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Thursday, August 24, 2006

My Very Eccentric Mother...

This has nothing to do with my mother, but with an old acronym:
My very eccentric mother just served us nine pizzas.
But thanks to this story, it no longer makes any sense:
New guidelines knock Pluto's standing to 'dwarf,' one level below Earth, bringing total planets to eight
All right - now we have a job to do, and that is... come up with a lame new acronym so little kids can mutter nonsense when trying to remember their planets.

19 comments:

  1. I just saw that news also and it struck me as quite odd. A planet (and one of my favorites, but don't ask me why) no longer a planet? Can they do that?

    I never heard the original, but I guess a new pneumonic could be "My very eccentric mother just served us nachos."

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  2. NOOOO!
    This is a tragedy!

    The acronym was My Very Excellent Mother Just Showed Us Nine Planets! It was self-referential! It told you what it was about!

    What are we supposed to do now??

    My Very Excellent Mother Just Showed Us Nothing???

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  3. My favorite mnemonic was "Sober physicists don't find giraffes hiding in kitchens."

    The problem with Pluto is that its orbit crossed Neptunes orbit, so that it didn't have the proper orbit to meet the new definition. (This news is a little surprising because it was thought that the new definition would lead to 12 planets.)

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  4. Shoshana - I'm impartial to Earth. ;)

    I think the acronym isn't allowed to make sense. It's more fun that way, because then it's completely unhelpful to the kids!

    Steg - Awww, poor guy... :P

    SD - Yeah, that's what I'd heard. That would have been great for acronyms!

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  5. Do I havta take down my planet mobile now?

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  6. You beat me to this story Ezzie. Darn you, Darn you all to hell!

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  7. Ezzie -
    You're impartial to Earth? Is there any planet that you do care about? ;)

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  8. Biff - Yes. :)

    Holy Hyrax - Oh, sure. NOW you were going to post. Uh huh.

    Shoshana - Argh. PARTIAL! I'm PARTIAL to Earth. This is worse than the last reverse usage I did a few weeks ago... ugh.

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  9. My very eager mother just served us nine pickles.

    Last week twelve, this week eight . . . tune in next week for Planet Count Update!

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  10. TRN - Heh

    Rebecca - LOL - no, that was waaay worse. And sorry, Shoshana's was pretty much the same. :)

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  11. i just read this in the paper... terrible!
    I mean, I always felt sorry for pluto for being a bit of an outsider, a loner, but now to be chucked out of the club? Can't be good for it's self esteem....

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  12. Sarah - LOL

    Rebecca - Sok, just playin' around.

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  13. No, no, no, my very EDUCATED mother just served us nine pizzas.

    Soccer Dad, I never heard that one, even with a minor in Physics. It took me a few minutes to figure out what it was for. There were some other good ones too, but I can't remember any right now.

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  14. I was reading all the comments thinking, "My very EDUCATED mother..." as well. Thanks, Kiwi, for setting it straight. That's how we learned it where I hail from.

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  15. No no... eccentric. It's more fun that way. Plus, my mom didn't finish college. :P [Hi Mom!]

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  16. My mom barely finished high school, but she's educated in the school of life! One of the best child development experts I know, with over 30 years of experience developing children.

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