I believe the intended message of the “fight back, lay down, goodnight” maxim is “Thou shalt not generalize your experience with black bears to grizzlies!” I don’t expect there is much danger of someone asking “if not friend, why friend shaped?” of polar bears; they just fill out the Rule of Three.
It’s a lot like the “red touches yellow, he’s a friendly fellow; red touches black, you’re dead, Jack” mnemonic for snakes: people are very likely to encounter the (relatively) harmless one, and you really want them not to learn the wrong lessons from that.
I believe the intended message of the “fight back, lay down, goodnight” maxim is “Thou shalt not generalize your experience with black bears to grizzlies!” I don’t expect there is much danger of someone asking “if not friend, why friend shaped?” of polar bears; they just fill out the Rule of Three.
It’s a lot like the “red touches yellow, he’s a friendly fellow; red touches black, you’re dead, Jack” mnemonic for snakes: people are very likely to encounter the (relatively) harmless one, and you really want them not to learn the wrong lessons from that.
Your snake mnemonic is not the standard one and gives an incorrect, inverted result. Was that intentional?
This is a coral snake, which is dangerously venomous:
This is a king snake, which is totally harmless unless you’re a vole or something:
The mnemonic I’ve heard is “red and yellow, poisonous fellow; red and black, friend of Jack”