We all know “Righty-tighty, lefty-loosey” and “I before E except after C”.
I have trouble finding a friend’s house when coming from the west side of town because she lives in a maze of winding streets. And I almost always turned down the wrong street. I needed some sort of memory aid to keep me from doing that and turn down the right street instead. Since the wrong street is Dwight, and the correct street is Revere, and her husband’s name is Paul, I came up with the phrase “Dwight isn’t right, but Revere leads to Paul” Yeah, not terribly catchy, but it works fine for my purposes, and I haven’t made a wrong turn since.
So what phrases have you coined to help you with some mundane task?
Actually, for screws, it’s “The clock turns things.” Clockwise puts the screw in (because it goes forward in time) and counterclockwise takes it out (because it goes back in time to before there was a screw.
In order to remember where the toilet is in any house, I just use the Johnny Mnemonic.
In reading our county’s property tax code numbers, I finally realized the Big number was the Block, the Little number was the Lot, and the Smallest number was the Sub-lot.
I teach English at exam level, and for the less able students I drill into them that, when writing about poetry, they must sit STIL
S - Structure
T - Theme(s)
I - Images
L - Language
Can’t think of anything that might suit the final ‘L’ in still, though - any thoughts?
oh, and just reminded of an acronym I really like. It’s to describe that special class of lady who look fantastic from a distance but are less than pretty when you get up close:
BOBFOC
Just so I can say I posted this in response to a legitimate question and thereby elevated it to the notoriety it deserves, I will mention a joint venture with one of my work buddies years ago.
There was a sandwich dispenser machine in the vending area that we dubbed the “VARSCOND” because it was a
I’ve noticed the same thing about light bulbs that are sold in ordianary outltets. What I’ve heard is that most business/industrial places buy a kind with the screw reversed.
The idea is to prevent a certain kind of employee theft. A dishonest emplyee who doesn’t know the bulb he wants will be useless to him may steal it. Chances are he’ll discard it rather than return it to the workplace. (Why risk detection of the theft with an additional surreptitious act?) But there would be no incentive for him to take any others.
There are female and male versions of my real-life name that differ only by a vowel, and people regularly get it wrong, so I came up with a little mnemonic to help them remember which spelling is the girl spelling and which spelling is the boy spelling. I draw a lower case “e” and a lower case “i” on a piece of paper then point out to them that the “e” has a hole in it and the “i” sticks up straight. People have later told me that they’ve never confused the two spellings since.
I have a double light switch on the wall near my kitchen sink. One of the switches turns on the overhead light above the sink, the other one turns on the garbage disposal. For an embarrassingly long time I kept flipping the wrong switch, causing the disposal to roar into action (usually with cutlery involved), before I realized that I just had to remember ‘left = light’.
That worked great for a long time, until my brother moved in and the spoons are once more at risk. He’s not as bright as me, I guess…
It’s not very clever, but something I learned in school and always repeat to myself any time someone is giving me directions, or I have to think about a map in my head:
When you face north, west is on your left. (Quand on regarde le nord, l’ouest est à gauche.)
I am very directionally challenged.
For remembering how to give directions when I lived in the French Quarter in NOLA (totally useless now, but I won’t ever forget it):
IBC light has power of attorney. (even though Barq’s is the local favorite)
IBCLTPOA - entering the Quarter from Canal Street
Iberville
Bienville
Conti
St Louis
Toulouse
St Peter
Orleans
St Ann
