Possumblog

Y'know, not everything is a tragedy.

Now how will students learn the planets?

It's just a silly little fluff piece on the reclassification of Pluto that, had it been written by a blogger, would have been used in a hard-hitting, 12 part series as an example of how dangerous blogging is when compared to Real Journalism. But what makes it even sillier is that after the silliness of the new mnemonic suggestions to remember the planets, the article actually goes to great pains (relatively speaking--it's only a few sentences long) to note how much of a problem this is going to be for museums. And it actually seems like they're trying to be serious about it.

Now, maybe the reporter is doing spoof of a spoof--one of those stories like "World to End Tomorrow--Women, Minorities Hardest Hit," since he does pick up on two of the Great Thematic Elements of Modern Reportage: The Children^tm, and Endangered Public Institutions^tm. But I really have to believe that there is actually someone somewhere who really does see this as some kind of calamity that must be documented. I can only guess how long it will be before a way is found to blame George Bush for, for--well, for SOMETHING.