# Your Mnemonical Responses to People and Place Names? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 24, 2016, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-mnemonical-responses-to-people-and-place-names/744108 "2016-01-24T20:45:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jennshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Jennshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jennshark)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2016, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-mnemonical-responses-to-people-and-place-names/744108/1 "2016-01-24T20:45:47Z")
“Mnemonical” is not the correct term, but here we go: What names, places, etc always provoke the same grey matter response for you? For example: Every time I hear NPR reporter Eleanor Beardsley’s a name, my brain seizes upon a certain song. What might that song be? (No hints, as I think this is really easy). A bowling alley/bar located on my street corner is called “Slocum’s.” What phrase might this name invoke for a BBC aficionado? ---
**Author:** ![RobDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f07891/32.png) [@RobDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RobDog)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2016, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-mnemonical-responses-to-people-and-place-names/744108/2 "2016-01-24T20:53:03Z")
Eleanor Beardsley Eleanor Rigby Slocum’s Are you being served? How’d I do? ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2016, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-mnemonical-responses-to-people-and-place-names/744108/3 "2016-01-24T21:02:01Z")
Only vaguely related but I like it. 30 days hath September…all the rest I don’t remember. ---
**Author:** ![Jennshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Jennshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jennshark)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2016, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-mnemonical-responses-to-people-and-place-names/744108/4 "2016-01-24T21:04:59Z")
> [@RobDog](#): > > Eleanor Beardsley > > Eleanor Rigby > > Slocum’s > > Are you being served? > > How’d I do? Niiiiiice! You win a year’s supply of rice in a jar 😉 For bonus points: what is Mrs. Slocombe’s famous phrase? ---
**Author:** ![Jennshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Jennshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jennshark)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2016, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-mnemonical-responses-to-people-and-place-names/744108/5 "2016-01-24T21:08:51Z")
> [@billfish678](#): > > Only vaguely related but I like it. > > 30 days hath September…all the rest I don’t remember. Whenever I see a certain animal: “Red touch yellow, kill a fellow”; “red and black, venom lack” What animal is this a warning about? ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2016, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-mnemonical-responses-to-people-and-place-names/744108/6 "2016-01-24T21:13:17Z")
> [@Jennshark](#): > > Whenever I see a certain animal: “Red touch yellow, kill a fellow”; “red and black, venom lack” > > What animal is this a warning about? Red on yellow kill a fellow…red on black okay jack (I think). That is for coral snakes and their look alike cousins. For me, if it is a banded snake of red, yellow, and black I leave it the fuck alone…because first to me the “rhym” seems open to interpretation and second, I can never be sure I have remembered it right! ---
**Author:** ![Jennshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Jennshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jennshark)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2016, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-mnemonical-responses-to-people-and-place-names/744108/7 "2016-01-24T21:19:45Z")
> [@billfish678](#): > > Red on yellow kill a fellow…red on black okay jack (I think). > > That is for coral snakes and their look alike cousins. For me, if it is a banded snake of red, yellow, and black I leave it the fuck alone…because first to me the “rhym” seems open to interpretation and second, I can never be sure I have remembered it right! We could make that work: “red touch black, don’t give a frack.” Yeah, I’m not counting on this ditty to save me from a pursuing banded snake. "Wait! Is that a milk or coral snake? Hmmmm . . . " _CHOMP_ :mad: ---
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2016, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-mnemonical-responses-to-people-and-place-names/744108/8 "2016-01-24T21:56:39Z")
When I was in eighth grade we had to label every nation on a map (those big enough to appear on the map, anyway). I remember “Pakistan got cold and crawled under an Afghanistan”, and “Guyana is the Suriname of French Guiana”. It was close enough. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2016, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-mnemonical-responses-to-people-and-place-names/744108/9 "2016-01-24T22:52:01Z")
Every time I hear a reference to Sylvia Poggioli, I think of the Car Talk guys: _“And even though Sylvia Poggioli says “Mama Mia” every time she hears us say it, this is NPR…”_ ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2016, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-mnemonical-responses-to-people-and-place-names/744108/10 "2016-01-25T02:55:36Z")
> [@Jennshark](#): > > We could make that work: “red touch black, don’t give a frack.” > > Yeah, I’m not counting on this ditty to save me from a pursuing banded snake. "Wait! Is that a milk or coral snake? Hmmmm . . . " _CHOMP_ :mad: Problem is that coral snakes are shy and reclusive, so you rarely see them even in regions where they’re common. They also have small mouths, too small to bite most people. The people most likely to get bitten by a coral snake are gardeners, who may get nipped on the finger while working in thick undergrowth or ground cover plants. ---
**Author:** ![quiltguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e47774/32.png) [@quiltguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/quiltguy)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2016, 11:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-mnemonical-responses-to-people-and-place-names/744108/11 "2016-01-25T11:02:41Z")
> [@Jennshark](#): > > Niiiiiice! You win a year’s supply of rice in a jar 😉 > > For bonus points: what is Mrs. Slocombe’s famous phrase? “And I am unanimous in that!” ---
**Author:** ![Jennshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Jennshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jennshark)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2016, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-mnemonical-responses-to-people-and-place-names/744108/12 "2016-01-25T16:23:03Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > Problem is that coral snakes are shy and reclusive, so you rarely see them even in regions where they’re common. > > They also have small mouths, too small to bite most people. > > The people most likely to get bitten by a coral snake are gardeners, who may get nipped on the finger while working in thick undergrowth or ground cover plants. Good work - I’m an amateur herpie, happy to see you caught the joke 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Tatterdemalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/43a26b/32.png) [@Tatterdemalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tatterdemalion)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2016, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-mnemonical-responses-to-people-and-place-names/744108/13 "2016-01-25T16:31:52Z")
Every time I hear David Wessel interviewed on NPR’s Nightly Business Report, I always ask if he knows where the nuclear Wessels are. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2016, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-mnemonical-responses-to-people-and-place-names/744108/14 "2016-01-25T19:48:41Z")
I once named my pet cats Olaf and Gus, so I’d remember Order/Family/Genus/Species. I don’t have any trouble memorizing a list of about 50-100 items, by putting them into alphabetical order and remembering how many start with each letter. Like, counties in my state. Usually, I can eventually call to memory a name or a word, by going through the alphabet and singling out letters that I associate with the name.