Mnemonics

Something I see regularly on primitivist sites is the realization of sheer quantity of information, especially when it comes to certain areas (wild edibles/medicinals, bow-drill/hearthstone combos, etc).

This has been bothering me a bit for awhile now, but I really only gave a little thought to it today. For some reason, I was thinking about the old Icelandic & Norwegian Rune Poems and it reminded me of mnemonic systems like “chunking”, stories, rooms, etc. All of a sudden, it seemed like the most natural thing in the world to do would be to put together a set of poems/stories or some such that would encapsulate a lot of this and make it much easier to remember. Has anyone experimented with this at all?

Hmm, maybe I’ll try to compose an “Ode to Dandelions” or something…

It sounds brilliant, jhereg. Like the songlines Penny brought up.

If we come up with some good ones, I’ll make wiki pages for them as an aide to learning the “raw” information.

Yeah we should start with any mnemonics that are already out there. There are a few, especially for plants. If you read the weather page on the wiki it goes into detail about what the weather lore means and which ones are true. We could do that for other things.

Leaves of three let it be. (“Leaves of four eat some more” -Homer Simpson)
Of course poision ivy/oak does have leaves of three so this rhyme is true. The problem I’ve found is that it makes people scared of everything else that appears to have three leaves. Some good plants. I need to do a wiki page called “these plants are not poision ivy”

Another good one is :
“Sedges have edges, rushes are round, and grasses have joints to be passed all around.”
This one is generally true. Often rushes, also known as tule in the surivial world, have round and hollow stems, while sedges have three angled stems, and grass stems are not smooth but have nodes, or joints. Obviously the joint/grass thing is a drug reference which is easy to remember. It is important to know which is which because all grasses are edible, one of Tom Brown’s top four as you may recall. Any of the three may be used for insulation, and mats, rushes are favored for rush lighting and woven figures.

A device I used to use myself to disinguish red pine from white pine is that the Red pine needles were Robust-stiff and long, and the White pine needles were Wimpy-flexible and feathery.

Actually, poison ivy, oak and sumac have leaflets of three, not leaves. So I don’t know about continueing that prhase…

pass the spleef.

True, but since most people don’t talk in terms of leaflets, and consider them the same thing as leaves I think it is still useful. You can write a whole nother verse distinguishing leaves from leaflets, smartypants. What are the ways? I remember the tourist test asking two and I only knew one way, I’m beyond that to the point where I just know and I don’t know how I know.

As far as poison ivy what we need is something more specific to narrow down the plant. Problem is it is so variable. But if you get enough verses…Something like “Vines are hairy. Ooo that’s scary.”
“Berries of white. What a fright”
or maybe “Berries of IVorY, it’s poison Ivy.”
I think the most distinctive feature is it having a few big teeth on the ends of the leaves but not all the way around. Now how to put that into rhyme?

Did anyone else read that part in TBJ’s guide to wild edible and medicinal plants where he says that Grandfather says poision ivy is one of the most powerful catalysts for using with other herbal medicines? I wish I knew more. I found that really intruiging.

I think we can propound falsehoods in our mnemonics and then footnote the truth (leaflets vs. leaves).

I like the other lines you came up with, Penny. I think the “berries of white…” works better than “berries of IVorY…”.

Poison sumac has leaflets of three? I always assumed it had a huge compound leaf like the other sumacs. I don’t think i’ve ever met any sumacs besides smooth and staghorn.

For coral snakes:
Red next to yellow makes a dead fellow.
Red next to black is a friend of Jack.

These are great! Thanks for sharing.
I love “Sedges have edges, rushes are round, and grasses have joints to be passed all around”. Thanks for that Penny Scout.

You’re right rix, sumac doesn’t have leaves (or leaflets) of three. i didn’t catch that. It does have leaflets. And it does have white berries. I find that sumac is another plant that is inordinately feared because people don’t know what they are talking about. Most normal people don’t need to worry about getting poision sumac. Only us freaks who go tromping around in wet swampy areas. At least that’s how it is up here. I just found that an image search of poision sumac yields many wrong pics. Poor plant.

I don’t have anything to add, I just anted to say this is a brilliant idea

[quote=“WildeRix”]I created a system for Observations and Songlines pages associated with a plant, animal, etc. article.

Expanation articles
-Observations
-Songlines

Template
-Tabs[/quote]

I love this too! I’ve done some research and personal experiments that might help with this…from the angle of making up one’s own riddles…check out the riddle section on this page.

My first songlines page: Cattail/Songlines

My attempt at poison ivy:

Beware she who rests on the well-traveled path
That you not incur her shiny-faced wrath
Her entwining beauty viewed best from afar
Lest her jagged teeth fasten skin with scar
Her three fingers bedecked with ivory jewels
The likes of which coveted only by fools.

Willem, I like what you said at the college about riddles:

Could we describe a riddle as “a poem with an (as yet) unknown subject”?

Not only has that question opened my eyes to the heart of riddling, but it also exemplefies a masterful way of expressing a definition in e-prime: make it a question.

I think I have always had a difficult time with riddles because I get tired of chasing those links you talk about. The plan you outlined, however, makes it seem more attainable.

[quote=“raku, post:13, topic:166”]My attempt at poison ivy:

Beware she who rests on the well-traveled path
That you not incur her shiny-faced wrath
Her entwining beauty viewed best from afar
Lest her jagged teeth fasten skin with scar
Her three fingers bedecked with ivory jewels
The likes of which coveted only by fools.[/quote]

Nice!

Here are some rhymes I made up about the moon:

The new moon always rises just when a new day dawns
First quarter rises at midday when half the day is gone
Full moon rises at sunset and turns night into day
Last quarter rises at midnight when witches have their play.

These are approximate times, the exact time differs every month. For example in October the first quarter may rise at 3:00 pm, not precisely at noon but still midday…

And here is how you know whether the moon is growing towards full or shrinking towards new if you have not been paying attention:

If you can cup the moon in your hand on the left
It will keep shrinking and leave you bereft
If you can cup the moon in your hand on the right
Soon it will shine with all of its might.

I love your moon mnemonics, Emily!

When I was in Kazakhstan, I learned a Russian mnemonic to recognize whether the moon was waxing or waning. Their word for old is “stary”, the Russian letter “S” looks like our “C” (USSR is spelled CCCP in the cyrillic alphabet) so when the moon is old/stary it looks like the “C”. And their word for growing I don’t quite remember, but it started with an “R” which looks like our “P”. So when the moon looks like the curve of the “P”, then it’s growing.

It took me forever to think of an equivalent in English.
Well, not forever, only 12 years. I couldn’t think of one because I was trying to think of something that started with our letter “P”. But then I realized that a “D” would work as well.

So, when the moon looks like a “C” it is Ceasing, and when it looks like a “D” it is Developing.

Not as pretty as your poem, but since I worked so hard to figure it out, I’ll always remember it.

Now we need a Moon wiki page, so I can add these to the Songlines for it.