… in order to get these new “How to Remember the Order of the Planets” mnemonics, now that “My Very Elegant Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas.” The winner is marvelously topical, by Josh Mishell, even if it’s one of the ones offered up as a protest (and so keeping
the nine-count):
My! Very Educated Morons Just Screwed Up Numerous Planetariums.
Though, being a pedant, I’d probably say “Planetaria.”
For those who want a mnemonic that works with the new arrangement (while it lasts), there’s Bart Baxter, who nicely paralleled the original:
Most Vexing Experience, Mother Just Served Us Nothing!
Honestly speaking, I never needed the mnemonic for this — a plenitude of old astronomy books when I was growing up had me visually aware of the Solar System’s order, except for those two dumb green gas giants at the outside — and then it was a matter of remembering that, just like the two bracketing summer holidays, they come in reverse alphabetical order.
(via BoingBoing)
I was listening to “All Things Considered” on NPR yesterday. Thursday they read the listener letters. One person wrote in that they “jumped of joy” when they heard the news because they are fans of
Gustav Holst: The Planets Suite and it doesn’t include Pluto. It’ll be interesting to see how this turns out.
As I understand it, Holst wrote the suite about 20 years before Pluto was discovered, but declined to add a movement for Pluto.
(Test.)
I never heard the mnemonic until recently. Like Dave, I just spent enough time reading about the solar system that it came naturally. I remember a teacher’s aid marking a bunch of my answers wrong, then correcting herself, when I cleverly (I thought) added the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter (unnumbered, to show that it wasn’t really part of my answer) on an in-class assignment to list the planets in order.
And I love Holst’s suite! (Except for Venus, which I find soporific, and which Dave probably likes best of all the movements if I’m any judge.)
Honestly speaking? I’m not that huge a fan of Holst’s Planets. I mean, I’ll listen to them, and “Mars” is exciting, etc., but they’re not at the top of my hit parade for listening to.
Okay, now I need to listen to them again.
NPR’s Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! asked their panelists to come up with new mnemonics.
Charlie Pierce: Many Virgins Enter My Jacuzzi Swooning Uncontrollably Nightly
Amy Dickinson: Most Very Eligible Men Just Sleep… Until Now.
Adam Felber: My Volkswagen Emits Mick Jagger Songs Until Noon