# Your favorite mnemnonics **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 25, 2007, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-mnemnonics/427735 "2007-11-25T22:07:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2007, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-mnemnonics/427735/1 "2007-11-25T22:07:37Z")
Given the eclectic nature of this group, I bet there are some great or unusual mnemnonics that people have learned or developed. Linnean classification: Karen, please come over for great sex. kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species. Moh’s scale Toronto girls can flirt and other quirky things Canadians do. talc, gypsum, calcite, flourite, apatite, (orthoclase) feldspar, quartz, topaz, corundum, diamond. Any others out there? ---
**Author:** ![Surok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@Surok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surok)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2007, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-mnemnonics/427735/2 "2007-11-25T22:27:01Z")
Oh, oh, oh, to touch and feel a girl’s vagina - ah, heaven! Which is, I think, a mnemonic for the twelve cranial nerves. But as IANAD, I don’t know the terms that each word actually stands for. (I picked the phrase up from some novel or other and it seems to have stuck. I wonder why? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2007, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-mnemnonics/427735/3 "2007-11-25T22:40:24Z")
In key signatures: Order of sharps: F C G D A E B Fat Charlie Gets Donuts After Eating Breakfast Order of flats: B E A D G C F Breakfast Eating After Donuts Gets Charlie Fat ---
**Author:** ![freckafree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/freckafree/32/3050_2.png) [@freckafree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freckafree)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2007, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-mnemnonics/427735/4 "2007-11-25T22:56:34Z")
Kudos to the Doper who gave us the new mnemonic for the planets after Pluto got demoted: My Very Excellent Mother Sent Us Nothing. ---
**Author:** ![Randy\_Seltzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ee7513/32.png) [@Randy\_Seltzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Randy_Seltzer)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2007, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-mnemnonics/427735/5 "2007-11-25T23:20:29Z")
[QUOTE=Beware of Doug] Order of sharps: F C G D A E B Fat Charlie Gets Donuts After Eating Breakfast [/QUOTE] I learned: **Fat Cats Go Down Alleys Eating Birds** And here’s one that will be useful to no one on this board: **“Mr. N.L. Man-Q”** My driving instructor taught it to me when I was a teenager: it’s the order of the main north-south streets in Kansas City. (Mission, Roe, Nall, Lamar, Metcalf, Antioch, Nieman, Quivera, in case you’re wondering.) It was eminently useful in my often-confused youth. ---
**Author:** ![Runs\_With\_Scissors](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/278dde/32.png) [@Runs\_With\_Scissors](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Runs_With_Scissors)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2007, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-mnemnonics/427735/6 "2007-11-25T23:29:14Z")
I heard this attributed to Billy Bragg, for remembering the notes of the strings of a guitar in standard tuning (starting with the sixth, or top, string): **E** very **A** rmpit **D** oes **G** et **B** ody odor **E** ventually ---
**Author:** ![USCDiver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/uscdiver/32/354_2.png) [@USCDiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/USCDiver)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2007, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-mnemnonics/427735/7 "2007-11-25T23:30:15Z")
Bones of the Hand: Some Lovers Try Posititions That They Can’t Handle Scaphoid, Lunate, Triquetrum, Pisiform, Trapezium, Trapezoid, Capitate, Hamate ---
**Author:** ![fachverwirrt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/94ad74/32.png) [@fachverwirrt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fachverwirrt)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2007, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-mnemnonics/427735/8 "2007-11-25T23:34:36Z")
A rather boring one for musical modes: I Don’t Play Like My Aunt Lucy (Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian, Locrian). I’m sure somebody can come up with a racy one. ---
**Author:** ![wolf\_meister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf_meister/32/15202_2.png) [@wolf\_meister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf_meister)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2007, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-mnemnonics/427735/9 "2007-11-26T00:29:32Z")
**freckafree** > [@](#): > > My Very Excellent Mother Sent Us Nothing. Did Jupiter get demoted too? From my programming class decades ago, the order of the 4 divisions of a COBOL program are: Identification, Environment, Data and Procedure My mnemonic for that was: I Eat Debbie’s (do I really have to type the fourth word?) If I must say so myself, I think I’ll remember that right to the grave - and maybe sometime after that. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![pinkfreud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pinkfreud/32/17603_2.png) [@pinkfreud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pinkfreud)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2007, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-mnemnonics/427735/10 "2007-11-26T01:12:36Z")
I used to have a rough time with “port” and “starboard” until a friend told me to remember that port wine is red, and port is indicated by a red light. The word “port” contains five letters, as does the word “left.” ---
**Author:** ![freckafree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/freckafree/32/3050_2.png) [@freckafree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freckafree)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2007, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-mnemnonics/427735/11 "2007-11-26T01:21:51Z")
[QUOTE=wolf\_meister] **freckafree** Did Jupiter get demoted too? [/QUOTE] My bad! :smack: My Very Excellent Mother JUST Sent Us Nothing. ---
**Author:** ![Sticks\_and\_Scones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sticks_and_scones/32/16951_2.png) [@Sticks\_and\_Scones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sticks_and_Scones)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2007, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-mnemnonics/427735/12 "2007-11-26T01:25:12Z")
[QUOTE=pinkfreud] The word “port” contains five letters, as does the word “left.” [/QUOTE] They do? ---
**Author:** ![Stuffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f17d59/32.png) [@Stuffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stuffy)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2007, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-mnemnonics/427735/13 "2007-11-26T01:52:18Z")
More of a WTF, but back when I was studying electronics we had a mnemonic to remember the colored bands around resistors: Bad boys rape our young grils but Violet gives willingly, better get some now. Black, Brown red orange yellow breen blue violet white, (I forget what those last four were but they were rarely used anyway). Then of course there’s the order of operations in math: Please pardon my dear Aunt Sally Powers parenthesis multiplication addition subtraction ---
**Author:** ![fachverwirrt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/94ad74/32.png) [@fachverwirrt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fachverwirrt)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2007, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-mnemnonics/427735/14 "2007-11-26T01:59:09Z")
[QUOTE=Stuffy] Then of course there’s the order of operations in math: Please pardon my dear Aunt Sally Powers parenthesis multiplication addition subtraction [/QUOTE] Isn’t it “Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally”–Parentheses, exponents, multiplication, division, addition, subtraction? ---
**Author:** ![Stuffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f17d59/32.png) [@Stuffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stuffy)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2007, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-mnemnonics/427735/15 "2007-11-26T03:03:47Z")
[QUOTE=fachverwirrt] Isn’t it “Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally”–Parentheses, exponents, multiplication, division, addition, subtraction? [/QUOTE] What am I, a math wizard? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![pipperroo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7feea3/32.png) [@pipperroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pipperroo)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2007, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-mnemnonics/427735/16 "2007-11-26T03:36:33Z")
[QUOTE=Surok] Oh, oh, oh, to touch and feel a girl’s vagina - ah, heaven! Which is, I think, a mnemonic for the twelve cranial nerves. But as IANAD, I don’t know the terms that each word actually stands for. (I picked the phrase up from some novel or other and it seems to have stuck. I wonder why? 😉 [/QUOTE] I always liked this one better: On old Olympus’s towering top, a Finn and German vend some hops Olfactory, optic, oculormotor, trochlear, trigeminal, abducens, facial, auditory-vestibular, glossopharyngeal, vagus, spinal-accessory, hypoglossal, ---
**Author:** ![pinkfreud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pinkfreud/32/17603_2.png) [@pinkfreud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pinkfreud)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2007, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-mnemnonics/427735/17 "2007-11-26T03:38:32Z")
[QUOTE=pinkfreud] The word “port” contains five letters, as does the word “left.” [QUOTE=Always Brings Pie] They do? [/QUOTE] [/QUOTE] Oops. :smack: OK, let’s try again. The word “port” contains four letters, as does the word “left.” (Note to self: do not post after drinking too much port.) ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2007, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-mnemnonics/427735/18 "2007-11-26T03:54:48Z")
[QUOTE=fachverwirrt] A rather boring one for musical modes: I Don’t Play Like My Aunt Lucy (Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian, Locrian). I’m sure somebody can come up with a racy one. [/QUOTE] That one’s just fine - especially as it points up the attitude that non-modal harmony is a little stodgy and conservative. ---
**Author:** ![ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2007, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-mnemnonics/427735/19 "2007-11-26T04:02:11Z")
“Lassie is not a vegan.” _Lasionycteris noctivagans_ Common: Silver-haired bat I still remember it long after my last Mammology final, which was sometime back in 1997. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2007, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-mnemnonics/427735/20 "2007-11-26T04:10:04Z")
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