Everyone and his brother is talking about the demotion of Pluto from its former planetary status. Obviously, that’s a bit of an exaggeration. Everybody can’t be talking about it. Newborns can’t talk. There are also a few toddlers, teenagers and adults with mental and/or physical disabilities that make it impossible for them to talk. And some people are so pathologically introverted that, despite being capable, they don’t say much of anything. Then, there are those people who are so tuned out or who live in a such a remote or poor part of the world that they don’t ready access to news and education. They may not even realize that astronomers no longer consider Pluto to be a planet “” or they may have never known that it had previously been assigned that status. But, apart from people who are speaking-challenged, excessively shy, unknowledgeable or have combination of two or three of those conditions, everyone and his brother is talking about Pluto’s diminished rank.

Whoa! “Everyone and his brother?” That’s one of those old, highly sexist expressions that needs revision in these politically correct times, isn’t it? OK. Everyone and his or her brother and/or sister are talking about it.

Then again, that’s a bit demeaning because it refers to a single brother and/or sister. Some people have no brothers or sisters. Others have multiples of one or both genders of siblings. I wouldn’t want to imply in any way that, because I inadvertently left them out, I think less of those extra siblings and/or of people without any siblings. Let’s try again. Everyone and his or her brother and/or sister and/or brothers and/or sisters, or none of the above, without bias as to the number, including zero, of brothers and/or sisters, are talking about it.

Of course, the expression, regardless of whether you use the traditional version or the politically correct revision, is fundamentally stupid. “Everyone,” by definition, includes everyone’s siblings if he or she has any, so referring to siblings after already having included everyone is redundant. The sibling reference should not have been there in the first place. What were people thinking of when the started to use that ridiculous turn of phrase?

Now that we’ve cleared that up, what the hell was I talking about? I’ve forgotten. Never mind.