The program I do for 3rd grade involves describing each of the planets. Time was when I got to the 7th planet I'd pronounce it You-Rain-Us in hopes of avoiding the giggle factor. But lately I've found it more fun to just put it out there so when I get to #7 I start by saying, "Ok, here's the planet with the name everyone laughs at, Yur-Anus." Kids laugh, teachers laugh too and then I move on. By the way, that also gives me an excuse to get into how Uranus got it's name and how for a while it was initially named "George" (technically George's Star or Georgium Sidus) but then kids like George. :) patrick On 22 Apr 2015, at 16:50, Joe Bauman via Utah-Astronomy <utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> wrote:
Reminds me of a funny story about a fellow reporter who, I'm sad to say, died about a week ago. But Ellie was bright, witty and lots of fun back then. We sat near each other at work and talked a lot. One of the things we discussed was the proper pronunciation of the planet's name, Your-anus or Yourinus. One day we were discussing whether the plural of aspirin was aspirin or aspirins. I said I'd check the huge unabridged dictionary on the other side of the newsroom. As I was walking to it, Ellie yelled, "Why don't you look up Your-anus while you're at it?"
Sent from my iPhone