Former and Latter

I was just reading an article and the above words were tossed around. I know that they taught it in school, I must have been absent that day, how to tell which is which but it wasn't until last year that I sat down and made myself remember how to tell which was which for myself.

Of course it is made somewhat less impressive when it worked out that former is the first example (both have "F's") and then latter is the second or last (both haven't "L's"). Again when I say it out loud it doesn't seem quite as much like a (to steal an Oprah phrase) "Ah ha! Moment" like it was but then again maybe this is one of those things that I shouldn't actually have admitted too.