The best solar systems ...

The perils of listening to the radio in the morning while doing other things, like running around trying to find the book you promised to lend your coworker which isn't where you thought it was...

I came into the living room this morning and heard a guy on NPR saying

The best solar systems are competitive.

Immediately, of course, I thought of poor Pluto. Was that why it lost its spot on the team? The big guys, like Uranus and Jupiter and that show-off Saturn, didn't think it could pull its weight? The smart-aleck rocky planets in close to the sun, they didn't want some iceball hanging around? They didn't any of them want to have to let in the even-less-impressive Ceres and Charon and that one that doesn't even have a name yet, just a number? And who are they competing against, anyway? 51 Pegasi? Come on! You can whip them even with Pluto on the bench.

Of course, it turns out the guy on NPR was talking about solar-powered energy-generating systems. But it was a nicely surreal start to the day...