I realize that I'm not the first person to notice this, but the Nebula Award (presented yearly to excellent writing in Science Fiction or Fantasy) has a slightly troubling logo. It depicts what they call a "spiral nebula". Back before the work of people like Edwin Hubble in the 1920s, anything fuzzy in the night sky was called a nebula, and they came in many shapes. But the awards themselves were created in the 1960s, and by then we knew that all of the pinwheel-shaped things were actually *other galaxies* like the Milky Way, orders of magnitude larger and further away than things like the Cat's Eye Nebula, the Crab Nebula, or the Mutara Nebula. These local nebulae never have a spiral shape.

I suppose they could hardly call them the "galaxy awards" at this point. And changing the logo might not be the best decision, either: a great glittering spiral galaxy is more distinct than a fuzzy smudge of glowing gas.

Finally, let me state, for the record, that should I ever be nominated for such an award, all of my pedantic nitpickery on the subject will immediately cease.