Blotty Blot Blot

Soooooooooo a big thing in molecular biology/genetics, as someone out there probably knows, is the blot. As in, blot analysis. As in, Southern blot. Northern blot. Western blot. Every time we go back through and learn the whole procedure again (since 9th grade, I've probably learned it 5 times?) I spend most of the class period doing two things:

A) Wondering why I ever put forth the effort and energy toward researching about and learning the blot analysis procedure ON MY OWN...the FIRST TIME, seeing as it's clearly something that every teacher ever feels the need to reteach.
B) Contemplating why on Earth hoity-toity, high tech scientists, constantly in a race to the next Nobel Prize or to the next random pooping mechanism that they can name after themselves, NAMED THE THING A BLOT.

Neither question of mine has, unfortunately, ever been answered. But as a part of that effort I put forth in learning blot analysis, I DID make my very own contribution to science by making a mnemonic device to remember which blot deals with which macromolecule. Prepare yourselves (it's a cheer, say it with enthusiasm):

South, North, West! D and R Protest!

IT RHYMES!! I know, genius, right? To anyone that hasn't stopped reading yet (My deepest apologies but it is, after all, your fault) this OBVIOUSLY means that South = DNA, North = RNA, and West = Protein.

Sad story, though. It never really caught on. But it helps me go to bed at night if I retain the one small thread of hope that says, hey, you know what? You probably helped someone through their first cell biology class. I mean, probably not, but you do what you gotta do to live with yourself.

My last random comment about blots-- my favorite part of any diagram showing the procedure for a Southern blot is the fact that ontop of the chemical gel, nitrocellulose paper, bio-sponge, and finely tuned buffer solution invariably sits "stacked paper towels." And is labeled as such. Textbook authors couldn't cut the guys some slack and call them "absorbant fiber sheets" or something of the like??? Haha, it makes me smile.

No really, my last random comment-- I think I just saw ET go past Ehringhaus. Well, not ET I guess, but the kid on the bicycle with the sweatshirt hood and all? I guess there really wasn't an alien. OKAY ALREADY, I saw a kid with a hoodie riding a bicycle!!!! It seemed cool circa 15 seconds ago.