My 11/17/23 posting “My in-law news from a month ago” opened with this photo:
(#1) My husband-equivalent Jacques Henry Transue, his mother Monique Serpette Transue, and his older brother Bill (William R.R. Transue) from about 50 years ago
I got the photo in e-mail on the birthday of Virginia Bobbitt Transue (Bill’s wife, and so my sister-in-law-in-law) on 10/12 — the day after Jacques’s and my wedding-equivalent anniversary, celebrated on National Coming Out Day, 10/11. I wrote then:
VT’s birthday took the family’s e-mail messages afield in a different direction, about, of all things, planetary mnemonics … In postings to come, I’ll use that birthday to introduce more about my in-law family, then later get into the planetary mnemonics.
This is those postings to come, in one big package.
(On VT’s being my husband(-equivalent)’s brother’s wife, hence technically my sister-in-law-in-law, see my 8/20/23 posting “Double in-laws”.)
The family. Here I ruthlessly suppress a great many significant details, to focus on the main line of the family histories (from my point of view).
The elder generation. Now having passed on.
— Monique Serpette Transue, born September 1912, died January 2005
— William R. Transue, born November 1914, died February 2009
My generation. I was born September 1940. Married Ann Walcutt Daingerfield (died January 1985).
My immediate in-law family, starting with the three sons of Monique and Bill (all of whom have also passed on):
— Bill (born in January 1937, died in December 2008): married to VT, who (with me) endures
(#2) Virginia and Bill in Athens GA in December 1965, looking like movie stars in a publicity shot
— Jacques (born in January 1942, died in June 2003): married to and divorced from Harriet Adams, who still lives; married-equivalent to me
(#3) Our February 1996 wedding-equivalent photo
— John (born in June 1947, died in August 2013): never married; see my 8/22/13 posting “John Transue”
The younger generation. Approximately in the order of their appearance:
— Ann and I had one child, Elizabeth Daingerfield Zwicky (born February 1965)
— Jacques and his then-wife Harriet had two children, Kit (born June 1968) and Emily (born August 1971)
— Virginia and Bill had two sons, Tom (born July 1968) and Joe (born January 1979)
The first grandchildren. Among the kids in the next generation:
— EDZ and Paul Armstrong’s child Opal (born March 2004)
— Tom Transue and Janice Jones’s son Owen (born September 2004)
Yes, they’re now 19.
Virginia Transue day; and planetary mnemonics. Back on 10/12, Joe Transue posted on Facebook:
— JoeT: In lieu of celebrating Columbus Day, I invite everyone to celebrate Virginia Transue day instead. Happy birthday to my very excellent mother!
..and yes, that’s a planet-sequence mnemonic reference.
Puzzled, I responded:
— AZ: Venus Terra? (in between the M&Ms) … Mercy! It’s the Virginia Transue Marsh! (Mercury Venus Terra Mars)
— JoeT: my generation was taught “My Very Energetic Mother Just Served Us Nine Pies”: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, Pluto.
Not at all like what I was taught. From Wikipedia:
A planetary mnemonic refers to a phrase created to remember the planets and dwarf planets of the Solar System, with the order of words corresponding to increasing sidereal periods of the bodies.
… Nine planets: An English-language mnemonic which was current in the 1950s [AZ: when I was in high school, so this one is mine] was “Men Very Easily Make Jugs Serve Useful Needs, Perhaps” (for Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto). The structure of this sentence suggests that it may have originated before Pluto’s discovery, and can easily be trimmed back to reflect Pluto’s demotion to dwarf planet. Another common English-language mnemonic for many years was “My Very Educated (or Eager) [AZ: or Energetic or Elegant or Erudite] Mother Just Served Us Nine Potatoes (or Pizzas)”. Other mnemonics include “My Very Elegant Mother Just Sat Upon Nine Porcupines”, “My Very Energetic Mother Jumps Skateboards Under Nana’s Patio” and “Mary’s violet eyes make Johnnie stay up nights pondering”, as well as the apt “My Very Easy Method Just Shows Us Nine Planets”, “My Very Efficient Memory Just Stores Up Nine Planets” and “My Very Easy Method Just Speeds Up Naming Planets”.
And then there’s a set beginning Many Very Educated Men.
December 4, 2023 at 2:36 am |
I never learnt any planetary mnemonics. I just learnt the order of the planets quite easily as a youngster. I think it would have been in lower primary school. But my memory was better then, and it was probably also less cluttered with other stuff.
The first time I heard a mnemonic for the planets was when I was an adult. A teacher acquaintance told me: ‘My Very Easy Memory Jingle, So Useful Naming Planets’.
However – and I think you’ve also commented on what knowledge is really worthwhile – in all those nearly six decades of knowing the names and order of the planets, I don’t think that I have ever needed the information for a real purpose, and it certainly never came up in any work I did. Yes, my knowledge came in handy in quizzes and tests, but not much else. I suppose it helped in general reading, but anything more detailed about the planets requires knowing something about, say, composition, size, temperature, exploration, and so on. Names and order don’t get you very far.
December 4, 2023 at 7:18 am |
About memorizing the names and order of the planets. As far as I can tell, the only time this information has been useful to me was in understanding the title of the tv sitcom Third Rock From the Sun.
It has occurred to me that we were required to memorize this planetary information because schools think that memorization is in itself a good thing,; and that they think that because it’s far easier to test whether students have memorized stuff (facts, definitions, whatever) than whether they have understood concepts. Understanding concepts does mean committing some facts to memory; understanding history, politics, and current events requires that you have access to raw information about the countries of the world, their names, and at least roughly where they’re located — so if you’re American, it’s useful to know a good bit about the states of the U.S. (and the provinces of Canada and maybe the states of Mexico); and a good bit about the countries of Europe, South America, the Middle East, South Asia, and East Asia. But you should understand why these facts might be useful. (Even so, you won’t be prepared when it’s *Southeast Asia*, with Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia in it, that suddenly becomes relevant to the US.)
I’m at a loss for why at some point I memorized the names of the books of the Pentateuch, in order (Genesis Exodus Leviticus Numbers Deuteronomy); they’ll stick with me forever, as will the list of German prepositions taking the dative case for their objects (aus ausser bei mit nach seit von zu — it just sings — and it comes in contrast with the equally melodic an auf hinter in über unter vor zwischen — prepositions taking either the dative or the accusative). The German preposition lists were genuinely useful when I was learning to write in German (something I no longer can do, alas). I have never used the Pentateuch list for anything.
Then there are vast numbers of things I was required to memorize for the short-term goal of passing a test on it but then immediately forgot. I recall almost nothing of the 66 counties of Pennsylvania and where they are on a map, for instance.