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#49546 12/08/01 01:20 PM
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This summer I'll have to put together a big project on mnemonics. Hope I remember how to do so.

More to the point, from what I've been reading about mnemonics, often the more ridiculous the association, the more holding power the memorized material will have.

Thirty days, hath September...and all that jazz.

What I'm wondering is: What mnemonic devices do you use that you call upon from time to time? I'll read with great interest here, and will hope to come across some that will stimulate my thinking in this area.

I'll give you a very ridiculous one off the top of my head that will permanently cement the position of one of the US presidents in your mind, if he's not already there firmly ensconced:

Hold out your three centermost fingers on your left hand in front of you; and do the same with your right hand. You should see three next to three.

Think of those two sets of three as "33." Now look at each set as the teeth of a 3-toothed comb. Comb back your hair on each side of your head with each of your combs.

Now think of the hairiest president in US history. Right!! The hairiest president in US history was Harry S. Truman...and he was the 33rd president (33, your fingers; combs to comb the hair of Hairy, or Harry).

That's a ridiculous mnemonic device, but it works, if I've given you halfway decent instructions.

Anyway, I hope that you'll share some mnemonics here with the forum and me. This is kind of a passion of mine, and I'd love to mine some new ones...simple, humorous, meandering. I may quote you in my paper!! (Most likely read only by my prof, but what the heck!)

Best regards,
DubDub (with two three-toothed combs in her hair)


#49547 12/08/01 02:17 PM
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My two rats leap no jelly meal fopcap, my name for John Shar's mama famine kitchen police. Luzon Fifi.


#49548 12/08/01 04:11 PM
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Sheriff - is a really funny fellow. (one "r", two "f"s)

Accommodation - rates are based on double occupancy so double "C"s and "M"s

Liaison -- to work properly needs a pair of eyes (two "I"s)


And the famous quote from writer Alexaner Woollcott when a reporter asked the correct spelling of his name : "When in doubt put in two of everything."



#49549 12/08/01 09:17 PM
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My Very Educated Mother Just Sat Upon Noodle Puding!

But the lastest i have read about astronomy indicated that maybe Pluto isn't a planet, but just a large object in a second asteroid belt.. in which case, i guess my mother just sat upon Noodles.. or napkins.. or needles..


#49550 12/08/01 09:27 PM
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and not as neat, but fork has 4 letters, just like left, and knife and spoon have 5 letters just like right.. and now you know how to set (lay) the table!

fork(s) to the left, knife(s) and spoon(s) to the right!
--i have a real big problem with right and left.. if it weren't for the fact the your left hand makes an L, i still wouldn't know the difference.. until i learned that little trick, i used to have to pull out an etiquette book each time i had company to set the table!


#49551 12/08/01 09:49 PM
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Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars...
All are plan-ets -- not stars!
Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto...
All revolve around the sun -- in tune and tempo.

(from a Richmond Symphony Orchestra brochure for students attending a performance of Holst's Planets even though Pluto hadn't been discovered when Holst wrote the work)


#49552 12/08/01 10:06 PM
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and on any clear night this month, rising in the east, and clearly visible by 8:00PM-- Jupiter..

if you are lucky, you can even see it set in the AM. at 7AM, (the sun has already risen in NYC at that time)- but, low in the western sky, jupiter is not quite set yet.. it is about as bright as the moon.. clearly visible! in all my years i have never seen venus as morning star, still visible after the sun rose!
Jupiter's "day" is 9 hours (to our 24) and later this month, when it rises even earlier, it will be possible to watch a full day on jupiter (if you stay up all night)
It's enough for me to catch sight of the red spot (you need only the simplest of telescopes--i don't have one that needs a tripod.-- its barely more than a child scope)



#49553 12/09/01 12:03 AM
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In anatomy medical student devise many mnemonics. For instance, the bones in the wrist were remembered by "Never Lower Tilly's Pants Her Mother Might Come Home." Navicular, Lunate, Triquetrum, Pisiform, Hamate, Greater Multangular, Lesser Multangular.The Internet site I looked at uses a couple different names.: Scaphoid,Lunate,Triquetral,Pisiform,Trapezium,Trapezoid, Hamate. I'm not ingenious enough to make up a mnemonic to fit the new names.
They were fun in a subject with very little to chuckle about.


#49554 12/09/01 03:54 AM
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credit to my wife for this one (and blame me for any errors)

The cranial nerves, in the proper order for nerves 1-12:
On Old Olympus's Towering Top
A Finn And German Viewed Some Hops.

ocularmotor; optic; olfactory; trigeminal; trochlear;
abducens; facial; acoustic; glossopharyngeal; vagus; spinal accessory; hypoglossal




#49555 12/09/01 08:04 AM
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Oh Be A Fine Girl, Kiss Me (star types)

Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain (the colours of the rainbow)


Bingley


Bingley
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