Science, Songs

Breaking Up Is Hard To Do

72 Comments

Relationship watchers across the galaxy are deeply upset and universally disappointed over the unexpected break-up of asteroid P / 2013 R3.

“I’m devastated”, said Haley Stalker, a pop culture romance maven who got word via Twitter that there had been another major parting of ways.

“After TomKat and Bennifer split so suddenly I promised myself I was done following stars. “They’re so unstable! P / 2013 R3 wasn’t flashy, but solid as rock, or so I thought”.

Friends of P / 2013 R3 were equally nonplussed. Telesto, speaking for all the moons of Saturn, said “We’ve all seen comets dissolve and meteors just vaporize, but asteroids have always represented commitment and solidity. We thought P / 2013 R3 was literally set in stone.”

The dramatic dissolution was caught on camera by a paparazzi named Hubble S. Telescope, who has a history of taking photos that show heavenly bodies in a brutally realistic light.

We may never know why P / 2013 R3 couldn’t hold it together, but the pain of parting has been captured over and over again in songs like this one:

What are some of your favorite break-up songs?

72 thoughts on “Breaking Up Is Hard To Do”

  1. That depends – am I trying to wallow in my funk or be all defiant and “I shall surivive?”…If it’s the latter, then a bit of Gloria Gaynor singing just that will do nicely. Or some Sheryl Crow (“Soak up the Sun” is great for feeling all defiant and is also great for singing loudly along). If I want to wallow in self-pity, this number bearing my name (and sounding very Minnesotan in its “go to that other guy…I’ll be fine…sniff…”) is a good bit of Very Early Beatles:

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    1. Anna, how does it effect a person’s childhood when there is a song that bears your name? And the “you” in the song isn’t necessarily a sympathetic character?

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        2. I dated a girl named Kathy. (Actually, I’ve dated three of ’em.) Ask me how she felt about the song, “Kathy’s Clown.”

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      2. Do you know how many songs used the name Clyde and not in nice ways when I was in my HHS years? I guess many of you would not.

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        2. He of the tanned hide was the Old Australian Stockman (known henceforth as O. A. S.), as told to Clyde. Fred received the request for a good postmortem tanning.

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        3. I wonder if the vogue of utilizing names in songs has faded. I can’t offhand think of any that employ any of the names in vogue in the last couple of decades… Tiffany? Brittany? Bailey? Zachary? Nope.

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      3. I have to admit, I was enough of an ugly duckling that I was more jealous of the Anna of song who had multiple men in love with her. Having the ability to be so cruel was novel and sort of exotic. I was not exotic at all, so I just longed to be this Anna…

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    2. Hey Anna – how was Cosmos? I was working… hopefully can catch it with my DVR (if I can figure out how to work it!)

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      1. I liked the first episode. Can’t say as I learned anything new, but the stuff about early understanding of the universe was pretty cool. Really touching bit at the end, too, where Mr. Tyson gives a nice acknowledgement to Carl Sagan and all the work he did.

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        1. I’ll have to look for it. Now that I’ve finally forgiven Tyson for his piece in accelerating Pluto’s demise as a planet, I do admire the job he does. (Although his memoir stunk – he really needed a ghostwriter.)

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        2. Am I the only one who withdraws a bit when Mr Tyson talks? I don’t know of another media personality who seems SO pleased with himself.

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        3. I do think that anybody who can stand being in the limelight because of science these days should probably get a little slack. The only really good part of his memoir was the chapter in which he described being black and being a scientist. Yowza… makes you realize we still have quite a way to go as a society!

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        4. We are suffering as channel 9 does not come in on our TV. S&h enjoys NDT so much that while he still is not over the Pluto thing, he is willing to agree to disagree on that. At our house, Neil, Stephen Hawking and Brian (Greene) are like sports heroes are in the homes of other teenagers.

          Geeks we are.

          Steve, I have never felt that way about (I’m pretty sure he must have a Ph. D.) Dr. Tyson. I am thinking that what you are hearing as being pleased with himself, we hear as enthusiasm for the subject. I always feel like he is implying “how cool is that?!?!?” when he is explaining something. But then, maybe I’m also thinking that anyone who not only understands some of that stuff, but can also explain it in accessible terms has good reason to be proud.

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        5. I’m with you, MiG, I hear enthusiasm for science and wanting to pass along a sense of wonder – wonder in the world, the universe, in discovering things, and yeah, probably wonder that he gets paid to do such cool stuff. (And, FWIW, I have heard that you can watch all of the episodes on Hulu for free – you need to sign up for Hulu, but pretty sure that’s free too…)

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        6. Thanks for the tip, Anna. I know we want to see it. We got the original Carl Sagan series from the library awhile back and enjoyed it, in a historical sort of way. We also saw Connections with James Burke which was interesting. We are getting a little tired and jaded, might have to see those again to inspire some awe after this long winter.

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  2. Wow, I guess either Babooners are really good at long-term relationships, or they just don’t like to talk about breaking up. Since I don’t have access to YouTube at work, I can’t post one of my favorite fanvids, which was cut to a great contemporary breakup song. If I forget to come back tonight, please search “sherlock hot n cold” on YouTube. An even better breakup song is “Fifty Ways to Say Goodbye” by Train–check out the original video with a cameo by William Shatner!

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    3. Train’s “50 Ways to Say Goodbye”–and thatguyinthehat is right, it’s The Hoff, not Shatner. Is there anyone who hasn’t found themselves in that “I wish you were dead!” place at least once in their lives? The song is black humor to begin with, and the video is hilarious. Or maybe that’s just me…

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  3. Last year, as my ex and I were uncoupling, Gotye’s “Somebody that I Used to Know,” was popular and hit pretty close to home.

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  5. Now I have Breakin’Up is Hard to Do (Neal Sedaka?) in my head, along with Paul Simon’s 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover ( and I can still do all the show moves for that one-yikes)- but those are waaaayyy to happy sounding.

    Me, I sing along with Bernadette Peters on Sondheim’s “We Do Not Belong Together”.

    There is a show tune for every occasion.

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  6. When I had my first big breakup, the song I wanted to pass off as speaking for me was “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright.” But that was a fraud. I was nowhere near that independent. The last time someone broke up with me, she offered this song, a bittersweet ballad about a lovely thing that was just not meant to be:

    For me, only one song has ever captured the peculiar agony of a breakup. It isn’t well known or popular. I have it on an album called “Live From the Black Sheep.” The song is sung by Karen Savoca, and the title is “Between Girl and Gone.”

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    1. OT addendum: Liam just turned four. He watches almost no TV, so when he does see it he is not jaded. Molly was talking to her mother yesterday, which makes Liam competitive for attention, so she handed him her tablet computer as a distraction. A bit later Liam rushed in to tell her he had just seen a “worldshake” that killed a horse! Molly thought, “worldshake?” Oh, that would be an earthquake!

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  11. I did predict this topic.
    Just to push the reply box a bit–not that I like. It–I Been Flushed from the
    Bathroom of Your Heart.

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    1. Clyde — I also thought when I saw the story a few days ago that this was the kind of thing Dale likes, but certainly didn’t predict in what direction he would take it!!!!

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  20. I’m unsure of what’s going on on this site today, but Steve went to great trouble to help me find perhaps the most touching song I’ve ever heard. Jodie Foster in “The Brave One” was about a woman who’s beloved husband was shot and killed in a street mugging. The entire movie entailed her tracking down, then killing these murderers. It was a really riveting movie, but the soundtrack will stay with me forever. Hopefully this will work?

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  21. Very OT, but I just noticed the line at the bottom that says “You are following this blog, along with 995 other amzaing people (manage).

    I am of 2 minds on this.
    a) do we pop some virtual champagne or shoot off virtual fireworks when we hit 1,000?
    b) I am not sure I am up for managing 995 other amazing people, let alone the anticipated 1,000. I can at most only manage about 20 at this time. Hoping the rest of you can either manage yourselves or will be managed by another baboon. Thank you.

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    1. mig, you’re in your managerial mode tonight. I’d vote for virtual fireworks when we hit 1,000, and leave the managing to Dale, or tim or any other baboon who care to step up to the plate.

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      1. thank goodness. I really don’t want/ to do any of the managing, but those parentheses looked pretty authoritative, as if to say ” you just manage those people, missy, and we’ll have no whining about it either-get to it”.

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        2. Well, you tried. I don’t even attempt italics (or any other fancy word gymnastics). I have enough trouble with punctuation.

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