You know when I was your age....

.....gasoline was only a penny a gallon. In fact, some stations actually paid you to fill up.

Here's what I'll tell my grandchildren in my old age

"You know, when I was your age, there were only nine planets. 2003 UB13 (Xena) was voted as the tenth planet by a narrow margin in 2006.

It was touch and go for a while. Initially, the USA and France disagreed on mineral discovery-rights and tourism revenue-sharing policies. The then US president, George W. Bush, wanted to add a condition to the vote that his road map for peace take the interstellar highway to Pluto (which was at risk of being demoted to a demi-planet) and create a settlement for the Palestinians so that they could stop that s__t on Planet Earth. The US House of Representatives wanted to make sure that aliens from Xena did not get any short cuts to US citizenship. The European Union wanted to ensure that the solar system had adequate absorption capacity. And on and on..

However, the Russian Space Minister launched a passionate soliloquy and asked that Xena's icy surface be not mistaken for aloofness and that it be considered at least a dwarf planet right away. . This opened the flood gates, and we soon added 2006 UB40 (Buffy), 2020 DMZ (Run) and even revived and named to planethood an older discovery -- 2000 XPSP2 (Windows). Soon, I lost track of the names of the thirty six planets that we have now.

What did you ask. Oh, who were Palestinians? It's a long story..Do you remember the Six Flags Over Dead Sea you visited last summer. Well, .....