As a young fella in school, I recall a test that our class was about to have. Our young feeble minds strained to remember facts that, as an adult, flows freely from our brows. A form of remembering facts that was taught to us by our teachers was to take the first letters of those that we were trying to recall and form a familiar word with them. That way, when we were posed with a particular question, we'd remember a single word and go on from there. Easy as pumpkin pie. (Although I have no idea how pumpkin pie is made, so I have doubts on the ease of it's construction.)
On one particular exam, myself and some friends had conglomerated beforehand, a rarity in itself, to go over our notes and form some kind of format to tackle what we believed would be a tough test of the things we'd been taught. One of the questions involved naming the Great Lakes. Our young minds had trouble remembering all of them, and before you laugh at this premise, I doubt there are many existing adults who can recall all of them either. I watch TV. I know there's a LOT of stupid people in the world today.
Applying the method of using the first letters of each lake, we came up with the word S.H.M.E.O. While SHMEO isn't an actual word in the English language, it was the only word that the three or four of us could surmise with the letters presented before us. SHMEO was easy to recall, as it made us all chuckle and feel good, just like the word Sussudio makes Phil Collins feel good.
In the decades since that big exam which, by-the-way we all did very well on, every time I've ever seen a picture of the Great Lakes or heard them in reference, I've thought of the word SHMEO and it has brought a smile to my face, every consecutive time.
This morning I was watching the show Repo Games, while I was getting dressed. One of the questions posed to a contestant was: H.O.M.E.S. is a word taught to students as a reference to remembering the names of the Great Lakes. Huron, Ontario, Michigan and Erie are the first four, what is the fifth?" As dumb as the contestants are on this show (three sisters believed Atlanta was a state, not a city), they easily answered "Superior". It was a question that was a little too easy, if you ask me, but then again, as stated before, the show rarely showcases road scholars.
I sat there on the edge of my bed, socks in hand realizing that HOMES was a far better and easier word to recall than SHMEO, so I question who the "road scholar" in this scenario is. The younger me did pass that exam, SHMEO successfully serving it's purpose and in the end, the word has given me a reason to smile over the past couple decades.
On one particular exam, myself and some friends had conglomerated beforehand, a rarity in itself, to go over our notes and form some kind of format to tackle what we believed would be a tough test of the things we'd been taught. One of the questions involved naming the Great Lakes. Our young minds had trouble remembering all of them, and before you laugh at this premise, I doubt there are many existing adults who can recall all of them either. I watch TV. I know there's a LOT of stupid people in the world today.
Applying the method of using the first letters of each lake, we came up with the word S.H.M.E.O. While SHMEO isn't an actual word in the English language, it was the only word that the three or four of us could surmise with the letters presented before us. SHMEO was easy to recall, as it made us all chuckle and feel good, just like the word Sussudio makes Phil Collins feel good.
In the decades since that big exam which, by-the-way we all did very well on, every time I've ever seen a picture of the Great Lakes or heard them in reference, I've thought of the word SHMEO and it has brought a smile to my face, every consecutive time.
This morning I was watching the show Repo Games, while I was getting dressed. One of the questions posed to a contestant was: H.O.M.E.S. is a word taught to students as a reference to remembering the names of the Great Lakes. Huron, Ontario, Michigan and Erie are the first four, what is the fifth?" As dumb as the contestants are on this show (three sisters believed Atlanta was a state, not a city), they easily answered "Superior". It was a question that was a little too easy, if you ask me, but then again, as stated before, the show rarely showcases road scholars.
I sat there on the edge of my bed, socks in hand realizing that HOMES was a far better and easier word to recall than SHMEO, so I question who the "road scholar" in this scenario is. The younger me did pass that exam, SHMEO successfully serving it's purpose and in the end, the word has given me a reason to smile over the past couple decades.
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