How long ago did you graduate from grade school?

I’m not asking to be rude or anything, it’s just that a few things have changed since us, um, grownups, got out of grade school.

Just yesterday Johnnie Mnemonic reminded us of this fact, here’s an Excerpt from his recent blog post:

“Maryn Smith, a 10-year-old fourth-grader at Riverview Elementary School in Great Falls, Mont., knows that there are 11 planets in the solar system. In order of increasing distance from the sun, they are, of course, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Ceres, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto and Eris.

The trouble is, you and millions of Americans just like you don’t know any of this.”

But once you, I and millions of Americans learn the Mnemonic Maryn Smith created, we may have more hope of remembering it. That mnemonic is:

My Very Exciting Magic Carpet Just Sailed Under Nine Palace Elephants.

There is more going on in this Universe than we have time to contemplate, but now at least we can remember a little bit more of it.