Sunday 28 June 2015

Modern Civilization

For thousands of years, history was recorded in songs and stories rather than words on stone or paper. When the Vikings came to Britain, they had their own pagan religion. They worshipped many gods. The old stories they told about gods, giants and monsters are known as the Norse myths. Clearly, as modern civilization developed we began to record some of our history in manuscript form. 

People every day use the old rhyme. Thirty days hath September, April, June, and November; All the rest have thirty one; Excepting February alone; Which hath but twenty-eight we find; until a leap year gives it twenty-nine.

When I was a nipper and cutting my teeth in electronics - there were a number of ways to remember the resistor colour codes.  Black 1, Brown 2, Red 3, Orange 4, Yellow 5,  Green 6, Blue 7, Violet 8, Grey 9 and White 0. One of the publishable ones was 'Black Beetles Running On Your Grass Bring Very Good Weather'

Yet we still have a lingering trait - we still use words as an aid to our faltering memory. Keeping time between GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) and BST (British Summer Time) would be impossible without the couplet - 'Spring forward, fall back.' We remember the difference between stalactite and stalagmite, by the phrase 'Tights come down'. Now who thought of that?
Now, where did I put my keys?

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