Always remember: Martha never ever makes ornery noises in church. That is, of course, a mnemonic for the spelling of “mnemonic.” This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Mnemonics”
You’re listening to A Way with Words. I’m Grant Barrett.
And I’m Martha Barnette.
Grant, I have something I’d like to share with you.
Yes, please.
Martha never, ever makes ornery noises in church.
I should hope not.
What would her father say?
What is that?
Well, let me try another one.
Make new epiphanies merrily, only never include cupcakes.
You’ll never be a Hallmark card writer.
Damn, that’s why I lost that job.
What are those? What are you telling me?
Those are mnemonics.
They’re mnemonics for how to spell the word mnemonic.
Do you need that?
I used to.
You know, a mnemonic is a formula for remembering something, like Roy G. Biv for the colors of the rainbow.
And it’s an oddly spelled word, you know, M-N-E-M-O-N-I-C.
Anyway, I was thinking about mnemonics recently because I saw one on Facebook the other day that impressed me so much.
It was created by a high school student to help her remember all the U.S. Presidents for her AP history exam.
Really?
All right.
Oh, my gosh.
Let’s hear it.
I’m not going to do the whole thing, but it starts out, when a jolly man makes a joke, vexed hags tell people that fat people beat lambs.
And then it goes on and on.
And I just thought, my gosh, you know, you need a mnemonic for that mnemonic, don’t you?
I mean, it’s picturesque.
What does it sound like since Kennedy?
Can you do the end of it?
I’ll give you the last three.
Curb badness, ogres.
Curb badness, ogres.
I love it.
Curb badness, ogres.
Well, what are your favorite mnemonics?
Something useful?
Maybe you’re in the health sciences or music and you’ve got a great mnemonic you want to share with us.
The number is 877-929-9673.
Or you can send your stories about language, any kind of language, to words@waywordradio.org.
