Detox

A few months ago, in an effort to make better use of all the labels that accumulate on this blog, I began to combine some of the ones that had only been mentioned once in - I hoped - mnemonic couplings. Foreskin - Paris Hilton, I seem to remember, was a particular success. Now I've received a comment on a group that paired Scientology with semi-colon. The comment was made by an entity called colon cleanse natural and, after a summary reference to Scientology being a Cult of Lies, so no problems there, it turns into a plug for a book on English usage written by "two experienced college English teachers". I wonder if they're aware that their no doubt valuable work is being promoted by a site (see advisory board members above) that also reviews such products as Intestinal Drawing Formula, Ultra Colon Cleanse Kit and (shudder) Bowtrol. More to the point, I wonder why.

Mnemonics

I've noticed that many of my labels (the little words at the bottom of each post - I know you knew, but still...) have only been used once. This seems a very uneconomical practice, so I thought I'd try to boost the numbers of a few by reviving a mnemonics exercise I was taught many years ago. It goes like this. If you want to remember something you should associate it with something else in as kinetic, colourful and, if possible, obscene a way as possible.

Now I'm not going to do this for you. I'm simply going to give you the pairs of words and let you do the associating. Here goes (and I'll start with an easy one):

Borghezio - buttplug
Larry Craig - body snatchers
bars - pottery
circumcision - Paris Hilton
Ratzinger - very dark cave
fatwa - eucharist
heritage - dementia
Rupert Everett - soap

I'll be testing you in the weeks to come. Don't let me down.