WRONGHEADED WAY OF DEALING WITH ABSURDLY JUVENILE ISSUE

            No, the planet Uranus is not pronounced "your anus." But neither is it pronounced "urine us." The correct pronunciation is "you ray nus." Frankly, I don't see how deliberately making the name sound like "urine" is any better than making it sound like "anus." And I am particularly disgusted that many astronomers themselves have actually fallen into the middle of this juvenile controversy, and have given in to the also-offensive perceived option of mispronouncing the poor planet "urine us."

            In contrast, I am relieved that I was spared hearing about this silliness as a kid. I was fully into adulthood before encountering such infantile nonsense. Indeed, it was only with the movie "E.T. The Extraterrestrial," that I even became aware that this foolishness was going on, and in the film, its very inappropriateness was quite appropriately demonstrated only by kids, not by the adult characters.

            Interesting. When I was a kid myself, the way in which I paid attention to the name, was when I decided that the two loveliest names in the entire Solar System were Venus and Uranus. That is, of course, "you ray nus."