Pluto

Madison laughs hard at Pluto. It's the slapstick. She was sitting in bed with us, just screaming with laughter all the way through. We've been doing the Disney Treasures videos at night from time to time, and this evening we watched part one of the Pluto collection. She laughs hardest at "On the Ice," where poor Pluto is trying to figure out ice skates for the longest time. But pretty much every cartoon with Pluto this evening inspired lots of laughs. This, of course, has inspired me in another direction: the Pluto formerly known as a planet.

Daddy has a telescope, and a pretty decent one at that. Mommy and Daddy have used it to see the rings of Saturn, Jupiter and even some fuzzy nebulas way off, light years away. I think I'm going to set it up soon. I know the nephews will enjoy looking through it, and therefore Madison might want to take a peek too. She might not know yet what it all means, but it'll be fun to have her out there looking at the starry night sky.

I doubt we'll

ever see Pluto through this telescope that we have - or at least be able to say for certain what it is if we did see it. But it still will be a neat opportunity for Madison to look through and see things that I didn't get to as a kid. Speaking of which, when Daddy was younger, Pluto was classified as a planet. Do you remember "My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas?"

If you do remember that, you know that each word in that question represents the planets "Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto." That's what we learned in school, how we learned the planets and the order that they appear in our galaxy. But since these scientists have demoted Pluto because of it's size, now there's no pizza anymore! It now reads: My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine... nothings!

Do you see, scientists? See what you do when you mess with the natural order of things? See the harm you've done to my daughter and this next generation with your petty complaints against the PLANET Pluto?

"Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should." - Dr. Ian Malcom