If you are ever staying in a hotel in Stockholm and need to take a taxicab from Strandvägen to Lidingö and you purchased a Swedish-English traveler's phrasebook but you left it in your room and you can't recall how to say "to the right" and "to the left" to the taxi driver who doesn't speak English because he is an older man whose education ended before English was taught in Sweden's schools, just think of Shirley Jones.
Remember her?
Shirley Jones was an American singer-actress who in the movies played Laurie in Oklahoma! and Julie in Carousel and Marian the librarian in The Music Man and on television played Shirley Partridge, mother of her real-life stepson David Cassidy, in The Partridge Family. After she and David's father, Jack Cassidy, were divorced she married comedian Marty Ingels who starred in another television series called I'm Dickens, He's Fenster. You will suddenly remember that the Swedish phrases meanng "to the right" and "to the left" are till höger and till vänster, respectively, and because the ö in höger sounds like the short oo in book or look or hook or crook, and the ä in vänster sounds like the short e in bed or fed or red or wed, suddenly thinking of Shirley Jones's second husband's television series I'm Dickens, He's Fenster will trigger you to recall the similar-sounding near-rhyme till höger, till vänster and you will eventually reach your destination.
However, if you think of Florence Henderson instead of Shirley Jones, you will never make it to Lidingö.
All of this came to me in a flash in the middle of the night when orher insomniacs would be counting sheep.
As you may have concluded, I am not like other insomniacs.
The lesson of this post, which stemmed from a real-life experience of mine back in February 1969, is simply this: When mnemonics are scarce, invent your own.
It certainly makes a change from counting sheep.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate what you have left unsaid. You are a very kind, diplomatic person. Thank you, Janice!
ReplyDeleteYou are not only like other insomniacs you are unique.
ReplyDeleteThank you (I think). Although unique means one of a kind, it can also imply odd or peculiar. At least I know I am, which is not universally true among the unique. Thank you, Emma!
DeleteIn the taxi situation you describe I would just say the name of the station and assume that he would get me there. That, however, would not make for an interesting post.
ReplyDeleteAs I recall, I said "till IBM på Lidingö" on entering the taxicab, being careful to pronounch the letters and the island name in the Swedish way. However, this was in the days before GPS existed and the driver did not often leave Stockholm proper. He knew how to get to Lidingö but didn't know exactly where IBM was. Having been there before, I was attempting to assist him with verbal guidance. All was well that ended well and we arrived at the destination none the worse for wear. Thank you, Graham!
ReplyDeletepronounce, not pronounch!
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