What Would You Like to Plutofy?

As most of you know, 2006 was a difficult year for Pluto. It had been a member of the "Solar System Planet Club" since 1930. But in August, it got kicked out because a group of astronomers changed the rules of membership. They decided that for a body to be termed a "planet," it must "dominate its orbit." Since Pluto doesn't, it's been downgraded to "minor planet" status and given the number 134340.

This whole episode got me thinking about what if we started Plutofying other things. [To Plutofy something means rescinding its membership in a group, set, team, or arrangement of items.]

Here are some candidates for Plutofication. What can you add to the list?

• What if we Plutofied the letter "C" from the Roman alphabet? "S" and "K" can do the job just as well. And 25 letters can be neatly arranged into a nifty 5 x 5 matrix.
• I think baseball would be a lot more exciting if the Commissioner Plutofied the position of "center fielder."  There would be lots more running in the outfield, and more runs scored! 
• Plutofying the "Ten Lords A-Leaping" from the "12 Days of Christmas" would make it more egalitarian and less stressful.
• One of the goals of the Gates Foundation seems to be Plutofying Pestilence from the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
• Think of how the New Testament would change if the Gospel of Luke were Plutofied.
• The Dow Jones 30 market average would improve if Intel were Plutofied.
• Seven dwarves is too many. Plutofy "Grumpy" (you could do this by giving him antidepressants).
• Salad forks from from the set of dinner utensils.
• The are many weeks I'd like to Plutofy Monday from Days of the Week. Just jump from Sunday right into Tuesday. Doesn't most of the world's work get done on Tuesday anyway? Six days in a week has a nice feel to it.

What would you like to Plutofy? What would the consequences be?

 

Comments

[Patrick]

If I had my choice I would Plutofy Microsoft Publisher. It's an application that beginners or non-professionals use for the most part and one that professionals will only buy so they can open up the files from clients to re-create in a more professional design program like InDesign.

Along those same lines I would Plutofy file version incompatibility to the point users of older versions of programs can open files created by newer versions. Once again Microsoft Publisher is guilty of this. I had a perfectly good copy of Publisher 2000 and since then moved on to more professional print layout programs however I had to get an upgrade to Publisher 2003 so I could open files from others.

I guess this all boils down to using closed file formats in an interconnected World. it's not the 80's anymore.

[Luciano Passuello]

It's about time to plutofy the "www." in web addresses! (For more info, check http://no-www.org).
Love the term "plutofy", by the way... :)

[Kenny]

Just plutofy "job" in everybody's mind. No job no paycheck then everybody have to find ways for a living. What can i do if no job is available? What if human beings being replaced by robots? Where you don't see blue collars/white collars busy up down on the street,crowding the train in the morning/evening,jobless fresh grad hang out in the cyber cafe playing games or doing nothing at home, fired senior executives dressing formal attire wandering the street reading newspaper until 6pm before they go home and I wont be sitting here typing for something to be post in Roger's blog.

What can we do if we don't work for people?

[Gavin Heaton]

I was plutofied from commenting the other day (by Typepad). Seems they didn't like my website address. Imagine what would happen if TIME magazine was plutofied by the blogging community?

[Valeria Maltoni]

Roger,
Isn't it interesting how we have so many words in our vocabulary, including the newly minted ones, which are negative or have a negative connotation vs. positive?

Even when we try to do something good, we generally tend to be 'against' something. At work, we are confronted (take a look at that verb) by terminology borrowed in the trenches.

[Chris Cree]

Sometimes I wish I could Plutofy sleep from my daily activities. That much down time every day seems so inefficient! It would be nice to make it an option that I could choose every three or for days.

[Roger von Oech]

Thanks for commenting.

Patrick: I've been a life-long Apple user so I've never had quite the same frustrations you've endured. What you say makes a lot of sense.

Luciano: Thanks for dropping by. I don't typ[ically have to type in the "www" much anymore. I liked your link to the "Preacher" — really funny. (quase soltei um pum de tanto rir)

Kenny: No job, maybe blog all day!

Gavin: Getting "blackballed" is a bummer — especially when you didn't do anything wrong.

Valeria: Good observation. On the whole, I'd rather be "For" something than "against" something else.

Chris: But what about your dreams? I don't think I've pulled an "all-nighter since college (long ago).

[Chris Cree]

Roger, if you're not a fan of all-nighters you better stay away from the maritime industry. They seem to happen all too often.

I had an easier time dealing with them when I was a 20 year old college student than I do these days for some reason. If only that sleep thing wasn't such a hard requirement... ;)

[Vania Smrkovski]

Well, if we Plutofied "C", we'd be in deep chit when we replace "C" with "S"!

[Jana]

"Seven dwarves is too many. Plutofy "Grumpy" (you could do this by giving him antidepressants). "

Hahaha that's funny!

What would I Plutofy?
-Asparagus
-Bullies
-Child & Domestic abuse

And most of all... POLITICIANS!!!!

[Bill Peper]

I would plutofy Revolution #9 from the Beatles' White Album, the BCS system, Sponge Bob, and Tony Kornheiser from Monday Night Football