David's Daily Diversions

Needing a New Jigsaw

We recent got the Marks & Spencer jigsaw of the solar system as was recommending in a comment to a previous blog entry. Aidie is able to do most of it. He can put the planets together, though he needs a bit of help getting the whole thing attached. It takes up half the length of the lounge.

We have lost a piece of Pluto. We looked under all the furniture but as Aidie tells everyone who sees the puzzle, "missing!" But this may not be a problem after all. We may have to remove all the Pluto pieces.

Pluto is in danger of being demoted. Thanks to the discovery of the object preliminarily dubbed Sedna, it may be determined that Pluto isn't a planet after all. Sedna, named after an Inuit sea goddess (what? they can't come up with another Roman deity?) is not much smaller than Pluto, even though it is 5 billion miles further away from the Sun.

Many astonomers have long wanted to consign Pluto to the Kuiper Belt. Even though it is the largest body found in this region of space, it is considered by some to have no more significance than Quoaor. This would make Aidie unhappy. When he recites the planets, or now names them as he puts them together in the puzzle, he announces with triumphal finality, "Pluto!".