Love this post by Astrobob, a stargazing Duluth area blogger:

Faces of astronauts in space

During a quieter hotel moment on our trip to San Francisco, A. and I happened upon a NASA channel as we checked out the offerings on the tiny TV. This post (especially the last bit about Karen Nyberg) reminds me of that channel. The programming had the same casual otherworldliness as Karen's zero-G ponytail. I'm curious as to whether the entrance of commercial space travel like Virgin Galactic will offer the same kind of fulfillment; it's more like a space roller coaster. Their description (on the site) of their customers as astronauts rings false to me, even though I suppose that logically there's nothing wrong with it. Sitting in a seat going "Ooo" and "Ahh" at the stars doesn't strike me as Astronautical Behavior. I expect you to be doing something constructive in space to earn that title.

Wow, that was a subject jumping couple of paragraphs. Maybe I'll just go outside and look at the stars.

P.S.: HEY. I interpret the OED's definition/etymology of the word as agreement with my inexplicable distaste.

Astronaut