Days of the week, in French

Lundi mardi mercredi jeudi vendredi samedi dimanche
Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday

Large malignant maypoles jumble violent swollen ducks
Low magenta mathematicians judge vacant spiny dumplings

Minor Prophet books of the Old Testament

Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi.

Hands jumble artists once jovial moving notes hide zealous hairy zesty men

Mature defense mechanisms

Vaillant's defense mechanisms classified as mature:
Altruism
Anticipation
Humor
Identification
Introjection
Sublimation
Thought suppression

Allergic athletic horses identify impossibly stupid tigers
Arbitrary airborne houses improve icy swirly thoughts

Ways to improve electronic devices

Increase reliability, & toughness.
Decrease size, weight, power consumption, operating voltage, & heat.

Iguanas rub trumpets.
Delightfully stiff witches power outdoor hamsters.

Inchworms race tigers.
Drab squishy wolves produce odd hummingbirds.

Hardness of gems

The Mohs scale rates the hardness of materials, and is based on these minerals (from softest to hardest):

Talc Gypsum Calcite Fluorite Apatite Feldspar Quartz Topaz Corundum Diamond

Trumpets give chilling forms after frigid queens twirl crimson dice
Tacos grab complicated foreigners after friendly questions train creepy dietitians
Tall gleeful careless fantastic architects flail quick tiny cyan doilies

Bones of the lower extremities

Femur Patella Tibia Fibula Tarsals Metatarsals Phalanges

Famous plaid trees flatten tiny mean parsnips
Furry putrid tonsils filter toxic mad potatoes

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People

1. Be Proactive
2. Begin with the End in Mind
3. Put First Things First
4. Think Win-Win
5. Seek First to Understand, then to be understood
6. Synergize
7. Sharpen the Saw

You could almost make the phrases into a sentence:
Proactive beginnings mind first things first when winning understandings synergize sharp saws

Or:
Blue beautiful pastors test steep swirly schedules

Elements & Principles of Art

I'm going to have two mnemonics today. No extra charge!

Elements of art: Line Shape Space Form Color Value Texture

Long shaped spaces form colorful valuable textures
Limp swirly spaceships flatten careless vacant toenails


Principles of art: Rhythm movement balance proportion unity variety emphasis

Rude melodious bathrobes praise unoriginal voluptuous earthworms
Rhythmic moving balls post united variable emphasis

Steps in a manicure

Remove polish, Soak, Shape, Cuticles, Base, Tips, Designs, Top

Ravens scrape smart chefs before trolls destroy tuna
Rakes slap slimy chains because turtles dunk tigers

Five kingdoms of life

Monera Protista Fungi Plantae Animalia

mad pseudopods flog perky artists

You could just make that second word "Protista" if you like to think of single-celled organisms as aggressive and not supportive of the arts.

Functions of skin

Or, more generally, the Integumentary system:

Regulate temperature
Store blood
Protect deeper tissues
Detect sensation
Excrete substances
Synthesize vitamin D

Red soft pandas defend extreme sweatshirts
Radioactive secretaries pluck ecstatic sunflowers

Dicarboxylic acid

These are a type of organic compound. The first six are:

Oxalic Malonic succinic glutaric adipic pimelic

The "common" mnemonic is: Oh my, such great apple pie!

We also came up with:
objective mean sponges grab athletic pajamas
odious mad shepherds gulp airborne peas

Geometric translations

Three main things you can do to a shape:

translation reflection rotation

I can't believe translation really counts as a change, but okay.

Trees reduce religions
Trolls require ranges
Trucks ruin roadblocks

SI Prefixes for numbers less than one

Just in case you want to think about really tiny numbers:

deci centi milli micro nano pioc femto atto zepto yocto

Distasteful cyan moral messy nuggets prune full allergic zealous youths

"Yocto" is 10 to the -24th power, aka one quadrillionth, aka 0.000000000000000000000001. So small, yet still not zero.

Five social institutions

Again, there's not total agreement that there are only five social institutions: mechanisms of social order that effect the behavior of individuals. There might be infinity. But at least there are these:

Family Education Religion Economic Political

Fallen elements record educated paperclips

Layers of sediment in the Grand Canyon

From the bottom up:

Tapeats, Bright Angel, Muav, Redwall, Supai, Hermit, Coconino, Toroweap, Kaibab

Tall broken mad robots strangle huge chilling toxic killers
Tainted boring malodorous ravens smoke horribly creepy thin kitties

Seven sins of memory

From the book The Seven Sins of Memory: How the Mind Forgets and Remembers by Daniel L. Schacter

Fading, absent-mindedness, blocking, misattribution, suggestibility, bias, persistence.

Fast abstract batteries manipulate shadowy boring potatoes.
Filthy amusing bulldogs move square boring peanuts.

Four Bases of DNA

Guanine Thymine Cytosine Adenine (otherwise known as G T C & A).

Great trains crash accordions
Gentle tractors comb anteaters

Bones of the wrist

Trapezium Trapezoid Capitate Hamate Scaphoid Lunate Triquetral Pisiform

Tall thin colored hangars stretch limp tiny papayas
Tiny transparent colored hammers scoot lazy temporary pianos

Five drafters of the US Declaration of Independence

Franklin Jefferson Livingston Adams Sherman

Known as the "Committee of Five", these men from different states were tasked to draft the Declaration for presentation to the second continental congress. They are also shown in the foreground of "Declaration of Independence", a painting by John Trumbull that was used on the face of the US $2 bill.

floppy jellyfish lick adorable spaceships

Scientific method

Purpose research hypothesis procedure analysis conclusion

Pink robotic hamsters proofread airborne crayons.
Plaid round helicopters engulf arbitrary customers.

OSI model

Application Presentation Session Transport Network Datalink Physical

I love the OSI model. I was an electrical engineer so I only got to learn about it in my random little computer crossover classes but I liked that we had a hierarchy of our own. I also liked that I could take established standards for a physical layer and toss everything above that if I felt like it.

Active potent spiders tickle nifty dreamy pandas
Angelic plush sponges tighten neat delicious potatoes

Human organ systems

skeletal digestive muscular endocrine circulatory nervous reproductive urinary respiratory integumentary

I saw this and thought to myself, "Oh finally, an anatomy topic for the people!" Then I tried to verify that there are indeed 10 organ systems in the human body and got into this whole classification mess because no one can agree on how many systems there are or that these are some kind of "top ten". Some sites I found said there were 9 major systems, some 11, some 13. Oh well. If you like these 10, here's a mnemonic.

Slimy drugged mean esoteric chickens nudge repetitive ugly red inchworms
Scary distasteful magenta external cubes navigate rural unusual radioactive islands

Six models of the Catholic church

Since the mid-1970s, Catholics have been taught that there are different models of understanding the church. Originally five, there are now six models. Each one is important to the church, and should be kept in balance with the others. These were introduced by Cardinal Dulles in his 1974 book, Models of the Church.

Institution, Mystical Communion, Sacrament, Herald, Servant, Community of Disciples

Invisible medical staffs hush strange cows? You all know how I feel about religious mnemonics... you should probably just remember the terms! But I love writing about them because it gives me a chance to learn about another religion, these models can certainly be applied to any church or religious organization. I am not Catholic but there's a great deal of wisdom in that faith.

More info...

Symptoms of psychosis

Hallucinations, Delusions, (Disorganized) Speech, (Disorganized) Catatonic Behavior

huge daughters snort chocolates

Cranial nerves

Olfactory
Optic
Oculomotor
Trochlear
Trigeminal
Abducens
Facial
Auditory
Glossopharyngeal
Vagus
Spinal Accessory
Hypoglossal

There's actually a whole page on Wikipedia for this: List of mnemonics for the cranial nerves. The most famous one is Oh, Oh, Oh, To Touch And Feel A Girl's Very Soft Hands.

But what the heck.

Obese orderly old transparent tall Americans fold abstract gentle vertical swollen hats
Omnipotent organized operational tainted tingly aubergines feel airborne grounded vacant sickly hands

I don't think I can beat the classics at this one.

Baltic states

These countries have access to the Baltic Sea:

Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Russia, Sweden

Determined educated friendly gifted iguanas lick lonely northern popular ruined sheep.

Or if you're only interested in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania:
Eskimos lack lawnmowers (which is true)

Bookkeeping errors that do not affect a trial balance

Omission
Commission
Principle
Original entry
Reversal
Compensation

These spell out "OCPORC" (which I assume is pronounced oak-pork).

But we also have: Oozing cyan peppers operate repetitive cows

Void where prohibited, exceptions apply, please consult your legal council for more information.

Functions of political parties

In honor of 4/20 day, we'll have a government mnemonic.

Things political parties do
Fundraising
Candidate selection
Campaign
Voter cues
Articulate policies
Policy-making coordination

I didn't make this list, that's why "drive wedge issues into the mainstream so the people can't tell how ineffective government is" didn't make the list. Oh did I say that out loud? Oh well, a mnemonic:

Fantastic costly chains visit abstract places

Seven Grandfather Teachings

The Anishinaabe people, made up of several indigenous tribes in what is now the northwest United States and Canada, teach seven basic principles about how we are to treat others:

Wisdom love respect bravery honesty humility truth

I think applying a mnemonic in our normal random funny way might be a little sacrilege, so why not make the words themselves into a sentence?

Wise loving rhythms birth honest humble truths

Cardinal directions

North East South West

I was taught "Never Eat Soggy Waffles" but I think we found an even better one: "Nutty eskimos smell whales".

Sinners in Dante's Hell

I am not terribly familiar with the writings on Dante, but make sure you're not one of these people:

Panderers Flatterers Simoniacs Astrologers Barterers Hypocrites Thieves Fraudulent Scandal Falsifiers

The mnemonic:
puffy fat squishy amusing bubbles hump tingly flat sad figs
plush frigid squishy active babies hork toxic fat spiney footballs

Grocery list?

People type this in all the time. And I don't mean "things like this", I mean this, exactly:

Milk eggs margarine oranges rhubarb ice cream eggplant sausage

It spells "MEMORIES". What's that about? There's got to be a backstory here. Anyway there's no sense making mnemonics for it, because it is a mnemonic, but I have some anyway. They also spell MEMORIES.

magenta early missed opportunities read invisible eloquent snakes
metallic eastern minuscule oboes rectifying involved eastern symposiums
malevolent educated mad obsessive roommates imply esoteric acrobatic soybeans

By the way "esoteric" was a new word to me, it basically means "understood by an elite inner circle". Like acrobatic soybeans. That last one is a real story.

Endochondral ossification

Endochondral ossification is a process that creates fetal bone tissue in mammals. There are zones, or types, of cartilage that can be seen at a microscopic level during this process:

reserve proliferation hypertrophy calcification ossification

Or:

Radioactive planets hush clean oboes.
Runny patterns hurl cyan oranges.
Righteous pillows hide colossal opportunities.

Better info is at Wikipedia.

Effective Listening Skills

These are commonly discussed components of effective listening & communication skills:

• Mindfulness
  
• Physically receiving messages
  
• Selecting and organizing information
  
• Interpreting communication
  
• Responding
  
• Remembering

Mnemonic: Marked paranoid secretaries improve required reports
Many puny singers ignore remedial rolls

The Electromagnetic Spectrum

gamma x-ray ultra violet visible ultraviolet microwave radio

gentle xenophobic ugly violets vacuum unusual malevolent ravens

Petroleum products

These are some common byproducts are obtained by petroleum distillation but may be used outside the refining industry.

LPG petroleum kerosene diesel fuel lube bitumen

lazy public kites defend foxy lovesick buses

Hierarchy of life

Also referred to as "biological organization". It leads up an interesting idea about how one atom could change an entire ecosystem.

Atom Molecule Cell Tissue Organ Organism Population Community Ecosystem Biosphere

Athletic mad cold troubled oranges open pristine cute eccentric brushes

Meiosis phases

Meiosis is a cell creation process, like Mitosis, except it is used to create cells with only half the chromosomes as the parent scale. It is used to create reproductive cells like sperm and egg. It ensures that the genetic material contained in these cells is insufficient to make a genetic clone of the parent.

The first stage of meiosis has five phases:
leptonema zygonema pachynema diplonema diakinesis

Lacey zucchinis ponder deep doormats

Taxonomic Hierarchy

This is how we name living things. Various disciplines use slightly different systems for ranking species on the hierarchy, for instance there is an "International Code of Zoological Nomenclature" which is different from the "International Code of Botanical Nomenclature", but most codes at least include something along the lines of:

Kingdom phylum class order family genus species

kinky plush chairs obfuscate furry gassy speakers
killer purple clocks open frail gleeful sponges

Boy Scout Law

A boy scout's law is to be:

Trustworthy loyal helpful friendly courteous kind obedient cheerful thrifty brave clean reverent

Twirly loud happy full curly kites obfuscate creative tangential beautiful carpeted robots

Tall lunchboxes hide frosted cyan kings once crazy teachers build colored roads

Trying librarians hear flaming crispy kitties once crimson teacups bring clear results

We gotta think up some more for this, it seems to be an important one!

SI Prefixes

The system prefixes for 10 raised to every 3rd power between 10¹² and 10^-12 are:

Tera giga mega kilo milli micro nano pico

Tiny green mad keys measure mainly necessary people
The gigantic mean kites manipulate militant normal programs

Layers of the Earth's Atmosphere

From the ground up, layers of the Earth's atmosphere are:

Troposphere stratosphere mesosphere thermosphere exosphere

Tiny stars mesmerize twirly eels
Tainted sandwiches move toxic Eskimos

Equal opportunity discrimination basis

US Federal Laws prohibits discriminatory practices on the basis of:

Race, color, religion, gender, national origin, age, disability, marital status

Under Equal Opportunity Employment laws, you should not ask a candidate about these things in a job interview.

red colored runny goldfish navigate amusing depressed microwaves
radioactive clean rural ghosts narrate active deaf mice

Properties of metals

Some, but not all, properties of metals. "Dense" frequently makes the list also.

hard shiny malleable ductile conductors

hollow spiders measure drugged caterpillars
happy sheep mangle dreamy cars
holy sunflowers make dictatorial customers

Criteria used in naming muscles

Location Shape Size Direction (of fibers) Origin Number Action

limp shiny snakes drive orange nervous aardvarks
lazy sugary sheep dive onto nifty apples

Organizing an informative speech

Topical
Chronological
Spatial
Classification
Problem-Solution
Cause-effect

I wonder if these could be applied to stories also.

Anyway: Turbulent colored sweatpants control popular cities.

Introduction

A long while back, I wrote a script on my website to help people remember things... a mnemonic device generator. If you want to use it it's here: spacefem.com/mnemonics.

It got popular, and I got curious about what people were using it for. Everything, it turns out! People are always trying to commit words to memory. Then I decided that since it's all general knowledge anyway (not like I'm stealing anything) I might as well blog about the highlights. So each day I will tell you about something someone wanted to remember. I may not know anything about it, except what the terms have in common... if you want to know more you'll have to do your own research. The mnemonic may not be fabulous... these are computer-generated after all. Very few of them many any sense. But they're a start, and hopefully you'll find these things as fascinating as I have. Let's see how it goes.

I welcome comments, questions, suggestions. If you can think of a better mnemonic, post it. If you can give us more information on the topic, feel free. We're all experts in something.