“My Very Eager Mother Just Showed Us Nine
Planets,” I repeated after my mom.
It was the late 90’s.
Pluto was then still a part of the ‘Planethood’. As I had struggled to memorize the names of all the planets of our solar system, my mother had simply smiled and introduced me to the world of mnemonics. A series of unfamiliar, dissociated,
impersonal names had suddenly converted into a simplified, relatable phrase.