In Remembance

No power or Internet at home, so I'm posting this from Caribou Coffee.  I got thinking about mnemonic devices and thought up this silly story/poem about Roy G. Biv (for remembering colors of the spectrum) and some of his fellow mnemonic rhymes and acronyms.  The most obscure is probably the one involving Aunt Sally. It's for remembeing the order of operations in a complex equation. The following is anything but high art.

                                                                           In Remembrance


                                                          Although hailed as King of the Mnemonics,
                                                          Roy G. Biv took little solace in his
                                                          colorful career. He knew it was all
                                                          a sham. Not every good boy got the favor
                                                         he deserved and many red-skied nights
                                                         brought him and his sailors little delight.
                                                        He sighed and shared such thoughts with February
                                                        alone, his sole drinking companion.
                                                       (Roy always paid for the drinks since his friend
                                                        was always a little short.) “Never mix,
                                                        never worry” was all his friend would say
                                                        while sticking to whiskey and shunning
                                                        philosophy. Then one day a drunken
                                                        lady burst into the bar, screaming, “Roy,
                                                       Roy, you surely remember me.” “You want
                                                       we should lose the broad?” asked Roy’s bodyguards,
                                                       Lefty Loosey and Righty Tightie. “No,”
                                                       said Roy, recognizing the old woman
                                                       and thinking of his happy childhood
                                                       by the Great Lakes, a place he once called HOMES.
                                                      “Please excuse my dear Aunt Sally,” he announced
                                                       and then asked his beloved guardian,
                                                      “What can I do for you?” Sally lifted
                                                       two four-fingered hands in hopeful prayer,
                                                       saying, “You can order an operation.”
                                                      Roy fell back but then sprang forward to say,
                                                     “When I first saw you, I was gloomy and struck quite dumb,
                                                      but now I pledge I will restore to you the mighty rule of thumb!”