make new friends
Do you remember the day they reclassified Pluto as a dwarf planet? I guess the consortium of star-gazing scientists responsible had good reason to do so. But for those in the general public, it was almost as if our feathers of general knowledge had been abruptly ruffled.
As well as wreaking havoc on our cosy relationship with the solar system, it also muddled up a few other things. There used to be a handy meme by which we could recall the names of our solar system neighbours: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto - which was: My Very Excellent Martian Just Showed Us Nine Planets.
But now it just stops at 'Nine'.
Real planets are now regarded as only those bodies that orbit a star
and are massive enough to clear their neighbourhood of other circulating
bits and pieces. In other words, they are planet-like, but not quite big enough to be planets just yet.
So if the International Astronomical Union can reclassify something according to those rigourous standards, perhaps we can too.
My proposal is that we reclassify human babies as dwarf people. Babies are similar to people in many aspects, but are not quite big enough to understand the bits and pieces that circulate in their immediate neighbourhood. And sometimes not even aware. During the cold winter months, we've been applying these muffs to the ears of our very own household Dwarf Person.
And by reading her body language, it often appears that she's completely oblivious to their presence.
