The Lord Protector of England, Oliver Cromwell, is said to have preferred truth in Art, so when he sat for his official portrait, he instructed the artist to depict his face as it was, "warts and all".
Sometimes the idiom is hyphenated, "warts-and-all" for adjectival use, to describe a scrupulously honest account of something or someone's character with no attempt to hide flaws, faults, and less than attractive attributes.
It's not necessarily a bad thing, although, it might be a tad deceptive to show pimples in a portrait, assuming that pimples are an ephemeral phenomenon.
"Oliver Cromwell said with a smile
One seven six nought yards in a mile."
Who knows whether a successful soldier was amused by measuring distances. The great military dictator's name was probably taken for the purpose of scansion.
One mnemonic that I use at least twice a month, if not more often is:
"Thirty days hath September,
April, June, and November.
All the rest have thirty-one,
Except for February alone."
Knowing the poem is faster than looking at a calendar or asking Alexa or Claude. At least, I think so. It also uses less electricity.
"Cast ne'er a clout
Till May be out."
This is a very British reminder not to take off any clothes until early summer. If one is of a poetic bent, "May be out" would refer to the flowering of the
darling buds of May (May flowers). Even in America in the mid-west and further North, it can snow in April, so waiting until June (the merry month of May being over) to disrobe.
May flowers are hawthorn. This blog has some lovely images.
Mnemonics are devices and tricks to help a person remember information. Three examples posted above demonstrate the use of rhymes or songs. "Warts and all" is memorable because of the vivid mental image
and the associations.
Other devices are the use of acronym: one word made from the initial letters of multiple words that have to be committed to memory, or at least, the meaning of the acronym has to be understood in the case of BOGO. As for SONAR and SCUBA... I wasn't aware that they are acronyms!
Also, there are what is called Acrostics, where one creates a memorable sentence (or phrase) to nudge recall of an order of words, for instance "My very energetic mother just served us nine pizzas" ... which includes Pluto. Otherwise, the energetic mother might have to dish up Nuts.
All the best,
Rowena Cherry SPACE SNARK™
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