Will Pluto get upgraded back to planet status? The debate continues. Later this month a bill reinstating planet status will go to the House, although for all we know it could be downgraded to an asteroid in committee unless the New Jersey delegation gets a rider that restores funding to some key projects. Okay, made that up. But If you took a vote, I bet they'd let Pluto back in. Everyone felt better with Pluto out there as the last planet, a period on the sentence of the solar system. Without it, our planets just peter out with vague old Neptune.
Or does it? I seem to remember theories floating around in my youth of Planet X, ominously nicknamed Nemesis, hanging around way out there. For some reason the stories made it sound as if Nemesis was some sort of celestial stalker, skulking in far orbit, peeping at us, muttering malevolently. If I recall some of the speculation, he said, too lazy to Google, the articles included some wild speculation about a peculiar orbit that would bring Nemesis into our neighborhood some day, and ruin everything, like a disreputable uncle showing up drunk for the wedding.
There's an old story that Pluto was named after the Disney dog, or vice versa. Says wikipedia:
That's an admission at odds with what we think about Disney, but it does explain the nightmare scene in "Dumbo." Before the slang experts get all het up, let us note that "stoned" was a term for "drunk" before it was a term for, well, being coated with 11 herbs and spices. This being the internet, I simply can't assert that without a link, so here you go - it's a list of slang terms for drunk, from sober.org. Most have fallen out of favor, such as "canned," "boiled as an owl," or the charmingly derisive old "dipso."
Having gotten WAY off topic, I'll just concluded it all by noting that "Pluto" means "drunk" in Spanish slang. At least in Ecuador.
(Note: until I get more categories, I will have to file this under "outstate." I think it qualifies.)
