Spurius Ruga
“Tradition holds, according to Richard A. Firmage in The Alphabet Abecedarium, that g was invented by a particular Roman: ‘Spurius Ruga, about 230 B.C. (and it appears that he derived some immediate benefit from it).’ Perhaps Ruga was awarded a g to insert into his hame anywhere he wanted. Since spurius in Latin meant ‘spurius’ or ‘false,’ if I had been him I would have slipped it into my first name somewhere. Spurigus or Spurgius. But it’s hard to put ourselves in the shoes of a person who lived that long ago.”
The blue and the green
“. . . one of the best color optical illusions I have ever seen.” —Phil Plait, creator of Bad Astronomy. By way of my father. (Thanks, Dad!)
sometimes the river is an opulent purple
“Sometimes the flats and churches and hotels of Westminster are like the outlines of Constantinople in a mist; sometimes the river is an opulent purple, sometimes mud-coloured, sometimes sparkling blue like the sea. It is always worth while to look down an see what is happening.”
—Virginia Woolf, Melymbrosia, 1912, published in 1982.
PANTONE 14-0848 Mimosa
“Reflective of the times, Pantone selected PANTONE 14-0848 Mimosa, a warm, engaging yellow, as the color of the year for 2009. So as we leave last year’s Blue Iris in our wake and face economic uncertainty, optimism is paramount and no other color expresses hope and reassurance more than yellow.”
—“Pantone Fashion Color Report Fall ’09”, from GD USA (Graphic Design USA), May 2009.
That white round thing without any holes
“I’m frightened of eggs, worse than frightened, they revolt me. That white round thing without any holes . . . have you ever seen anything more revolting than an egg yolk breaking and spilling its yellow liquid? Blood is jolly, red. But egg yolk is yellow, revolting.”
The Hooded Pitohu
—Patrick Merrell, Bird Brain-Teasers, 2008.
LBJ
—Patrick Merrell, Bird Brain-Teasers, 2008.
a world of color
“Birds can see a world of color far richer than we can. Humans have only three types of cones in each eye, whereas birds have four. Since each type interprets visual input differently, the picture formed in a bird’s brain contains colors, including some in the ultraviolet range, that we can only imagine.”
—Patrick Merrell, Bird Brain-Teasers, 2008.
All of Israel saw the letters
“The word of YHVH is refined
As silver and gold are refined.
When these letters came forth, they were all refined,
Carved precisely, sparkling, flashing.
All of Israel saw the letters
Flying through space in every direction,
Engraving themselves on the tablets of stone.”
—The Zohar, quoted in People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks, 2008.
Sundays
“Sundays have a different color (usually white), a different texture (starched lined), and a different flavor (kind of like mashed potatoes) than even Saturdays (which are crimson and taste like weenies and beer). In some American cities, incidentally, it’s illegal to sell beer on Sundays, but that’s a different story.”
—Tom Robbins, B Is for Beer, 2009.