Mnemonic Contest

As promised, I would like to tout the genius of the Mnemonic Contest's winning author. In my opinion, a mnemonic is most effective when there's an absurd element to it...something so off-beat and unrelated to the subject matter at hand that it's paradoxically impossible to forget. The way you remember the most unusual things, rather than the most usual. More than that, an effective mnemonic makes use of the formula of an adage. We remember adages precisely because of the simplistic, if slightly awkward, way they are phrased.

Here were the entries for the list of data you should send with every jpeg you forward as a professional artist (Title, Year, Medium, Size, Edition [if applicable], AP [if applicable] and Price):

• Trash Your Mind Snort Enamel Paint
• T.Y.M.S.E.A.P. pronounced |tīm|-|sēp| in other words don’t waste my time.
• Title Your Material So Ed Ain’t Peeved.
• Too Many Young Energetic Artists Promote Stoopidity
• M.Y.P.E.T.S. : Make Your Package Entirely Tempt Success
• TYMESAP ( An artist is like a cook who mixes ingredients to create a new dish. But the dish will need to pass muster with the top chef, the gallery owner. You especially like adding the flavor of ThYME SAP in your dish.)
• This Year My Status Exploded Proportionately
• Themistocles, you might send Edward a photoshopped-image-with-title-year-medium-size-edition-APs-and-price.
• This You Must Swear: Every Approach Prepare
• Tonight Your Mother Seems Especially Anxious, Peter
• The Yurt Maker Sets Every Pole
• This Year Might Sell Every Art Pieces
• To your muse send every artistic persuasion
• These Yokes Might Sold Every Art Pieces
• SPY TEAM : Sycophantic Posing Yiddish Tailors Enjoy Art Marketing
• EMPTY A'S : Enable Marketing Protocol To Your Artistic Satisfaction
• That Young Monster Still Eats All People!
• Taking Your Medicine Sure Eliminates Problems
• The Yogi's Mantra Sounds Eerily Plaintive

Of those entries, the ones that follow the effective mnemonic guidelines (i.e., those likely to be remembered precisely because they're about some unrelated, absurd idea) are, more or less, (this is not an exacting scientific process...you might argue that one of these at least is too close to the subject matter):

• Tonight Your Mother Seems Especially Anxious, Peter
• The Yurt Maker Sets Every Pole
• That Young Monster Still Eats All People!
• Taking Your Medicine Sure Eliminates Problems
• The Yogi's Mantra Sounds Eerily Plaintive

Of these, three in particular seem most in the vein of a memorable mnemonic being entirely unrelated to the subject matter at hand and in that way being slightly absurd (i.e., I think the others could easily be construed as being about finding a gallery or the art system, whereas it's hard to see how these three would ever be):

• The Yogi's Mantra Sounds Eerily Plaintive
• Tonight Your Mother Seems Especially Anxious, Peter
• The Yurt Maker Sets Every Pole

Of those, the one that reads most like an adage, in my opinion, is "The Yurt Maker Sets Every Pole."

Therefore, it is with gratitude and admiration that I announce that the winner of the Mnemonic Contest, for his adagey, absurdly memorable formula, is George. You may now commence in showering him with your adulation as well. :-)

Thanks to all who participated!