It was kind of ruined for me, because I first read your posting from an RSS aggregator, which displayed the answer plain as day.

And just when I was going to toss out some guess about llamas with lumbago.

Darn it. I knew there was a reason to include an excerpt, but my brain vapor-locked. Sorry for ruining the surprise.

I would respond by saying that perhaps it's time to stop sniffing those expo markers.

Not something you'd use everyday, like 'Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally'

Sharon, you use that every day? I'm impressed! ;-)

(By the way, I actually have an Aunt Sally, and she is a dear, and she would be the first to admit that she needs to be excused on a regular basis.)

I figured out that it was a mnemonic, but like, Foo, had the surprise spoiled by bloglines.

(I wouldn't have known it otherwise.)

My favorite:
Sober physicists don't find giraffes hiding in kitchens.

Phew. For a second, I was afraid I was a replicant.

Sober physicists don't find giraffes hiding in kitchens

And I thought my subject matter was obscure!

I was afraid I was a replicant.

Heh.

It's chemistry. I remembered the mnemonic, but not what it was supposed to remind me of.

I saw this in my RSS reasder, but you'd already corrected the excerpt. Aside from situations like this, I prefer having the full RSS feed, but maybe that's just me. :)

And I had no idea. I never had to memorize that in school, but I probably would've done the same thing Soccer Dad did: remember the mnemonic but forget what it's supposed to represent. :)

Stephen, it's an ongoing debate about whether to include full posts or excerpts in the RSS feed. Reasonable people may differ, but think about this: how would you see the photos of Abbye if you just stayed in your reader? ;-)

You raise a good point hehe!