Memory Devices

If you've been reading this blog for any length of time, you know how much I love National Public Radio.

One of the reasons I like NPR is that it reports on such quirky little things.

Of course, you know this is the lead-in to an NPR story.

The other day I heard an interview about a book by a UK author, Christopher Stevens, titled Thirty Days Has September. The volume's subtitle is "Cool Ways to Remember Stuff." The thin book contains all kinds of mnemonics. Before the interview was complete, I had gone online and ordered the book, which was waiting for me when I got home from work tonight.

So I'm going to share some of my favorites.

Henry VIII of England had six wives: Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard and Katherine Parr. You've probably already heard the memory device to remember them. I had:

Divorced, beheaded, died;
Divorced, beheaded, survived.

Since we're doing English history, I loved this mnemonic to remember the various houses that have ruled the country:

No Point Letting Your Trousers Slip HalfWay.

The houses, of course, are:

Norman
Plantagenet
Lancaster
York
Tudor
Stuart
Hanover
Windsor

Note that "Half Way" is spelled "HalfWay." That's because King George V changed his family name from the German Hanover to Windsor.

I especially liked the short words to help remember the three tallest mountains in the world in order of size, the three longest rivers in order and the three largest deserts in order:

Everest 29,035 feet high
K2 28,251 feet high
Kangchenjunga 28,169 feet high

Here's the mnemonic for the mountains:

Ever Kayaked twice (2) with a Kangaroo?

And the rivers:

The Nile 4,130 miles long
The Amazon 4,000 miles long
The Yangtze 3,915 miles long

Just say NAY

And the deserts:

The Sahara 3,500,000 square miles
The Arabian 1,000,000 square miles
The Gobi 500,000 square miles

Their initials spell out SAG

I am soooo easily amused.