Wednesday, August 19, 2026

Old dog, new tricks

Written ages ago. Now published.

In my youthful years I learnt the order of planets using the mnemonic, My Very Ernest Man Just Showed Us Nine Planets. It has now been decided that Pluto is not a planet. Who would know?

While I may be an old dog, I can still learn, such as this modern version omitting non planet Pluto that appeals to me, My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nachos.

Some of you may remember how I learnt to spell the name of the Sydney suburb Woolloomooloo. Sheep, toilet, cow, toilet. Loo is a common term for a toilet in England.

I struggled with spelling the word 'necessary'. I focused on the spelling, repeating it over and over again until I became confident with the spelling of neccesary. I've never gotten it wrong since. 

I'm pleased in my old age to learn when Easter falls, being the first Sunday after the first full moon after the 21st of March. From what I can tell, this is my own photo. Well done me. 

31 comments:

  1. I am impressed, Andrew.
    Most of the methods I used in order to remember such things have now been lost in the dusty archives of my addled brain.

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    1. You need to develop methods to remember your methods JayCee, or just not care.

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  2. I taught myself how to spell occasion by anthropomorphizing them like the two Cs are off to see their friend S (Two C an S). lol Be well!

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    1. That's an innovative way to remember Darla. Well done.

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  3. I was a star speller st school and the only word I ever got wrong in all those years of spelling tests was -- necessary! Never got it wrong again.

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    1. Boud, certainly by pronunciation, you can't work out the spelling.

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  4. I always excelled at spelling in school! However, history, geography and math were not my strong subjects! (still aren't) LOL! I did very well in French, spelling, typing.

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    1. Linda, I was good at spelling. Note the word 'was'. I blame spell check for my deteriorating spelling.

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    2. I totally get it, Andrew. Spell check annoys me royally! LOL!

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  5. I rarely make errors in spelling or grammar. But last week, in old age, I had no idea how to spell "inoculate".

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    1. Hels, assuming that is the correct spelling, I would have made it two nn's.

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  6. I always get "necessary" wrong, except just now and that's only because your example is fresh in my mind.

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    1. Kirk, I see you focused on my first spelling of the word and not the second.

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  7. "gotten"? Off to Trumpland with you! Meanwhile, I see you on "necessary" and raise you to "parallel."

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    1. MC, I just think gotten sounds better than got. I could have substituted spelt, I suppose. I often used the word parallel at work, so that one is not an issue for me.

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  8. Baha! your 'necessary' joke was great. My bugaboo word is souvernier. I compensate by not buying any.😃

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    1. That's funny Debby. I spelt it like that recently and spell check was unhappy. I was interested in why I tried to spell it as you did, and there was no evidence at all of what we thought being an alternative spelling. Why did we both have the same thought?

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    2. As we both discovered, River.

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  9. Love the moo, sheep and so on, well done on that.
    I sometimes can't remember for the life of me how to spell certain words and simple ones they are too...old age with me, Andrew.

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    1. Margaret, one of the many symptoms of getting of getting older.

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  10. I think you had better relearn necessary. Love the Woolloomooloo learning.

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    1. The correct spelling is firmly planted in my head River, as you can see in my post.

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  11. Tudo serve para nos orientarmos o melhor possível.
    Abraço de amizade.
    Juvenal Nunes

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  12. The Woolloomooloo one made me laugh. And apparently we are never too old to learn a new trick or two.

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  13. Keep on learning - there's so much out there. For me, necessary is 'one collar, two sleeves' - no idea why.

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    1. JB, that one is brilliant. I wish I'd known about it earlier.

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  14. In Orlando, I did a couple of development projects just off of "Econlockhatchee Trail" the locals just called it Econ Trail, I learned how to pronounce it - a native American word.

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