Demotion of Pluto as a planet

[Brendan McKay]

It is supposed to a mnemonic for the new sequence of planets,
but it isn't. It's a mnemonic for the old sequence. It is not
self-referential at all but rather self-contradictory.

So it is sub-optimal.  A perfect mnemonic would use just EIGHT
words to refer to the fact that there used to be nine.

Brendan.


* Antti Karttunen <antti.karttunen at gmail.com> [060827 19:09]:
> Brendan McKay wrote:
> 
> >But the winner and the next one include Pluto which is no
> >longer a planet, so why are they even considered?
> >
> Because Pluto is that "unfortunate ninth planet"! Excellently 
> self-referential mnemonics!
> I liked them, thanks to Jonathan for posting them.
> (I guess we should get back to sequences soon, before the note comes 
> from Paris...)
> 
> -- Antti
> 
> >Brendan.
> >
> >* Jonathan Post <jvospost3 at gmail.com> [060827 04:06]:
> > 
> >
> >>Post-Pluto mnemonics for the planets
> >>
> >>Jason Kottke and Meg Hourihan held a competition to
> >>come up with a better mnemonic for the planets' names
> >>in the wake of the decision to demote Pluto
> >>from planet-status. The winner, Josh Mishell's
> >>"My! Very educated morons just screwed up numerous
> >>planetariums" is great, as are the runners-up:
> >>
> >>  Many Very Earnest Men Just Snubbed Unfortunate
> >>Ninth Planet (Dave Child)
> >>
> >>  "My vision, erased. Mercy! Just some underachiever
> >>now." (Delia, as spoken by Pluto discoverer Clyde
> >>Tombaugh)
> >>
> >>  Most vexing experience, mother just served us
> >>nothing! (Bart Baxter)
> >>
> >>   
> >>