Don’t blame me, I saw it on Facebook

...and I didn't laugh out loud but my eyes twinkled and I smiled for a long time; it was the sort of low-key humor (British, humour) I love:

A mnemonic for remembering the names of the five Great Lakes of North America:

"Lisa Likes Licking Lettuce Lightly"

Lake Superior
Lake Michigan
Lake Huron
Lake Erie
Lake Ontario

Isn't that helpful?

In the past, American schoolchildren were taught to think of the word HOMES because the names of the lakes are indeed Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, and Superior. However, HOMES refers to the lakes in random order.

Perhaps one of the following senetences would work better because the lakes are referred to in geographic order from west to east:

Saying Mnemonics Helps Everybody Out
Some Men Hate Exercising Outdoors
Sarah Made Henry Eat Octopus
Spencer Meanly Hid Elizabeth's Oboe

Here's proof:

You are invited to submit your own mnemonic for the names of the Great Lakes in a comment. I will publish it unless it is lewd, crude, rude, salacious, or obscene, in which case it will never see the light of day. I alone will be the judge of what is lewd, crude, rude, salacious, or obscene.

English Is Strange (example #17,643) and a new era begins

Through, cough, though, rough, bough, and hiccough do not rhyme, but pony and bologna do.

Do not tell me about hiccup and baloney.

Hello, friends. Something BIG has happened since the last time we met here. I received notification a few weeks ago (as some of you may have) that Microsoft's support for Windows 10 is ending on October 10th and all of us who use it need to upgrade to Windows 11 post-haste asap very soon or suffer the consequences. Microsoft took a quick look at my computer's innards and told me that my computer was not upgradeable (is that a word?) because it lacked storage space or speed or something and I would need to get a new computer post-haste asap before October 10th if I expected to keep up with those in the know.

My older son, who is a bit of a high-tech guru, went to work immediately to find a replacement for me. Let me rephrase that. To find a replacement for my computer. Yesterday he came over with a little box about the size of a bar of soap, which he assured me was the entire computer (except, of course, for the monitor, the printer, the keyboard, and the mouse).

So as of yesterday I have a brand new computer equipped with Windows 11. It is made by GEMTEK and is, as I mentioned before, about the size of a bar of soap, a little larger than a computer mouse. Time marches on, and so, apparently, does computer miniaturization.

I remember when computers filled whole floors of buildings. I remember Windows 3, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows ME (Millenium Edition) 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, yada, yada, yada. For that matter, I remember OS/360 PCP, OS/360 MFT, OS/360 MVT, 7090, 1460, 1401. I remember unit record equipment: 024, 026, 029, 083, 407, 552, 557. I remember the 010 for making binary patches to punched card decks. I remember punched cards, paper tape, magnetic tape. I remember carbon paper. I'm so old I remember treadle sewing machines.

So it is not just English that is strange. The whole world is strange nowadays. Don't even get me started on gender dysphoria and the misuse of pronouns.

What do you find strange in today's world (not wrong, necessarily, just strange) given your advanced age?

If you are not of advanced age yet, don't worry. You will get there soon enough.