After making a point of saying that he was “right” and that Pluto would remain a planet, Colbert’s not going to be a happy camper over the ninth planet losing its status. But that’s his problem. Ours is coming up with a new mnemonic to remember the names of the planets since “My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nice Pickles” has become moot.
Now the obvious fix is to come up with a new food for “N.” “Just Served Us Noodles.” Or “Nuggets.” Or “My Very Ethnic Mother Just Served us Nachos.” But you know what? I think it’s time we come up with something completely different. Like “Motor Vehicles Everywhere Must Jump Sharks Until November.” Or something equally idiotic.
Go to it.
PAD
• 
TAC,
Actually, the order is fine, for two reasons:
1) The mnemonics would presumably be referring to MEAN distances, not the occasional exception. Given that Pluto is only closer than Neptune for a bit under 10% of its orbit, Pluto is quite justifiably referred to as more distant on average.
2) Pluto crossed back outside of Neptune’s orbit in 1999, so it’s further out than Neptune at present anyway. (Reference: http://science.nasa.gov/NEWHOME/headlines/ast17feb99_1.htm)
TWL
1 Maybe they just read Our Worlds at War or whatever that mega-crossover in DC was a few years ago where Pluto was destroyed and replaced with Warworld. 🙂
Maybe
Vinnie
Eats
Mild
Jalapino
Salsa
Under
Nachos
Well, if we go with the “Would Galactus eat it?” criterion, we’re probably down to two or three planets in the solar system at best anyway.
-Rex Hondo-
Here’s a mnumonic with a political meaning (which doesn’t necessarily reflect my own opinion):
Mexican Vultures Eat Many Jobs, Supplaning Non-immigrant.
>Also that apparently the text of the adopted resolution only discusses this star system and isn’t quite expandable to others. Have you heard any of that?
I’m not sure if it was the final resolution, but one I saw in the papers several days ago showed them using the names of our solar system’s planets in qorking out definitions and it seemed to me then that, as we discover more worlds around other stars, these definitions will be shown to be too narrow.
As for clearing their immediate neibourhoods, it would seem to me Mercury wouldn’t count as one would expect nearby Sol had done most of that for it.
My Very Excitable Monkey Just Shot Uncle Ned
Bleep the mnemonics. This is ridiculous.
And if it triggers the IAU’s version of Civil War, I’m not losing much sleep over it. They still haven’t gotten around to setting up a naming convention for extrasolar planets either.
First, as far as astrology goes, I was into it for a, thankfully, brief period. I snapped out of it when the book “Love Signs” by Linda Goodman said that Virgos (my sign) were still waiting for the discovery of the sign’s true ruling planet, Vulcan. Not Spock’s. This Vulcan is supposed to exist between the sun and Mercury.
We do still have the New Horizons spacecraft heading to take a closer look at Pluto (and, one assumes, anything surrounding it). Maybe things will change after it flies by the area.
I think I’ve heard that Charon is supposed to be one honking big comet in dormancy. (And we should be hopeful that it stays that way. If it came to life, it could make things nasty for the rest of the solar system.)
Finally, part of me was hoping Pluto would stay a planet so Xena would be a planet — hopefully with a moon they could name Gabrielle. (And a little moon around it named Joxur?) But I can accept the change the other way.
Though Pluto not being a planet also means ALF got things wrong.
First, as far as astrology goes, I was into it for a, thankfully, brief period. I snapped out of it when the book “Love Signs” by Linda Goodman said that Virgos (my sign) were still waiting for the discovery of the sign’s true ruling planet, Vulcan. Not Spock’s. This Vulcan is supposed to exist between the sun and Mercury.
Quite a number of scientists in the late 19th and early 20th century thought there was such a planet, actually — Mercury’s orbit looked like it was getting perturbed in ways which might suggest it.
Once Einstein published his theory of general relativity, though, the discrepancies went away, and nobody since then seriously believes there’s a planet closer than Mercury.
You may well have known this, Kim — just a side point.
TWL
How about actually drilling the planets’ actual names into the back of the kids’ heads so they won’t need idiotic mnemonics? Would that work?
“Oh, by the way. All of the above mnemonic devices re: the order of the 9 “planets” are wrong. At the moment, Pluto is inside the orbit of Neptune and will remain so for about the next 5 years.”
This is false. Pluto was closer to the sun than Neptune from 1979-1999. The next time this happens, our grandchildren will be dead (248 years from 1979).
There is historical precedent for “demoting” a planet. Ceres was discovered in 1801 and classified as a planet. Around 1850 or so, too many asteroids were being discovered so Ceres was reclassified as an asteroid.
Sorry for being so dense, but I didn’t understand the meaning of this blog entry’s title, or the subsequent rumination on mnemonics, cuz I just wasn’t paying close attention to it.
What was the old mnemonic? “My Very Ethnic Mother Just Served Us —–what?”
Luigi,
‘Twas originally “…Just Served Us Nine Pies”, or sometimes “Nine Pizzas.” (At least, those are the two I grew up hearing.)
Oh, and I’ve generally heard it as “My Very Easygoing Mother”, or sometimes “Very Educated Mother”.
TWL
I’d very much like to see a movie called “My Very Ethnic Mother Just Served Us What?!”. It makes me giggle.
The following USA Today piece has an AP sidebar item listing potential mnemonics…
The universe has room for change
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/space/2006-08-27-pluto-changes_x.htm
Here’s what AP lists—my favorite is the last one:
My Very Extravagant Mother Just Sent Us Nachos.
My Very Elderly Mother Just Sits Up Nights.
Major Volcanoes Erupt, Making Jolts, Shaking, Unsteadying Nerves.
Make Very Extraordinary Meals of Jell-O, Strawberries and Unsalted Nuts.
Mary’s Violet Eyes Make Jack Stare Until Noticed.
My Very Exotic Mistress Just Showed Up Nude
(perhaps this one is for college kids).
Thanks, Tim.
Well, I’m back from a two-week vacation to New Zealand, and man am I glad there’s something to read here other than political discussions (even on the near-other side of the world, you can’t get away from US politics in the news).
Now, how long will it be before all of us start really picking sides about whether Pluto stays or goes as a planet?
And Xena as a planet name? What loser thought that up? 😉
The current public will still consider Pluto a planet. You just can’t take that designation from it.
Furture generations may not, but the current public will.
and the astronomical debate is still going on
The numerous mnemonic devices offered up by you kind souls has done nothing more nor less than scramble my brains, ensuring that NO mnemonic device will EVER help me remember the planets in our solar system every again.
Thanks. Thanks a lot.
Bill, I’m SURE a smart guy like you won’t have any trouble remembering the planets. Trouble is, if you try to teach anybody ELSE, though, you’ll have a complete mishmash of mixed mnemonics. That, however, did not work out to be the nifty alliteration that I’d hoped for. Darn silent letters.
I think this Pluto stuff is bullcrap. It will always be a planet to me.
behold: the power of truthiness.
I imagine that Pluto will remain a “planet” in much the same way the thumb is a “finger” and that the year 2000 was the “new millennium.” None are truly accurate, but they are so ingrained in the popular vernacular, it’ll be ages before they change, if ever.
-Rex Hondo-
Pluto will always be Mickey Mouse’s gay dog to me.
(Why “gay?” It’s an allusion to a funny bit of dialog from a television show. I’ll give one hint only: it’s a show no longer on the air.)
“Brothers”, on Showtime… a great show. I remember the scene well. Joe’s daughter Penney (played by Hallie Todd…) is trying to explain to her father (played by Robert Walden, who just found out his younger brother is gay) how lots of famous people were gay, including Plato.
“Plato was gay?”
“Yep”
“Mickey’s dog Plato was gay?”
(Well, I guess you had to be there…)
Actually, no, I was referring to the 1970s T.V. sitcom “Soap.” There was an episode where the character Jody (played by Billy Crystal) tells an airheaded character named Jessica (played by Katherine Helmond) that Plato was gay.
Jessica’s response: “Mickey Mouse’s dog was gay?”
Jody smiled and replied, “Yes, and Goofy was his lover.”
Huh. I suppose it’s possible “Brothers” lifted a gag from “Soap,” or both of them lifted the gag from another source. Or it could just be one of those things that happens from time to time. Coincidence, synchronicity, whatever you want to call it.
As I recall, Bill, Jodie didn’t actually say the “Goofy was his lover” bit until actually trying (and failing) to get Jessica to understand who he was really talking about.
For the younger folks here that don’t remember “Soap”, besides being a fantastic spoof of typical soap-opera fare, it was also the first show (or at least the first comedy) with a regular gay character — the aforementioned Jodie Dallas — and was one of the best-written shows of its era with a terrific ensemble cast.
Ðámņ, I miss it.
TWL
Tim, you recall correctly. Jodie was a remarkably sympathetic portrayal of a gay man given the time period. The 1970s doesn’t seem that long ago, but it wasn’t until 1973 that homosexuality was removed from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
Unmentioned by me earlier is the fact that I’ve never needed a mnemonic to memorize the order ot the planets. I guess when I learned it decades ago, I was able to visualize the order in my mind’s eye.
I did, however, need a mnemonic to memorize the aforementioned, and much more abstract, resistor color code. By the way, I’ll bet that because of the mnemonic, few electronics technicians ever willingly (pun intended) name their daughters Violet.
The power of a name cannot be underestimated, I suppose.
A more PC version of the resistor color code was given to me by a high school electronics teacher: Bold Boys Race Our Young Girls But Violet Generally Wins. Go See Now. (The latter portion being for the tolerance portion: Gold Silver None.) I started using that for a while, until surface mount resistors rendered the color code moot.
Poor Pluto.
A victim of retconning.
Pure gold, Gunther. Pure gold.