11-16T17:43:50Z")
Is it just me, or does it seem like a lot of these mnemonic devices aren’t all that much easier to memorize than what they’re…um, mnemonicizing? To answer the OP, I remember using Every Good Boy Does Fine for the notes on the lines in music notation(in treble clef; the spaces are F-A-C-E). I also remember the thingy where you use your knuckles and the gaps between to represent the months that have 31 days vs. the ones that don’t, but that’s not exactly a mnemonic, I reckon. ---
**Author:** ![PoorYorick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecccb3/32.png) [@PoorYorick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PoorYorick)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2006, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-clever-mnemonic-devices/380702/7 "2006-11-16T17:56:34Z")
For more mnemonic devices than you’ll ever care about: [http://mnemonic-device.com/](http://mnemonic-device.com/). Just from a quick glance around, some are better than others. ---
**Author:** ![Bear\_Nenno](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bear_nenno/32/3358_2.png) [@Bear\_Nenno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bear_Nenno)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2006, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-clever-mnemonic-devices/380702/8 "2006-11-16T18:52:41Z")
[QUOTE=PoorYorick] I learned “HOMES:” Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior I love mnemonic devices; it’s like a way to cheat memory. A few that I remember: [ul] [li]“On old Olympus’s tower top, a Finn and German viewed a hop:” The twelve cranial nerves.[/li][li]“How I need a drink, alcholic of course:” The first few numbers of pi (count the number of letters in each word). This is the beginning of a great long poem, which I can’t remember of course.[/li][li]“Leaping zebras pounce down drains:” The stages of prophase in meiosis: Leptotene, zygotene, pachytene, diplotene, diakinesis[/li][li]“Egad my tiger has cancer:” I can remember this mnemonic device, but can’t remember what the heck it means.[/li][/ul] [/QUOTE] I learned: Oooh Oooh Oooh! To touch and feel a girl’s vagina. So hott! Muscles around the thigh, in order from the back: Big Titty Mormon Girls Suck My Red Lolipop. Can’t remeber the one for the wrist bones, but it was different than yours. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2006, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-clever-mnemonic-devices/380702/9 "2006-11-16T18:57:12Z")
Then there are the modes: I Don’t Play Loud Music After Lunch (Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian, and Locrian). ---
**Author:** ![Dervorin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Dervorin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dervorin)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2006, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-clever-mnemonic-devices/380702/10 "2006-11-16T19:01:55Z")
A recent seminar taught me this way of remembering the layers of the OSI Network Model: People Don’t Need To See Paula Abdul Physical, Data link, Network, Transport, Session, Presentation, Application. ---
**Author:** ![PoorYorick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecccb3/32.png) [@PoorYorick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PoorYorick)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2006, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-clever-mnemonic-devices/380702/11 "2006-11-16T19:29:10Z")
[QUOTE=PoorYorick] “How I need a drink, alcholic of course:” The first few numbers of pi (count the number of letters in each word). This is the beginning of a great long poem, which I can’t remember of course. [/QUOTE] This only works, of course, if you spell “alcoholic” correctly. ---
**Author:** ![HubZilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ccd318/32.png) [@HubZilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HubZilla)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2006, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-clever-mnemonic-devices/380702/12 "2006-11-16T19:34:20Z")
Networking OSI Layers: Please Do Not Throw Sausage Pizza Away Physical, Data, Network, Transport, Session, Presentation, Application ---
**Author:** ![UncleRojelio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unclerojelio/32/3160_2.png) [@UncleRojelio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleRojelio)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2006, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-clever-mnemonic-devices/380702/13 "2006-11-16T19:34:48Z")
Bad boys rape our young girls but Violet gives willingly. Black, brown, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, grey, white Resistor value color code. Evidently invented before there were as many female electrical engineers as there are today. If there is one for Kingdom, phyllum, class, order, family, genus, species, please don’t post it. It would prolly mess me up and I’d never be able to remember the actual words ever again. ---
**Author:** ![Nanoda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Nanoda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nanoda)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2006, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-clever-mnemonic-devices/380702/14 "2006-11-16T19:39:52Z")
Wikipedia has [a couple more](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mnemonic). For planets, I prefer the French " Mon Vieux, Tu M’as Jeter Sur Une Nouvelle Planète", which is a bit more relevant. There’s also “Richard Of York Gains Battles In Vain” for rainbow colours. ---
**Author:** ![Sophistry\_and\_Illusion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b3f665/32.png) [@Sophistry\_and\_Illusion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sophistry_and_Illusion)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2006, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-clever-mnemonic-devices/380702/15 "2006-11-16T19:42:53Z")
[QUOTE=UncleRojelio] If there is one for Kingdom, phyllum, class, order, family, genus, species, please don’t post it. It would prolly mess me up and I’d never be able to remember the actual words ever again. [/QUOTE] Since you asked…King Philip crossed over from Germany stoned. And I guess everybody knows Roy G. Biv for the colors of the visible spectrum. ---
**Author:** ![dwc1970](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a183cd/32.png) [@dwc1970](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwc1970)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2006, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-clever-mnemonic-devices/380702/16 "2006-11-16T19:46:23Z")
Does anyone have a mnemonic for classifying animals and plants? If I remember correctly, it goes: Kingdom Phylum Class Order Family Genus Species. ---
**Author:** ![Dervorin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Dervorin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dervorin)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2006, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-clever-mnemonic-devices/380702/17 "2006-11-16T20:12:22Z")
Stellar classification, which is something I just dug up from studying it ages ago: Oh, be a fine girl, kiss me! I don’t think the letters actually stand for anything; the classes are O, B, A, F, G, K and M. ---
**Author:** ![Santo\_Rugger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Santo\_Rugger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Santo_Rugger)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2006, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-clever-mnemonic-devices/380702/18 "2006-11-16T20:28:13Z")
I remembered a couple others… Be My Little Girl Brigadier Major Liutenent General And OIL RIG Oxidation Involves Loss, Reduction Involves Gain (of electrons) Or, LEO the lion says GER Lose Electrons Oxidation, Gain Electrons Reduction ---
**Author:** ![PoorYorick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecccb3/32.png) [@PoorYorick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PoorYorick)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2006, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-clever-mnemonic-devices/380702/19 "2006-11-16T20:41:40Z")
I took a gander at the site I linked to earlier: Not really all that impressive. Among other things, it has _multiple_ mnemonic (man, that’s hard to type) devices for the four cardinal directions. You need a mnemonic device to remember _North, East, South and West?!_ ---
**Author:** ![Caridwen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c89c15/32.png) [@Caridwen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caridwen)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2006, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-clever-mnemonic-devices/380702/20 "2006-11-16T20:42:06Z")
[QUOTE=Sophistry and Illusion] Since you asked…King Philip crossed over from Germany stoned. And I guess everybody knows Roy G. Biv for the colors of the visible spectrum. [/QUOTE] The way I learned it was …King Phillip came over for good sex. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-clever-mnemonic-devices/380702.md?page=2)