Themanfromnantucket - There Once Was A Man From Nantucket...

It's been a while since I posted any limericks or double dactyls.

I would like to rectify this wrong by requesting your assistance. If you have any ideas, prompts, or even a vague and somewhat insubstantial notion of an idea you'd like to see put into rhyming form, drop it in my ask box.

If it intrigues me or otherwise tickles my fancy you might just get a poem in return.

Roses are red, that much is true, but violets are purple, not fucking blue.

That is most definitely NOT the mnemonic for the cranial nerves that I learned.

(Keep in mind that I learned it with the Statoacoustic nerve instead of the Vestibulocochlear)

-hover for mnemonic or check the tags-

Cranial Nerves

There are twelve nerves that come out of or into the brain (the rest of the nerves go out of and into the spinal cord).  These cranial nerves have been whitened on this picture, and you can see all twelve pretty well (one of each on each side).  They include the olfactory for smelling (the most anterior- or on this picture, the highest), optic for seeing (the second highest, shown as they cross at the optic chiasm), as well as many motor and sensory neurons for the face- and the vagus, which you may have heard of in terms of heartrate, breathing, etc. (The vagus modulates the parasympathetic response- or the relaxing as it is opposite to the stress response.  The vagus slows heartrate, decreases breathing, relaxes muscles, decreases sweat production, increases digestion, etc.)

There are many mnemonics for remembering the twelve in order (I is the most anterior to XII being the most posterior- or top to bottom on this image).  They can be named by their number (for instance, the olfactory nerve is also cranial nerve I and the vagus nerve is also CN X) or by their more common name.  The mnemonic I was taught to learn the twelve was: “On Old Olympus’ Towering Top, A Friendly Viking Grew Vines and Hops” but I will fully admit it never worked well for me.  (This sentence corresponds to the first letter of each nerve: olfactory, optic, oculomotor, trochlear, trigeminal, abducens, facial, vestibulocochlear, glossopharyngeal, vagus, accessory, hypoglossal.)

The nerves carry motor information (movement), sensory information (touch/taste/smell/vision), or both motor and sensory information!  There are also many mnemonics to remember which nerve carries which kind of information.  The one I was taught is “Some Say Marry Money, But My Brother Says Bad Business Marry Money.” S means sensory, M means motor, and B means both, starting with the first word corresponding to the first nerve through the last corresponding to the twelfth nerve (so, for instance, ofactory and optic, the first two nerves are both Sensory, the next two- oculomotor and trochlear- are Motor, etc).

[Image Source]

Noir Fiction

I finally got access to my Twitter archive. By request, here are my #noirfiction tweets from quite a ways back:

She was a nutty broad, with hair that was bonkers, and legs that just didn’t make any sense at all #noirfiction

She had a pair of legs that wouldn’t quit, no matter how politely you asked #noirfiction

She was the kind of dame where you couldn’t wait for her to leave so you could write about her on your blog #noirfiction

It was a dark and stormy…. DAY #noirfictiontwists

Her legs only went halfway up and then there was just an inescapable shrieking void, like all women #noirfictiontwists #noirbydavesim

She had legs that went all the way up, and so did the rest of her. “Get back down here,” I said. She looked at me and said “No” #noirfiction

She had a nice set of legs, and then a second, less-nice set she’d found in her foyer. That’s why she came to me. #noirfiction

Her legs were like a metaphor, and the imagery they brought to mind was extreme evocative #noirfiction

She had a body like a poem, and a face like a limerick #noirfiction

She was a real classy broad: top hat, monocle, tuxedo, twirled mustache… oh wait #noirfiction

Normally a dame like this would put me on every edge I had, but nectarines were in season and I had an entire bag. #noirfiction

She had a torso and then two weird lower limbs sticking out of the bottom of it. What were those things #noirfiction

I never cared for conversation, so I let my gun do the talking. Problem was, he was shy too #noirfiction

It’s a dirty job in a dirty city, but I’m not the cleanest guy so that’s fine by me. The name’s Paul Blart… Mall Cop. #noirfiction #blart

He had a face like a stack of pancakes and whenever he talked he sprayed butter and syrup everywhere #noirfiction

She stormed into my office like a hurricane, swinging her arms around and knocking over all my things. “Hey,” I said. #noirfiction

She had a face like this :) and a pair of legs to match < #noirfiction

She had a nice face. It was pretty. She was in my office. I was a detective! It was my first day of being a detective. #noirfiction

She had a pair of legs that ended in rollerskates and the kind of body that could stay upright #noirfiction

She had a face like a zen koan: thought-provoking but impossible to figure out #noirfiction