'Many volcanoes erupt. Moldy jam sandwiches, unusually niffy. Phew!' and other mnemonics

The planet dwarf planet Pluto.
Photo courtesy of Pixabay.com

Last week I promised to explain what 'mnemonic' means, and any non-word nerds will most likely be disappointed to hear that I'm keeping that promise!

A mnemonic is actually a memory device or technique which helps you remember information.  For example...

"Many Volcanoes Erupt. Moldy Jam Sandwiches, Unusually Niffy. Phew!"

...is a mnemonic I learnt at school to help remember the order of the planets. The first letter of each word corresponds to the first letter of each of the planets, namely...

"Mercury Venus Earth Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Pluto."

An alternative phonetic alphabet

As a Geordie, when I speak to people on the phone they often confuse my 'A's with my 'E's, so when spelling words verbally I often have to use the phonetic alphabet. The offical phonetic alphabet is very formal and efficient, but it's also quite boring, so just to confuse people, it's fun to use alternative words that sound like letters themselves, and say things like...

Gnomes

E for Eye  (E for I)
Y for You  (Y for U)
S for See  (S for C)
A for Aye  (A for I)
E for Ewe  (E for U)

It's also fun to confuse people altogether with silent letters and unusual pronunciations such as...

P for Pterodactyl
K for Knowledge
W for Wrinkle
P for Phonetic
G for Gnome

Here's an alternative phonetic alphabet (featuring misleadingly pronounced words) that me and a few work colleagues came up with during one of our breaks (and definitely not when we were supposed to be working).

Bread bun, bap, cob, scone, roll, barm or muffin?

Controversial questions: The bread debate.

On the Charles Fudgemuffin blog we're not afraid to tackle controversial issues, and so this week I take a look at a question which has divided many people and produced a variety of opinions.

It's a straight forward but controversial question. Take a look at the following photo and then answer a simple poll...

What is it?

Bun, bap, cob, scone, roll, barm or muffin?

10 unusual town names

This week the Charles Fudgemuffin blog takes a look at towns and villages with weird names. The towns are from all around the world, and despite their unsual names, they're all real places.

Na na na na na na na na...

1) Batman

As well as being the alter ego of [spoiler alert] Bruce Wayne, Batman is also the name of a town in Turkey.

Amusingly, back in 2008 the mayor of Batman threatened to sue Warner Bros for not asking his permission to use the name Batman in the movie 'The Dark Knight'. I'm no expert on copyright law, but here are two facts which may explain why the mayor of Batman never actually went through with his legal threat...

* Batman first appeared in Detective Comics 27 published in May 1939.
* The town of Batman was previously called Iluh. It's name wasn't changed to Batman until the 1950s.