Help us remember Everett’s streets and win a prize

It’s time to one-up those chumps down in Seattle.

We’ve come up with an idea for a summer game. This particular game comes with a purpose and a prize package, and builds on an idea already at work down south.

We are challenging you, dear reader, to create a mnemonic device that will help us remember the order of Everett’s downtown streets. (We always forget them.)

You remember mnemonic devices, right? Those are the memory tricks used to remember lists of things that otherwise slip out of your head.

For instance, Seattleites use a mnemonic to remember the order of the streets in the downtown core: “Jesus Christ Made Seattle Under Protest.”

Each letter stands for two streets in the city, going in order from south to north. The J represents Jefferson and James. The C is for Cherry and Columbia. Then Marion and Madison, Spring and Seneca, University and Union and, finally, Pike and Pine.

We want to have one of these memory tricks to help us remember the order of the east/west streets in downtown Everett.

Almost anything works. You can come up with a phrase referencing the city, like Seattle’s. But don’t feel limited to regional pride. Any goofy idea works. For instance, math whizzes remember how to do equations with the mnemonic “Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally” — parentheses, exponents, multiply, divide, add, subtract.

You get the idea.

So here are the street names we want to focus on, in order: Broadway, Lombard, Oakes, Rockefeller, Wetmore, Colby, Hoyt, Rucker and Grand.

Now the challenge is for you to come up with something clever, using the first letters of those streets, in that same order: BLORWCHRG.

We will inspire you each week with a profile of one of the streets on the grid, publishing historic and current photos and fun facts about the street. Look for Broadway next week.

At the end of the summer, a panel of judges will pick the best ones. Prizes will be awarded.

Now get to work. These things aren’t going to write themselves.

Here’s one to get you started:

“Because Life Only Rewards Wealthy Capitalists, Heaven Rewards Goodness.”

Ready, set, go!

Send your Everett mnemonics to: Andy Rathbun at arathbun@heraldnet.com or call him at 425-339-3466 or 3479.