Lousy with Diamonds

I've lived all over the country, and have always called the thing in the grocery store a shopping cart. When I lived in Massachusetts, some of the locals called it a carriage. My husband is from England, and I lived in London with him. They call it a shopping trolley.

As a musician, I commonly use mnemonic phrases. A few that almost every musician knows are:

Every Good Boy Does Fine — Lines on the Treble Cleft "E," "G," "B," 'D," and "F"

Fat Albert Cooks Eggs — Spaces on the Treble Cleft "F," "A," "C," and "E"

Good Boys Do Fine Always/Good Boys Deserve Fudge Always — Lines on the Bass Cleft "G," "B," "D," "F," and "A"

All Cars Eat Gas/All Cows Eat Grass — Spaces on the Bass Cleft "A," "C," "E," and "G"

Most people use the acronym F.A.C.E. for the Spaces on the Treble Cleft, but I have heard this one out of one or two musicians in WV, where I lived for a few years. I now live in AK where I commonly hear All Cars Eat Cass instead of All Cows Eat Grass, but I suppose that's because there aren't many, if any, cows around here. I wonder how many mnemonics are regional like that?

My Grandma, who was raised and still lives in southern WV, uses the term "buggy" for the thing you put your grocery in at the store and push around. My family calls it a grocery cart, we occasionally use the term "buggy" but it's not all that common. Does anyone know where the word "buggy," used for a car or shopping cart, or anything with wheels, comes from?

Mnemonics: On old Olympus' tiny top, a Finn and German viewed some hops. The nerves that connect directly to the brain rather than through the spine, from olfactory to hypoglossal. A good parlor game or word puzzle is to give the mnemonic phrase and have the others guess what subject it is for remembering - extra points for giving each separate one. And a question deriving from Maggie's post, is "cleft" a regionalism? I had always seen it "clef" from the French for key, as in "roman à ...", treble indicating where G (above middle C) is inside the spiral, and F (below middle C) indicated by the line between the two dots. There is also an alto or tenor clef with two spirals indicating where middle C is - alto used by violas, the tenor by first and sometimes second trombone. These are strictly orchestral, and virtually never used in band music, although some medieval scores might have them all over the staff, but still indicating middle C, thus a form of mnemonic themselves.

I know poundings because I was actually the recipient of one once, although I must admit it was, in 1940, more an act of nostalgia than of necessity, but nonetheless welcome. My father was a minister and started in 1925 on a rural circuit where poundings were literally lifesavers. The minimum salary then was $300 - a year. My father was originally apprenticed as a watchmaker/jeweler and had a thriving business. My maternal grandfather was a locomotive engineer when that had the status of an airline pilot today. A five-point circuit was a major culture shock for both my parents to suddenly be in a parsonage without water or electricity. Their first pounding involved, among other surprises, the kitchen filled with live chickens.

Terms depend on the degree of intoxication from buzzed (showing only slight symptoms) to potted (barely conscious); a vocabulary all its own.

Probably Parker's most devastating review was of Katherine Hepburn in The Lake: "Miss Hepburn ran the gamut of emotions from A to B." She obviously survived/outgrew the review.

Gazinta: No. Either spell out "goes into" (only one letter and a space longer) or reverse the order as "four divided by two is two". For the symbol, division sign is quite adequate and known by most of those with whom you may be communicating. I like odd language as much as any, but the main purpose is still communication.  

In North Texas, it was always grocery cart. They never appeared anywhere except grocery stores until quite recently, when they came with the "big box" lumber/hardware/appliance/tool/etc. stores. Before that, the term was only used for groceries, and buggies required a horse, although carts might also use oxen, ponies, or even dogs, goats or humans in the outdoor versions.

Sermons better than the next: considering next comes later than the reference point, I would say it is going down hill fast.

hippogriff said:

 And a question deriving from Maggie's post, is "cleft" a regionalism? I had always seen it "clef" from the French for key, as in "roman à ...", treble indicating where G (above middle C) is inside the spiral, and F (below middle C) indicated by the line between the two dots. There is also an alto or tenor clef with two spirals indicating where middle C is - alto used by violas, the tenor by first and sometimes second trombone. These are strictly orchestral, and virtually never used in band music, although some medieval scores might have them all over the staff, but still indicating middle C, thus a form of mnemonic themselves.

I think my computer just auto corrected what I accidentally spelled "cleff" to "cleft," sorry for the confusion... But now that you mention it, I have heard people in my church pronounce it with a "T." Is it possible that they are doing that because of the "cleft" in verses like Exodus 33:22, where it says "I will put you in the cleft of the rock," and just got used to saying it that way?