and I thought Grad School was tough...

...gosh, just try being PLUTO.

Denied. No longer a planet. By definition. Categorical dissing. By-the-by, does this hint that I can start to re-define what constitues a 'literature review'? Darn! I didn't think so.

In a flash of sheer brilliance garnered whilst putting lunch in the oven a few minutes ago, I present to you, dear readers, my new, post-modern and/or retro-futuristic mneumonic device for today's savvy school child learning the order of the planets in our solar system. Here's that school-age song, to the tune of "down on the Swanee River", etc:

Pre August 24, 2006: "(M)y (V)ery (E)ducated (M)other (J)ust (S)erved (U)s (N)ine (P)izza-pies" (Mercury-Venus-Earth-Mars-Jupiter-Saturn-Uranus-Neptune-Pluto)

August 24, 2006 and beyond...: "My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us...NOTHING!"

Pedagogical note: kids could be encouraged to shout the 'nothing!' in anticipation of the end of the darn ditty, even adding fake faining spells or falling over in overly dramatic fashion. As in Shakespearean poor player metaphor, "....signifying...nothing!" This method's benefits are potentially two-fold: (1) Unclogging avenues for discussion of the dropped '(P)izza pie' debaucle of '06; and (2) Scrutiny of the longstanding controvery surounding the pronunciation of 'Uranus'. The possibilities really are endless...

Shya! Try coming up with something MORE clever than that today. Look, I'm not bragging, I'm just trying to make myself feel better. It is my blog, after all. Incidentally, 'clever' is what I'm trying to concoct in my exams right now...ok, back to it...don't forget to comment, otherwise you will make me cry.