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Girl Who Named Pluto, At 11, Dies At 90

Posted by kdawson on from the no-phair dept.

notthepainter notes the passing of the woman who, as an 11-year-old girl, named Pluto. "Frozen and lonely, Planet X circled the far reaches of the solar system awaiting discovery and a name. It got one thanks to an 11-year-old British girl named Venetia Burney, an enthusiast of the planets and classical myth. On March 14, 1930, the day newspapers reported that the long-suspected 'trans-Neptunian body' had been photographed for the first time, she proposed to her well-connected grandfather that it be named Pluto, after the Roman god of the underworld. Venetia Phair, as she became by marriage, died April 30 in her home in Banstead, in the county of Surrey, England. She was 90. ... More vexing to Mrs. Phair was the persistent notion that she had taken the name from the Disney character. 'It has now been satisfactorily proven that the dog was named after the planet, rather than the other way around,' she told the BBC. 'So, one is vindicated.' " Venetia's great-uncle Henry, who was a housemaster at Eton, had successfully proposed that the two dwarf moons of Mars be named Phobos and Deimos.

19 of 158 comments (clear)

  1. Damned Disney by karaage · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Ripping off public domain folk tales was not enough. They had to go after the planets, too.

    1. Re:Damned Disney by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      How can you rip off something that is in the public domain?

    2. Re:Damned Disney by Darkness404 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      ...By practically claiming it as your own? How many people think that The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, Snow White and Pinocchio were thought up by Disney? I would imagine that most kids, and a good amount of adults think that, at least for some of them.

      Sure, its not wrong because public domain works are meant to be copied. But it kinda kills part of the experience to know that the movies you thought Disney did a great job doing, had been around for centuries before Walt was born.

      --
      Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
    3. Re:Damned Disney by residieu · · Score: 4, Insightful

      That's the beauty of the public domain. Anyone can take those ideas and characters and make something out of them. Disney did a really great job adapting these old tales. The fact that they weren't original ideas by Disney doesn't take away from that (did anyone ever think Disney came up with them?) Dreamworks was able to use many of those same characters in their Shrek movies, because they're not Disney's characters, they're everyone's characters.

    4. Re:Damned Disney by jonaskoelker · · Score: 2, Insightful

      (did anyone ever think Disney came up with them?)

      Did you never think that? I'll happily admit that I did think that that for some time.

      If you ever did, when did you change your thinking? Was it because you heard about "the original version" of $FAIRYTALE, or heard the movie referred to as "the Disney version"?

      I think that in the absence of other information it's reasonable to think that $FAIRYTALE is made by Disney when you watch it and see it says "Disney" somewhere near the beginning.

      The fact that they're not original to Disney seems like one of those things you don't know that you should go look for. So you're likely to only come by that knowledge by happenstance.

      (My mother read me more H. C. Andersen and Astrid Lindgren than Grimm.)

    5. Re:Damned Disney by mdwh2 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I don't think the point is that it's wrong, more the hypocrisy of Disney: they make use of the works of other people who are long dead, but they want the work that the company owns - including derivative works that they created out of other people's works - to remain in copyright indefinitely. Even though Mickey Mouse was also created by people who are presumably dead now.

      Imagine if all the authors of those fairy tales had lobbied the Governments to extend copyrights indefinitely? None of those Disney stories would have been possible.

  2. God speed by elashish14 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    We'll forever remember your contribution(s) to the scientific community.

    --
    I have left slashdot and am now on Soylent News. FUCK YOU DICE.
    1. Re:God speed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      mod parent up. Too much damn cynicism and not enough respect.

    2. Re:God speed by MillionthMonkey · · Score: 5, Insightful

      She outlived her planet.

    3. Re:God speed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      I thought it was funny. Thanks for ruining it.

  3. Pluto Replies by earlymon · · Score: 4, Insightful

    http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts-apparel/unisex/sciencemath/8964/zoom/

    Rock on, Venetia, rock on.

    --
    Pathological kinda promises Path + Logical - but instead, you get stuck with pathetic.
  4. Re:Just Wow by catmistake · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Now THAT is a nerd's nerd. At the age of eleven, names a planet after a Roman god.

    Not all that original, really... they're all named after Roman gods. Now if she had suggested "Loki" or perhaps "Hellboy," I'd call her my nerd.

    --
    The Admin and the Engineer
  5. Re:like a zebra. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Or the summary, for that matter.

  6. Re:Goofy by Lemmy+Caution · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What I find baffling is that Goofy is a dog, and Pluto is a dog. But Goofy wears clothes, drives, and talks - and Pluto just runs around, barks and wags his tail.

    It's just... not right.

  7. plutonic != platonic by panthroman · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Plutonic?

    Astrological etymologies:
    Mercurial - unpredictable temperment
    Venereal - sexually indulgent
    Lunatic - crazy
    Martial - war-like
    Saturnine - gloomy
    Jovial - happy

    But "nepotism" is from nephew, not Neptune. And "platonic" is from Plato, not Pluto.

  8. Re:Just Wow by syousef · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Now THAT is a nerd's nerd. At the age of eleven, names a planet after a Roman god. I can just picture it now. "Grandfather, I rather think that naming it aaaafter the god Pluto might be the most appropriate course." Maybe I've seen too many Fruit Newton commercials, though.

    These days the kid would never be allowed to read classic Greek Mythology at age 11 lest it damage their precious innocent psyche, or prompt them to go postal at school.

    --
    These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
  9. Re:But Pluto's not even a planet! by Xupa · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Maybe if Slashdot didn't report shit two weeks after the fact....

  10. Re:But Pluto's not even a planet! by iggymanz · · Score: 5, Insightful

    it still has the name Venetia B. gave it, and it will still have that name even if Western civilization falls, for example in Japanese and Chinese it's "Netherworld King", translating her name by calling the god Pluto by his title. In a thousand years it's likely her name will have survived.

  11. Re:Goofy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Because, if the copyright ran out, all those secret archives would suddenly be forced out in the open, thanks to those newly-implemented laws that make publication obligatory?