Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for July 13, 2011

Has it been said yet? “Pig’s in Space!’ echoechoecho

I miss Pluto as a full-fledged planet! All the time I was growing up and in school, there were nine planets. Then some finicky know-it-alls had to change the definition of “planet” and exclude poor Pluto altogether, only reneging enough to grant it lesser (“dwarf”) status after much pressure….

@ Sisyphos

I agree….nine planets were there the whole time I was in school. I realize science’s only goal is to learn the truth…poor Pluto, (but at least it got a consulation prize).

Pluto has either shrunken in size, or those are some pretty darn big beer cans.

Remember the beer cans that met Rat? Wouldn’t that be a hoot?!

I though Pastis would depict Plluto as the Walt Disney dog – why not? He borrows from other comics. I especially like his Mary Worth satire.

Well, Pluto’s not even the biggest dwarf planet, and it looks like Charon, Nix, and Hydra left him after his drinking.

Sooo….. Does this mean Pigs CAN fly?

Looks like Pluto ran into the Beer aliens from last week . . .

I think I like tipsy better.

haha pure gold!

At least Pluto’s beer is well-chilled. :)

Number Six: Goofy was a dog also. The philosophical implications are left as an exercise for the reader….

Science is an ongoing process. As we learn more, our view of the universe changes. When Pluto was first discovered, no one knew that there were thousands of trans-Neptunian objects, some of them larger than Pluto itself. If Pluto were to remain classified as a planet, these other objects would have to be classified as planets, too. So Pluto was “demoted”. Not a popular decision, but the right one in my opinion.And sorry, Sisyphos, I’ve never understood why people refer to scientists as “know-it-alls”. If we knew it all, we wouldn’t be studying science in the first place.

By the way, Pluto is not the first solar system object to be demoted from planetary status. When Ceres, the largest object in the asteroid belt, was first discovered, it was initially classified as one of the major planets. The designation lasted for several decades until it was eventually reclassified as an asteroid or minor planet.

TAFKAP: The Asteroid¹ Formerly Known As Pluto.¹ Not to be confused with The Artist Formerly Known As Prince, now known as Prince.

“Drunky”? Pig may be thinking of the Seven Duffs (an obscure Simpsons reference).

I agree with the general sentiment about lopping Pluto off the planet grid. Makes me wonder who’s shifting the classification line and how long it might be before somebody decrees that the earth is just a really big asteroid……..

yes, hariseldon59 . . . Pluto may have been ‘demoted’, but we have so many new friends to study! Ceres, Charon, Haumea, Makemake, Eris, etc. . . And since they’re all smaller than our moon, Luna, they really do have to be reclassified . . . or else our Moon has to be promoted!

whoa! where is there a streamer of Pigs in Space!

Drunky was the eighth drawrf. Couldn’t make the cut. Didn’t whistle while he worked, just swilled while he shirked….☻

Yeah, Drunky and Druggy were left out of the story.

But seriously, folks … Pluto, Ceres and the other dwarfs are just differently abled planets. I’ve written about this on thecaseforpluto.com … By the way, a NASA probe is set to go into orbit around a little sister of Ceres this week. I guess the Dawn spacecraft’s camera will have to keep an eye out for … pigs in spaaaaaaace!

Awwwww—pluto isn’t a planet anymore? It’s only a dwarf planet? Remember: 6 out of 7 dwarfs aren’t happy.

Hahahahahahahahahahaha!

xxx

Is Pluto forbidden to drive the Saturn? You bet Uranus!

Planet UB313 is now the 9th planet of our solar system. I hope pig and duck encounter it.

Poor Pluto, has developed an inferiority complex, reduced to just an empty shell of his former self… esp after finding out Uranus was effin Goofy

Pluto was the mad scientist who discovered Plutonium. He was kicked out of the league of mad scientists for naming this new element after himself. That was a no-no. He was then exiled to his namesake planet, but when he arrived it was no longer there. He ultimately got a gig with Disney playing the part of a dog’s dog. (Sort of like a man’s man). I hear that he is now doing time in a pound in Cleveland for molesting a fire hydrant. Check back here for the latest updates on this breaking story

“Don’t go to Pluto, it’s a Mickey Mouse planet!”-Robin Williams

My whole childhood turned upside down when they said it was no longer a planet. My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine… nine? nine what? Tomorrows’ generation will never know.

It’s okay Pluto, I’m not a planet either

Yeah, I think there was a Drunky in the Seven Dwarves. He hung out with Dopey.

I’m still trying to figure out whether Pluto got the beer from a handy alien spaceship, or borrowed some of Rat’s stash.And where are the other five cans from the second six-pack?

@bmonk ’Lil Gaurd Duck slammed the other five beers and then “took out the trash” with his Bazooka.

..oh – i thought he said he was ‘finnish’ – whatever that 86604791 that means!

Bring back Pluto!

it looks like planet santa claus

“My Very Energetic Mother Just Served Us Noodles”!

Number Six: that’s the Goofy/Pluto paradox. If you can figure that out, you should be able to make sense of last Sunday’s Pluggers cartoon!

Hey Gweedo — that oxygen stuff is overrated anyway …..

And Earth is only designated a major planet because humans live there. To that end, I shall petition to have Earth reclassified to the status of an Infested Object.

Today’s “scientific fact” is tomorrow’s “debunked myth”. Which should cause us to view current “scientific knowledge” with suspicion, not the deference most people give it.

LOL…. I luv that theyre making fun of the fact that scientists wont make up their mind

Oh no! Bad, so bad…

Get over it Pluto. Get over it.

Drunky was not one of the seven dwarfs, but deafy almost was Look it up

Are those the space aliens from the prior strips?