’Er petticoat was yaller
“‘Er petticoat was yaller an’ ’er little cap was green,
An’ ’er name was Supi-yaw-lat’jes’ the same as Theebaw’s Queen,
An’ I seed her first a-smokin’ of a whackin’ white cheroot,
An’ a-wastin’ Christian kisses on an ’eathen idol’s foot:”
—Rudyard Kipling, from Mandalay.
Have you ever seen an opal?
“Have you ever seen an opal? Well, the Burmese sky has just that sort of white glow, tinted here and there with iridescent flecks of light. To see marble towers spiraling up against such a sky makes you feel as if you are dreaming.”
—Michio Takeyama, Harp of Burma, translated from the Japanese by Howard Hibbett, 1966.
the famous Burmese rubies
“With the help of the natives and of the monks from a nearby village, I managed to bury these corpses in the sandy river bank. And while digging in the sand one day I found a large ruby—one of the famous Burmese rubies. it shone like a deep red flame of dazzling brilliance.
As I held it in my hand this jewel reminded me of the souls of the dead. Since I could not carry their ashes around with me, I regarded this ruby as symbolizing the spirits of all the men who had died here in Bruma; and thereafter I always kept it on my person. Whenever I visited a temple I placed it on the altar to worship.”
—Michio Takeyama, Harp of Burma, translated from the Japanese by Howard Hibbett, 1966.
scarlet
“It is not the black clothes that are trying to the sight—black is the steadiest of all colours to work at; white and all bright colours make the eyes water after looking at ’em for any long time; but of all colours scarlet, such as is used for regimentals, is the most blinding, it seems to burn the eyeballs, and makes them ache dreadful . . . everything seems all of a twitter, and to keep changing its tint. There’s more military tailors blind than any others.”
—Henry Mayhew, quoting a tailor in London Labor and the London Poor, 1862; quoted by Robert Hughes in The Fatal Shore: The Epic of Australia’s Founding, 1987.
Why do nurses wear white? Why do surgeons wear blue or green when operating?
Florence Nightingale always wore a white uniform. White, of course, is a symbol of purity, and in the case of a nurse, an appropriate and practical one—white quickly shows any dirtiness.
Surgeons also wore white unitl 1914, when a surgeon decided that red blood against a white uniform was rather repulsive and needlessly graphic. The spinach green color he chose to replace it helped neutralize the bright red.
At the end of World War II, the lighting was changed in operating rooms, and most surgeons switched to a color called “misty green.” Since about 1960, most surgeons have used a color called “seal blue,” which contains a lot of gray. Why this latest switch? . . . [S]eal blue shows up better on the TV monitors used to demonstrate surgical techniques to medical students.
—David Feldman, from Why Do Clocks Run Clockwise? and other Imponderables, 1988.
What is the purpose of the white half-moons on the bases of our fingenails and toenails?
Those white moons are called lunula. Lunulae are nothing more than trapped air prevented from moving up the nail by the closer fit between the finger and nail from where the lunula ends. These air “pockets” serve no apparent purpose.
—David Feldman, from Why Do Clocks Run Clockwise? and other Imponderables, 1988.
Where does white pepper come from?
From black pepper. The most popular of all spices (salt is not a spice) is not related to sweet red, green, or hot peppers, but is the dried berry of a woody, climbing vine knows as Piper nigrum L.
On the vine the peppercorn is neither white nor black. As the fruit ripens, it turns from green to yellow and then to red. To make black pepper, the berries are picked while somewhat immature and then dried. As they dry, their skin turns a dark color. When ground, the pepper contains both light and dark particles—because the whole peppercorn is used—but the general appearance is dark.
White pepper is left on the vine to mature, at which point it is easier to separate the dark skin. The berries are soaked to loosen the skin as much as possible and then rubbed to remove it entirely. After the dark skin is discarded, the naked white peppercorns are put out in the sun to dry. . . .
Why bother with white pepper? Often it is used solely for aesthetic purposes, such as in light-colored sauces and soups where little black specks may upset the chef’s carefully orchestrated balance (or be misconstrued as little black insect fragments). Some spice wimps also prefer white pepper for its milder taste and smell. . . .
[Green peppercorns] . . . are immature berries not left out in the sun but either packed in liquid (usually wine vinegar or brine) or freeze-dried in order to retain the dinstinctive green color. Because green peppercorns are harvested at an early stage of the berry’s development, they are quite mild, but they do have a distinctive tase, which is prized by nouvelle cuisine restaurateurs.
—David Feldman, from Why Do Clocks Run Clockwise? and other Imponderables, 1988.
Why are most homes painted white?
Most homes in the United States have always been painted white. Paint was first used as a preservative as much as an aesthetic expression. White was evidently believed to be more durable than other mixtrues, but there were also historical reasons for its popularity. White was associated with the classic Greek and Roman architectural forms. Furthermore, Puritans viewed color as frivolous; the “seriousness” of white continued to appeal to Americans as late a the mid-nineteenth century. . . .
In the late nineteenth century, white houses became the vogue once again, and although tastes in home colors have gone through many cycles in the past hundred years, white has never become unfashionable.
—David Feldman, from Why Do Clocks Run Clockwise? and other Imponderables, 1988.
Why is royalty referred to as “blue-blooded?”
This term was first applied to the royalty of Spain during the Renaissance. The job of royalty, back then, was to loll around the palace, attempting never to lift a finger for any reason.
Because of their total lack of physical exertion, their blood was cool, lacking the oxygen induced by exercise. As a result, their veins actually showed through their skin, and so it appeared that their blood was pale blue.
—David Feldman, from Why Do Clocks Run Clockwise? and other Imponderables, 1988.