Who doesn't use:

Thirty days hath September,
April, June and November,
all the rest have thirty-one...

to remind themselves which months have 30, 31 or 28 days?

This book is nothing but mnemonics like the above, for just about everything: spelling, grammar, mathematics, history, science, health and a few other odds and ends.

My mom used to teach me mnemonics as a little kid; mostly for spelling. (Geography and Mississippi.) My dad taught me one for weather. They were incredibly helpful for a kid trying to remember things that felt huge. The geography and weather mnemonics, or variations of them, made it into the book, but am I the only one who learned how to spell Mississippi by saying:

M, I, crooked-letter, crooked-letter, I, crooked-letter, crooked-letter, I, hump-back, hump-back, I?

Anyway, this was a fun, quick read for a language lover and there were quite a few useful aides here for future Trivial Pursuit challenges. ( )

I finally have a mnemonic for remembering affect vs. effect. That alone made this book worthwhile. ( )

A great handy way to remember everything from what to put on a bee or wasp sting (ammonia or baking powder for bees, acid-vinegar for wasps), to which implements go on which side of the plate when setting the table, to the order of the planets, the periodic elements and how to figure pi. Alas no index, but it's a little book and things are pretty easily found. This is a very good quick little reference book. ( )

Excellent resource for those that may need a refresher but especially as a classroom and/or home teaching tool for children. ( )

Remember the days before we all sat in front of computers with nice fast internet connections and a short cut to Google?In those days you had to remember stuff. You had to be able to recite it, and use it at the drop of a hat. Of course, all thats gone now. You can look up anything in seconds. But isn't it nice to know that you don't need a net connection sometimes?This book gathers together memory aids from various fields and stitches them together in some sort of order. There is everything from spelling to skeletons, Kings to continents.I expect that most people (of my age anyway) will remember some mnemonic that was drilled in to them, and will look to see if it is here. I certainly did, and found 'OIL RIG' (oxidation is loss, reduction is gain, its a chemistry thing) ROY G. BIV (the colours in the light spectrum) etc.I was especially pleased to find the one for tightening/loosening screws (righty-tighty, lefty loosey).The one I would like to have found is the one my chemistry teacher used to teach the reactivity series of common metals: Kind Natives Can Magic A Zebra... Feeble Pygmies Conjure Angry Apes (Potassium, Sodium, Calcium, Magnesium, Aluminium, Zinc, Iron, Lead, Copper, Silver Gold). I must have learnt that more than 25 years ago, and I still remember it with ease... ( )