Received wisdom

The British government is advising teachers not to teach the old "i before e, except after c" rule, since it has so many exceptions. This is probably just as well. The rule has saved me many times, but has led to confusion almost as often. Expansions of the rule help only a little, as:

"I before e, except after c,
or when sounded like a
as in neighbor and weigh,
and except seize and seizure,
and also leisure,
weird, height, and either,
forfeit and neither."

To which one writer adds,

"and on weekends and holidays
and all throughout May."

The "rule" indeed has too many exceptions, including an interesting one pointed out by Wikipedia: "oneiromancies" (divinations by dreams), which breaks it twice, in different ways.

So I'm willing to give it up, and consign it to the Museum of Misbegotten Mnemonics.

Alas, with Pluto no longer an official planet, one can't remember the outer planets anymore by reciting "Jerry sneaked under Norma's porch." But I'm clinging to "George eats old gray rats and paints houses yellow," which (as you can see) is an aid to those challenged by the spelling of "geography."