With mnemonics, Every Good Boy Does Fine

November 14, 2003 9:15 AM

Monkey Nut Eating Means Old Nutshells In Carpet, aka mnemonics! They come in many forms, helping you remember everything from taxonomic classifications ("King Phillip Came Over For Good Sex") to the order of the planets ("My Very Easy Method Just Speeds Up Naming Planets") to musical staves to the first 31 decimal places of pi to how to spell tricky words such as "rhythm" or "principal." They're more a way of life for med students, birdwatchers, and boaters. Which mnemonics have helped you survive?
posted by kmel (54 comments total)

"Beer before liquor, never sicker.
"Liquor before beer, you're in the clear."

Yes, it's not really a mnemonic, but you hear it a lot. Personally, I've always thought it was a ridiculous liberal myth.
posted by Captain_Tenille at 9:25 AM on November 14, 2003

Phil Donahue Never Treats Sick People Anymore - for the seven layer OSI model: Physical, Data link, Network, Transport, Session, Presentation, and Application.
posted by Caffine_Fiend at 9:29 AM on November 14, 2003 [1 favorite]

If there's a single person in the United States that can tell you how many days are in a particular month without having the word "hath" run through his or her mind, I haven't met him or her yet.
posted by yhbc at 9:30 AM on November 14, 2003

Bad Boys Rape Our Young Girls, But Violet Gives Willingly.

Thanks to my high school physics teacher for that one.
posted by mbd1mbd1 at 9:35 AM on November 14, 2003

Kathy Murdered Fifteen Disco Musicians.
posted by Smart Dalek at 9:38 AM on November 14, 2003

I Prefer Milk and Tea for the five phases of cell mitosis Interphase Prophase, Metaphase Anaphase Telophase... Now if I could only get RID of the damned mnemonic since I haven't used it since junior high.

can tell you how many days are in a particular month....

I use the knuckle method instead.
posted by jessamyn at 9:42 AM on November 14, 2003

All Day I Dream About Sex = Adidas
posted by spilon at 9:44 AM on November 14, 2003

jessamyn, the knuckle method is used to teach the same to kids in India too.
posted by riffola at 9:47 AM on November 14, 2003

General Electric Leaves No Darkness is one of the few things I've retained from my Hebrew School days.
posted by Fourmyle at 9:49 AM on November 14, 2003

If was was creative...this would be funny

Mtt
Excitedly
Tries
Another
Failed
Internet
Language
To
Excited
Ruffians
posted by Blake at 9:49 AM on November 14, 2003

Richard Of York Gained Battles In Vain, for the colors of the rainbow. I like it much better than Roy G. Biv.

And since I took piano, all the music ones: Every Good Boy Does Fine/Deserves Fudge, etc etc etc.
posted by GaelFC at 9:49 AM on November 14, 2003

Arg, of course the M should be Matt.
posted by Blake at 9:50 AM on November 14, 2003

"Thirty days hath September and what the fuck, I can't remember..."

Hee, hee, that's beautiful, jessamyn.

Nice to meet you!
posted by yhbc at 9:51 AM on November 14, 2003

Once I made a mnemonic, one I dearly needed, to remember a set of 11 threats to internal validity that could plague social science research. Here’s the catchy, if fairly nonsensical, device:
Heavy Metal Testing IS SAD. --Center for Disease Control. And here’s more or less what it stood for.

History
Maturation
T (?)
Instrumentation
Statistical Regression
Selection Bias
Attrition
Diffusion
Competitive Rivalry(??)
Demoralization (?)
C (?)

The mnemonic seemed necessary because I couldn’t even remember how many of these things there were, let alone what they were. It failed miserably; I’d try to recall the mistakes I could be making, something like Selection Bias, and all I could think of was “SAD.” Even now, to recreate as much of this as I could for you, I needed help. Of course, I still remember the mnemonic, several years later, though, as you can see, I never quite pinned down what it means. Heavy metal testing is sad though. I feel very strongly about that.

Nice post, kmel!
posted by .kobayashi. at 9:51 AM on November 14, 2003

I've got the knuckle method down to the point where I can picture the bumps in my mind and instantly associate each mountain/valley with a specific month. By the time the poem types have "30 days hath" thought of I've already got december=31 matched up. It's wicked fast once you get some practice.
posted by Mitheral at 9:52 AM on November 14, 2003

If there's a single person in the United States that can tell you how many days are in a particular month without having the word "hath" run through his or her mind

It's easier to just remember that every other month has 31 days, with a "wrinkle" at July/August which both have 31, then it goes back to every other month. So, odd months have 31 days up to July, then even months after that. The "off" months all have 30 days except, obviously, for February; hopefully you don't need a mnemonic to remember that it has 28 days. That's the basis of the "knuckle" method, but you don't really need the mnemonic once you understand the pattern.

I have never really understood the whole mnemonic craze anyway. The mnemonics tend to be only marginally more meaningful than the things they ostensibly help you remember and thus are themselves not conducive to easy memorization. Might as well just memorize the actual thing you're trying to remember; you'll have no trouble remembering it if it's something you use often. And if it's not something you use often, you can just look it up when you need it.

My favorite spoof of the tendency for mnemonics to be no simpler than their targets is probably Robert Anton Wilson's "Mother Very Easily Made Jam Sandwiches Using No Peanuts, Mayonnaise or Glue." It's the eleven planets, of course (in his books, the tenth and eleventh are named Mickey and Goofy).
posted by kindall at 9:55 AM on November 14, 2003

For months, I always hear the corny song. "Thirty days has September; April, June and November, but who needs to remember? My days belong to you."

If there's a rest of the song, I never heard it...
posted by GaelFC at 9:56 AM on November 14, 2003

The Indian princess SOHCAHTOA got me through high school geometry.
sin=opposite/hypotenuse
cosin=adjacent/hypotenuse
tangent=opposite/adjacent
posted by vito90 at 10:11 AM on November 14, 2003 [1 favorite]

The Great Lakes:

Huron
Ontario
Michigan
Erie
Superior
posted by JanetLand at 10:15 AM on November 14, 2003

This post was inspired by this anatomy class I'm currently taking. Come test-cramming time, everyone shares the little mnemonics they come up with themselves. The wordplay and poetics involved are fascinating, worth a study themselves ... like, what makes the best mnemonics, in terms what helps you synthesize/retain the source info best?

Kindall, I don't doubt that they are purpose-defeating or useless to some people. Different learning strategies, etc.
posted by kmel at 10:16 AM on November 14, 2003

mdb1mdb1--

That old one about resistor color coding brings back memories (i gues that's the point!)

For our teleytype friends wanting the least number of characters to check out all the letters on the keyboard, there's "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog"
posted by Pressed Rat at 10:17 AM on November 14, 2003

mdb1mdb1--

That old one about resistor color coding brings back memories (i guess that's the point!)

For our teleytype friends wanting the least number of characters to check out all the letters on the keyboard, there's "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog"
posted by Pressed Rat at 10:18 AM on November 14, 2003

We never were taught a mnemonic for the colours of the rainbow either, for us it was just a sing song "Violent, Indigo, Blue and Green (take a breath) Yellow, Orange, Red"

For resistor colour codes, we were taught "B. B. ROY of Great Britain has a Very Good Wife" it has extra words to make a sentence. Now I remember it using "Badly burnt resistors on your ground bus void general warrantee"
posted by riffola at 10:20 AM on November 14, 2003 [1 favorite]

er warranty
posted by riffola at 10:22 AM on November 14, 2003

Geologists often use "Put Eggs On My Plate Please Henry" for the Epochs of the Cenozoic Era:

Paleocene
Eocene
Oligocene
Miocene
Pliocene
Pleistocene
Holocene
posted by daveleck at 10:23 AM on November 14, 2003

Yeah, I learned the Indian princess trig as well, but what really worked for me was Some Old Horse Caught Another Horse Taking Oats Away.

And for anyone here who has suffered through neuroanatomy : Some Say Marry Money But My Brother Says Big Boobs Matter More. (Brainstem nerves - a way to remember which ones are Sensory, Motor, or Both).
posted by synapse at 10:28 AM on November 14, 2003

I always thought it was stupid as hell, but it worked. For Roman Numerals:

I Viewed Xerxes Loping Carelessly Down Mountains.
posted by Ufez Jones at 10:30 AM on November 14, 2003

Mnemonics, our dear dear friend
posted by Nelson at 10:34 AM on November 14, 2003

For the planets I've always preferred Wilson & Shea's version - Mother Very Easily Made A Jam Sandwich, Using No Peanuts, Mayonnaise or Glue. This does include the two planets past Pluto, which are called Mickey and Goofy, of course!
posted by tabbycat at 10:39 AM on November 14, 2003

Colorado Plateau semimentary rock layers at Lees Ferry, AZ:

(bottom to top)
"Many Canyon Walls Know No Capitalist Exploitation"
= Moenkopi Chinle Wingate Kayenta Navajo Carmel Entrada

(top to bottom)
"Every Cute New Kangaroo Wants Chocolate Milk"

do I win the most obscure prize?
posted by gottabefunky at 10:41 AM on November 14, 2003

Calvin Gets Down And Eats the Big Fuzzy Cat
(Circle of Fifths, or half of it anyway...I made this up when I took music theory for non-music majors).
posted by ae4rv at 10:42 AM on November 14, 2003

Q: what does the H stand for in Jesus H Christ?
A: haploid
posted by jfuller at 10:46 AM on November 14, 2003

To teach us the quadratic equation, my junior high algebra teacher taught us how to sing it in a song. He'd stand at the front of the room, pointer in hand, hands raised like a conductor, and lead us through shouting:

"Negative B! Plus or minus the!
Square root of B squared minus 4 AC!
All over 2 A!"

He'd shout "With feeling!!" after we got through, and we'd go around again. Not a mnemonic, but a good way to remember, as it's at least 9 years later now, and I still remember the damn thing.
posted by crawl at 10:53 AM on November 14, 2003

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally - for the order of operations in math (Parentheses, Exponents, Multiply/Divide, Add/Subtract). Of course, since I teach (ostensibly - people in college that think 1/3 is 1.3?) college math, I can be a bit bawdy with it and say, "Please excuse my dumb-ass son" instead.
posted by notsnot at 10:58 AM on November 14, 2003

The one that helped me through Physiological Psychology: On Old Olympus Towering Top A Fat Virgin Girl Vends Sudsy Hops. Its the Cranial Nerves of course, though Yale and I disagree on what to call the Spinal Accessory.

Synapse, Marry Money was the other one that got me through Phys. Psych.
posted by spartacusroosevelt at 11:00 AM on November 14, 2003

DR & MRS VANDERTRAMP for the verbs in French that are conjugated w/etre instead of avoir.

Please pretend there's a circumflex over that e.
posted by widdershins at 11:21 AM on November 14, 2003

I still remember Every Good Boy Does Fine from grade school music classes. ; )
posted by SisterHavana at 11:24 AM on November 14, 2003

There are a ton of them for memorizing Japanese kanji characters. I find a lot of Henshall's to be a little old-fashioned and creaky, but chances are that a randomly-selected Western student will know more than a few of his. I usually use the ones from this kanji memorization game, or make up my own.
posted by vorfeed at 11:29 AM on November 14, 2003

Thanks, spart, I also once had to know the cranial nerves, and used that same mnemonic. Now I no longer know either the nerves or the mnemonic.

I'M NO WIMP = states which border the Great Lakes (Illinois, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan, Pennsylvania.)
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 11:53 AM on November 14, 2003

How about a Canadian entry:

Sam
and
sue
kiss
at
the
church
hall
every
wednesday
after
noon

Saskatchewan!
posted by smcniven at 11:53 AM on November 14, 2003

Having dissed mnemonics in a previous post on this thread, I'd like to share a local one from Columbus, Ohio for remembering the east-west streets in downtown: "Spring along gaily through the broad, stately town." (Spring, Long, Gay, Broad, State, Town streets. Yes, there's a Gay Street in Columbus. A popular radio station had its studio at the corner of Gay and High.)
posted by kindall at 12:00 PM on November 14, 2003 [1 favorite]

Here's another good one that most Seattleites know and visitors to our city would do well to remember. The streets of downtown Seattle, in order:

James and John
Cherry and Columbia
Madison and Main
Spring and Seneca
Union and University
Pike and Pine

"Jesus Christ Made Seattle Under Protest"
posted by vito90 at 12:11 PM on November 14, 2003

It's not necessarily a mnemonic, but I recall a scene in "Nuns On The Run" where the Holy Trinity is described as being like a clover, three leaves and yet one leaf, which Michael Palin mangles horribly into "The Holy Trinity is like a clover: small, green, and split three ways."

Oh, and the genuflection: "Spectacles, testicles, wallet and watch."
posted by mr_crash_davis at 12:35 PM on November 14, 2003

vito90, rock on with SOHCAHTOA! i guess my insane math teacher didn't make that up after all...unless you went to EHS too?

since i still remember all of these, i guess mnemonics really work: My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas (order of the planets); "FACE in the space" and Every Good Boy Does Fine (notes in the musical notation staff); and from way back in the day, the method to divide fractions: SMURF (Same, Multiply, Upside-Down, Rename Fraction). i learned a bunch in law school too, but i guess the older brain can't retain stuff as long as the 9-year-old brain...
posted by serafinapekkala at 12:35 PM on November 14, 2003

I was taught Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge

and

Man Very Early Made Jar Stand Upright Neatly Period


(and the H in Jesus H. Christ stand for Harold, as in Harold be thy name.)
posted by CunningLinguist at 12:46 PM on November 14, 2003

"Pine to the Pacific, Bush to the Bay" gets you across town in San Francisco..

Also INRI = "Initiate Nail Removal Immediately..." Not mnemonic per se, but in the spirit of Jesus Harold...
posted by ubi at 2:06 PM on November 14, 2003

A Parrot Says "Tell No Lies, Polly".

Application Presentation Session Transport Network Link Physical - the layers of the OSI network stack.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 3:39 PM on November 14, 2003

Never Eat Shredded Wheat-For the directions, NESW. I still can't remember them without saying it and pointing. I've got no sense of direction whatsoever.
posted by stoneegg21 at 4:23 PM on November 14, 2003

Well, my fave was already introduced by kindall and, er, reaffirmed by tabbycat (was that really in Illuminatus? I only remember it from Schrodinger's Cat). But how about these non-letter based mnemonics...

"Lullaby, and goodnight..."
"Here comes the bride..."
"Mari(a, I just met a girl)..."
"O-we-o. O-o-woh."
"My Bon(nie lies over the ocean)..."
"There's a (place for us)..."
"Some... where... (over the rainbow)"

These are ascending intervals (there's another set of descending ones), for those of us who can recognize them quickly on written music but are still terrible sight-singers. In order, the intervals (the part outside the parentheses above) are:

minor third
perfect fourth
augmented fourth (diminished fifth)
perfect fifth
major sixth
minor seventh
octave

I can't remember any for an ascending major third or minor sixth (anybody? anybody?) but I must have known them once. Obviously they weren't very memorable. Damned mnemonics. Always letting you down when you need them. They can go to hell, for all I care.

Oh yeah. Also:

All Students Take Calculus.
Arctangent, Sine, Tangent, Cosine. There in this order on some graph. But I can't remember where they go.

Y'see? See what I was tellin' ya?
posted by soyjoy at 7:37 PM on November 14, 2003 [1 favorite]

Hmm, spartacusroosevelt's Virgin Girl was transformed into a Vain German at my school. (And she/he vended "a hop" which goes with the Yale list).

I couldn't tell you the names of the nerves to save my life, but that phrase pops into my head at the oddest times.
posted by donnagirl at 8:26 PM on November 14, 2003

Thirty days hath September,
April, June and November.
All the rest have thirty-one
'cept for February alone.
It has twenty-eight days time,
but leap years, twenty-nine.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 1:46 AM on November 15, 2003

...but in leap years, twenty-nine.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 1:47 AM on November 15, 2003

I was always getting the westernmost provinces of Canada mixed up, so I made my own mnemonic: Be A Smart Man (from west to east: British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba).
posted by starkeffect at 3:32 AM on November 15, 2003

Anyone else remember the order of sharps in music with Father Charles Goes Down And Ends Battle? The reverse was also used - Battle Ends As Down Goes Charles' Father - but I don't recall what that was for.
posted by tabbycat at 4:41 AM on November 15, 2003