Speaking of Mary and the Feast of the Annunciation yesterday brought something else to my mind. Remember my mentioning a Central America mnemonic to help in knowing the countries there? (My Great Big Elephant Has No Chronic Pain.)
Well, here is another one for you dealing with the planets in our solar system and their relationship to the sun. If you recite My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nachos you will have the exact order of the planets as they trundle out from the sun.
However, there is also a non-Catholic variation of this mnemonic involving the Blessed Mother as follows: Mary’s “Virgin” Explanation Made Joseph Suspect Upstairs Neighbor.
This reminded me of seeing a very old Richard Pryor comedy skit where the Archangel comes to Joseph and informs him that Mary is pregnant but the baby is not his. Richard does several minutes as a very skeptical Joseph reacting to the news. Just when he, as Joseph, is the most skeptical and surprised, the angel then informs him that God is the father of the Mary’s baby. Joseph is REALLY shocked now.
I looked thru several old video clips of Richard on Youtube but couldn’t locate this one of him as Joseph to pass along. However, here is another of his early ones: 