At the risk of veering too far into Nerdtown, I’d like to bid a farewell to the ex-planet Pluto.  We barely knew thee, oh Pluto.  All these years we were force-fed Lies about there being 9 planets and now the Geeks In Charge have demoted Pluto to the demeaning status of “dwarf planet”.  The remaining 8 planets are now “classic planets” and poor Pluto has been relegated to New Coke status.

It makes one wonder what else that is widely accepted as fact will be changed in the future.  For the longest time, the smartest people in the world agreed that our planet was flat.  Draining people of their blood supposedly got rid of their diseases.  Leeches were the default method for a long time to cure people of a myriad of illnesses.  Burning witches at the stake was an accepted social method to rid society of satanic vessels.

Even foods go in and out of vogue as far as being demonized.  In the 1980s, eating an egg meant certain death, as the evil Cholesterol would clog up your arteries and kill you.  Then scientist determined years later that eggs were actually OK if eaten in moderation.  The latest craze to finally die down was this Atkins nonsense.  While there was no doubt that people lost huge amounts of weight by adhering to the diet, I still contend that a slice of bread is healthier for you than 4 strips of bacon.  I live for bread and cheese and will not give them up unless it’s life threatening.  Any diet that demonizes pizza is my Mortal Enemy.  As with ANY food out there, moderation is the key.  Yes, eating nothing but red meat will probably take years off your life, but having a pepperoni pizza every 2 weeks isn’t going to be the death of someone if they eat well for most of their meals.  It sure beats placing leeches on my torso.

I’m not sure how I veered from Pluto to carbohydrates but the bottom line is that school textbook makers must be salivating at the thought that they get to sell many more new versions of all their science and astronomy books next year.  What have we learned from all this brouhaha?  Pluto needed better lobbyists to state its case for planethood.  Now Pluto is like Puerto Rico or Guam – a “lite” version of a bigger club.