My Very Exciting Magic Carpet Just Sailed Under Nine Palace Elephants

Click.
And start memorizing.

The Vleeptron High Non-Junk Science Council has spent the last two years contemplating what to do about the Big Changes in the Solar System. Apparently, at a recent Convention of Professional Idiots, it was decided that Pluto is no longer a planet, but is now officially classified as a Dwarf Planet.

Well, now it turns out that Pluto stays in the list. Which is great, because if they'd redacted Pluto, and dissed My Hero Clyde Tombaugh (1906-1997), who discovered Pluto, I was going to go Caucasian Teenage Schoolyard and bring Woe and Hard-to-Cure Cooties to a bunch of professional astronomers.

Further idiocy followed: Two new obscure round-ish sort of orbiting rocks, Ceres and Eris (the Goddess of Discord, the pagan embodiment of everybody's mother-in-law) have been elevated to the status of Planets.

So Everything You Know Is Wrong. There are now 11 Planets in the Solar System.

And the new mark of being a badly educated jerk -- when a YouTube crew sticks a cam in your face on the sidewalk and asks "Name the planets in your own Solar System" -- has now become even more difficult.

Or maybe not. As always, whenever Earth or its badly educated jerks are threatened, an enterprising, clever 10-year-old girl comes to the rescue!

Keep watching Maryn Smith, a 10-year-old girl from Montana. Vleeptron predicts Great Things for her. Who knows, in a few decades, she might even become the first Woman President of the United States!

I suppose I have to say something about the graphic. Not having a snapshot of the planet (?) Ceres, named for the Goddess of Grain, I have substituted a Cheerio, which is round.

As for Eris, Goddess of Discord, it is long past time that Britney Spears was recognized for her stellar musical talent and became an officially designated Heavenly Body.

And now, so you will not screw up the Solar System when you're asked about it on Jeopardy, start memorizing Maryn Smith's prize-winning mnemonic:

My [Mercury]
Very [Venus]
Exciting [Earth]
Magic [Mars]
Carpet [Ceres]
Just [Jupiter]
Sailed [Saturn]
Under [Uranus]
Nine [Neptune]
Palace [Pluto]
Elephants [Eris]

* * *

The Great Falls Tribune
Great Falls, Montana USA
Wednesday 27 February 2008

Riverview student's
memory aid brings
order to solar system

by KRISTEN CATES
Tribune Staff Writer

My Very Exciting Magic Carpet Just Sailed Under Nine Palace Elephants.

That phrase might seem like complete gibberish, but it was clever enough to score Riverview Elementary fourth-grader Maryn Smith a place in a new book on the 11 planets in the solar system. The book will be published by National Geographic.

Maryn, 10, as well as other fourth-graders at the school, competed in the National Geographic Society's planet-naming contest, which aimed to come up with a mnemonic device to remember the order of the planets. A new name-remembering aid as needed since Pluto was reduced to a dwarf planet and Ceres and Eris were upgraded to planet status.

Maryn was one of 800 entrants nationwide.

"I just went through the whole 'Aladdin' theme," Maryn said. "It just fit all the letters."

Students of yesteryear might remember the old standby:

My [Mercury]
Very [Venus]
Educated [Earth]
Mother [Mars]
Just [Jupiter]
Served [Saturn]
Us [Uranus]
Nine [Neptune]
Pizzas [Pluto]

Andrea Paul, Maryn's teacher, said part of the fall science curriculum is to teach students about the solar system. She said a former student told her about the planet-naming contest.

Every student in her class submitted a mnemonic phrase and then Paul narrowed those down to five. The students then voted on the best one, which she submitted.

"We submitted (Maryn's), and lo and behold," Paul said.

Maryn remembered a couple of other entries from her class.

Her friend Tanner wrote: "My Very Extraordinary Mother Carrie Just Served Us Nine Pizzas Each."

And another classmate wrote: "My Very Extraordinary Mother Can Jog Superly Under Nasty Particular Elves."

Maryn said she didn't rush to come up with her idea.

"A lot of people were really trying to win this contest," she said. "I actually concentrated and tried to make something that made sense."

Maryn's Aladdin-inspired phrase will appear in the National Geographic children's book "11 Planets: A New View of the Solar System," written by Harvard University physicist David Aguilar.

Christie Smith, Maryn's mom, said she helped her daughter come up with a theme. The pair had fun participating in the contest, even though Christie Smith thought her daughter was a long shot to win.

In December, Smith received a legal-sized envelope in the mail from the National Geographic Society.

"I was like, 'Did I not pay my bill?'" Smith said. "Even if I didn't pay my bill, a legal envelope seems a little extreme."

Inside the envelope were the details of what it meant for Maryn to win the contest.

National Geographic Society representatives said in the letter to Maryn's parents that there is a possibility her phrase will be turned into a song.

She also was recently interviewed by The Washington Post for an article.

Maryn received an encyclopedia on the planets, which she has already used. She knows that scientists discovered Ceres in the 1800s, but thought it was an asteroid. It recently was upgraded to a planet.

"Now it's gotten bigger so they are back to considering it a planet," she said.

Paul, who taught Maryn the basics of the solar system, was impressed her student knew something she didn't.

Smith said that Maryn winning the contest has piqued the fourth-grader's interest in science and further academic study.

"Ever since this contest, she's really just started putting money aside for college," Smith said. "Now she's decided she wants to be a fourth-grade teacher. She's just gotten really dedicated. It's fun to watch."

Reach Tribune Staff Writer Kristen Cates at 791-1463 or kcates@greatfallstribune.com .

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Copyright ©2008 The Great Falls Tribune