Planetary Configurations

Oh, my! Have you looked at the front page of the Houston Chronicle today? Three ... count them! ... THREE!! new planets have been officially attached to our solar system. Don't know if this 'old dog' will be able to adjust the the new tricks on this one. *chuckle*

"Mother Very Thoughtfully Made a Jelly Sandwich Under No Protest" Well, there did come a point where my mom protested, and I'm not sure that making jelly sandwiches (yuck! what happened to the peanut butter?!) ever called for much thought. However, Mercury Venus Terra (and you thought it was called Earth?) Mars a (those assorted asteroids that wander around out there) Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Pluto were much easier to put in the right order with that sentence around.

Way too many years have been spent under the influence of that mnemonic to be able to deal with a new one adding three new ones. Besides, adding Ceres where the letter "a" was just plain messes up the whole scheme!

Crossword puzzlers of the future will have a whole new clue to have to deal with once we've gotten used to the fact that the answer to "planets in the solar system" is twelve, not nine.

I'm curious, though. We've added a new one with the oddball name of 2003 UB313. I realize that this is a 'place holder' name until it's officially named. What I want to know is - will they be having a contest to name the critter? Or will it go to the highest bidder? Will we soon be adding Verizon or AOL or Google to our list of planets?

Please please PLEASE, members of the International Astronomical Union, I implore you. Don't let corporate greed get the better of you as you attempt to fund research for the future. Keep the poetry of your souls pure by naming poor 2003 UB something appropriately ethereal and classic and in keeping with the making of rubrics for us poor memory-impaired planet-bound peons.

hmmmmmmmmm...... Let's see. Mother Very Thoughtfully Made Countless Jelly Sandwiches Under No Protest, Carefully ________________. Any suggestions?