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Fred,

Thanks for responding. I'm going to have to stop being lazy and copying and pasting the same comments about why Pluto's demotion was wrong. I'm really not the dour, humorless person you might have seen in this post. In fact, at my astronomy club in Cranford, NJ, I'm the source of a lot of friendly teasing about my views on Pluto, and it's all in fun. I've met some really wonderful people through amateur astronomy, and we can appreciate and love one another's quirkiness. You can't be a wacky Pluto-loving (fake) redhead and be too serious.

I did read Tyson's book, which he was kind enough to have his publishing company send me as a review copy. Yes, it is fun and entertaining, and he actually quotes several Pluto songs that I have noted in my blog. I hope to get permission from a lot more songwriters to print their Pluto songs in my book.

In some of his interviews, Tyson says that the only Plutophiles are Americans, which in my experience has not been the case. Yes, there is a lot of support for Pluto's planet status in the US, but it's not limited to this country as he sometimes states. And I don't think it's about the dog. My take on it is people are fascinated with Pluto because it is enigmatic and mysterious, the least understood of the planets. There is always an appeal of the unknown, the frontier of knowledge. A good analogy would be people's longtime fascination with Mars as a potential source of life, whether native or inhabited by humans. Mars is nearby; it's somewhat similar to Earth, yet there is so much we don't know about it, and that has sparked curiosity and imagination for decades.

I hope to write a book that is a balance of scientific arguments for Pluto's planethood along with examples of creative works written in response to the demotion as well as blog posts and emails I and others have received from people around the world on this topic. Of course, my ultimate goal is to see Pluto's planet status--and that of all dwarf planets--reinstated.

I appreciate your feedback, and as I have every intention of having my book published, I will make sure to send you an advance review copy. It's going to be a while, as I only decided definitively to do this project within the last two weeks. In the meantime, I hope you won't forget me and my future book.

Laurel