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Comment by psunavy03 | Hacker News Reader

Why will this stupid meme not die?

A ton of us grew up reciting

    Mercury
    Venus
    Earth
    Mars
    Jupiter
    Saturn
    Uranus
    Neptune
    PLUTO

But, the meme doesn’t die because the deplanetization of Pluto was a weird occurrence that doesn’t usually happen. The biggest association I have with Pluto is that it used to be a planet, so why wouldn’t I joke about that every time I see it mentioned?

It's boring? It's like when an old person makes a joke they make every time you see them. It's utterly boring and devoid of joy.

You do you but indifference turns to resentment.

It's boring? It's like when an old person makes a joke they make every time you see them. It's utterly boring and devoid of joy.

Whenever I see this situation, there's the one person who is joyous, and the other one who is resentful. It makes more sense that the emotional energy is much more the function of the negativity of the resentful party, than it is any fault of the joyous one.

Don't forget that Ceres, Pallas, Juno, and Vesta were once considered planets as well. Generations of schoolchildren memorized their names right alongside the others.

I’m not THAT old

I didn't say that you were. I said that you should put yourself in the shoes of those older generations of students who memorized the names of the 11 planets. Or the 13, or 17, or dozens or however many had been discovered the year that their textbook was printed. Eventually they just gave up and started calling them all “the Asteroid Belt”.

If we had repeated history more closely, students would have memorized the names of the first few Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud objects to be discovered. Repeat after me: Pluto, Albion (aka 1994 QB₁), 1993 SB, 1993 SC, 1994 GV₉, Arawn (aka 1994 JR₁), 1994 TB…

Or if you prefer to order them by size: Pluto, Eris, Haumea, Makemake, Gonggong, Quaoar, Ceres, Orcus, Sedna, Salacia, 2002 MS₄, 2002 AW₁₉₇, Varda, etc, etc.

Sorry, was a joke, I didn't realize there were people taking this thread so seriously!

Mary visits every monday, just stays until noon period.

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