Friday, August 25, 2006

NO MORE PICKLES

I’m not one to get overly sensitive about scientific issues, but the news lately has been ghastly. It seems that the International Astronomical Union has coldly voted off Pluto from the solar system! It troubles me because can earth be far behind? How can you vote off years of recognition by millions and millions of people?

There are major ramifications by the callous move by a bunch off fussy astronomers, issues that affect not only the science of astronomy, but also math and literature. Kids will think nine planets and see only eight! How do we explain that? If some child were to come to me and say: “what happened to Pluto?” what do I tell him? “Well son, Pluto was a fake, a sham, it got what it deserved.” Now eight will mean nine, and think of all the books in the universe that mention Pluto, all have to be rewritten.

Future conversation:

Me: “Pluto is gone”

#2 Son: “Cool, buy another one.”

As you can see this will not do.

But the biggest issue is mnemonic standbys such as: My very eager Mother just served us nine.

NINE WHAT?

No more pickles!

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