Sunday, April 11, 2010

What Color is this Wrapper?

The Grape Tootsie Pop Conundrum



And now for something completely different.

I've developed a little family ritual. Every Friday evening (outside of Lent) I bring home Tootsie Pops for all the kids. Lord help me if I should ever forget.

It actually started with Starbursts a long time ago, but I started to worry about our potential dental bills (Starbursts can just about pull your fillings out). I suppose it all began as a sort of end-of-week celebration, but maybe this little indulgence is a subtle insurance policy too. Maybe it's a way to make sure that at least one of them says something nice about me at my eulogy someday. "Dad was a real bastard, but at least he thought about us enough to deliver with the Tootsies every Friday..."

Well, while handing some Tootsies out recently I referred to a grape one as "the one in the purple wrapper." My daughter T looked at me incredulousy and said, "Dad, that wrapper is blue!" And so the controversy began....

I insisted the wrapper is purple and T insisted it's blue. In between peals of laughter she explained to me that males tend to be more color-blind than females, and anyway, men at my age tend to start losing the ability to discern colors accurately.

I take umbrage to this. Just a few years ago I took a still-life drawing class with charcoal and pastels at the Danforth Museum. I don't think my instructor thought much of me as a draftsman but she did tell me that I was a superb colorist. Most of my classmates weren't envious of my drawing ability but more than a few of them were envious of my ability to blend pastels together and reproduce colors exactly.

Besides, as I explained to my daughter, still convulsed in disbelieving mirth, why would the Tootsie people wrap a GRAPE-flavored PURPLE pop in a BLUE wrapper? Couldn't she see the logic of my position? I guess not.

Am I color blind? If I ask for impartial answers on this, I know I'll probably lose the debate. Now look... I know that it clearly isn't this color. It's just as obvious, however, that it isn't this color either. It's more along the lines of this color. The thing is, what do you call it?

I'm willing to concede that one might want to call it a bluish-purple, but I'm afraid that most people will say it's a purpley-blue.

If so, I declare that purple doesn't get enough credit as a color in its own right. I remember when the LA Lakers basketball team and the LA Kings hockey team wore purple jerseys they called "royal blue." Royal blue my eye... Those shirts are purple. Of that I'm sure.




Marcel Dionne in a PURPLE royal blue uniform

10 comments:

Liam said...

Dionne is without a doubt wearing purple, Prince-style.

The wrapper, however, is blue.

Joe said...

What was the middle one again?

Garpu said...

Canadiens = blue ;) But we don't root for the Canadiens.

Hrm. Wrapper's indigo.

Garpu said...

No, they wear red. Dunno what I'm thinking of. New Jersey?

Jeff said...

The wrapper, however, is blue.

Ah, frickin' 'ell. That's what I figured most people would say.

What was the middle one again?

Exactly. That's what I need. Something in the middle that allows me to save face and weasel my way out of this.


Hrm. Wrapper's indigo.

Indigo! There it is... That works for me. Thanks, Jen. Says wiki: Indigo is the color on the electromagnetic spectrum between about 420 and 450 nm in wavelength, placing it between blue and violet.

Now I'm in a Mood Indigo

Canucks fan, or Leafs?

Garpu said...

Heh, Canucks. :) Wanted to get to one of their games while I was out here, but don't think it's going to pan out.

Jeff said...

Last month I went to a Bruins game for the first time in almost 20 years. They lost, just like the previous time.

Speaking of Canucks, what is it with these Canadians and their failure to pluralize words correctly?

The Toronto Maple Leafs... Since when is leafs the plural of leaf?

"Honey, I'm going outside now to rake some leafs."

Why aren't they called the Toronto Maple Leaves?

shera10 said...

Jeff

I know that my english is ugly, so I should be silent.
But in Cody, Wy, I went to a Rodeo and on my ticket I read: this ticket is valid only this NITE!

shera10 said...

I should remain silent, is it better?:-)

Jeff said...

Hi Cristina,

I should remain silent, is it better? :-)

Not at all. I'm more inclined to think of the use of NITE rather than NIGHT as a marketing device, sort of like using DELITE or XMAS. Maybe they have to pay the poster and ticket printers by the letter.

Then again, in a cowpunch town like Cody, Wyoming, who knows?

Funny that you should write that. My other daughter and I were just talking about the name "Cody" the other day. She mentioned a high school classmate of hers by that name who's a skateboarder.

We both agreed that anyone named "Cody" by necessity needs to ride on something, be it a bronco, bull, skateboard, snowboard, surfboard, skis, or whatever. As in, "Dude, did you hear about Cody getting sent to the hospital? He wiped out trying to do his latest trick."

Either that, or your "Cody" winds up in jail before the age of 17 for stealing cars.