You know what, that phrase is so cool that it can even withstand the beating of overuse.

Anyway, I was listening to a podcast about Pluto (the planet) and specifically why people hated seeing it go. The answer the guy gave was that it shared the name with the dog Disney came up with. (And really, who doesn't luv Pluto the dog?) Lots of people were "upset" when it was demoted from planet status into dwarf planet. I'm kinda on the neutral line. I think they should've kept Pluto on the list as an honorary planet, at least as far as the public's concerned. But the demotion is just a thing of words... I'm not crying over it.

Now, when I was growing up in that fabulous period of time called the nineties (everything back then was better than it was today... including the economy, or so I hear) I learned my fair share of the solar system, and the big thing back then was always finding the tenth planet... it was out there, just not yet discovered. Well, taking an astronomy class right now, I can see they have found alot of stuff out there, making the search for the next planet not as exciting. (And, for the record, I think they were considering naming another dwarf planet past Pluto as a real planet, but decided against it and instead classified it as a dwarf)

Now, my biggest childhood connection to Pluto was not through the dog, but from the Magic School Bus. They took a trip into outer space once, and Mrs. Frizzlier (I think that's the name, been a while) got separated, so the kids had to go find her. Of course, they passed all the planets on their search, but lo and behold, she was on the last planet. I remember actually owning a Magic School bus computer game where you had to visit all the planets and locate her. Now it would make for a really lousy story. "Where are you?" "I'm on the last planet, keep going." "We're at Neptune, where is she?"

So really it's not so much the scientific progress but important parts of childhood nostalga that bothers me with the demotion of Pluto. I suppose alot of authors have to go back and start rewriting their work. It's like they imagined this whole big universe with limitless possibilities, and then discover they are really living inside a big mechanical being who planet-hops. (WOO HOO, Bionicle reference)

And for the record, Pluto has never been my favorite planet. I always adored Saturn, with it's many cool rings and moons. Of course, it has to be second largest behind Jupiter, so the latter always receives the recognition of the gas giants. But Saturn just looks soooooo cool, especially when you draw pictures of the planets and add rings to make it look like Saturn. Luckily, Saturn beats out Jupiter with it's moon count, and has the largest moon with an atmosphere (Titan).

Speaking of Titan (where I say I am located, BTW) I did a high school report on the Huygens probe that was going to land there. I got really excited about the predicted "oceans of liquid methane." But, go figure, it just lands on a solid surface, not a sea. So my report just turned out to be a bunch of theories... still got a good grade on it, though.

[/astronomical babble]