I Found a Penny Today, So Here’s a Thought
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  by jovikeThe Little-Known Meanings of Crazy Color Names vol. 2
We continue our strange and wonderful adventure into the uncharted fringes of language, in search of new "shades of meaning." Colors with seemingly incomprehensible names actually tell fascinating and humorous stories, at least to those who are willing to delve beneath the surface. The sandy color called chk gray refers to the sound of a shovel pushing through sand: "I listen until my itching subsides, and the nearby scratch of a shovel digging—chk... chk... chk...—is a gentle drumbeat calling me back to life." (Donald W. George, Japan: True Stories of Life on the Road. 
The green color called chk-chk-chk echoes the soft, rhythmic call of the Olive Thrush, as described in Birds of Kenya and Northern Tanzania by Dale A. Zimmerman. 
by Jeremy Hughes
The mysterious gray color called clk refers to an expression of anger by a Martian whose flying saucer has just been destroyed by a “little beast with a peppermint stick” (Will Eisner, Comics & Sequential Art). 
The pinkish color called dddd echoes “a loud hammering sound,” as described in Tongue Tie—From Confusion to Clarity: A Guide to the Diagnosis and Treatment of Ankyloglossia by Carmen Fernando. 
The smoky purple color called dlrdn refers to an interjection coined by François Rabelais in the novel Gargantua and Pantagruel, spoken by a native of the imaginary “Lanternland.” 
The light brown color dnnn refers to an incoherent response, as from someone intoxicated. “'You all right? You sick or anything, or just drunk?' 'Dnnn,' said Sandra." (William Kennedy, An Albany Trio. 
The light purple color called drrr echoes the sound of "door," as spoken by someone “slurring his words out of pure exhaustion,” as in the novel Doona by Anne McCaffrey. 
The bright green color called fff refers to the sound of a sky rocket fizzing up, as described in “More Than Words” by the New Zealand Ministry of Education. 
The even brighter green color called ffff means fortissississimo, a musician’s directive to perform a passage very, very, very loudly. 
Another green color, called fmp fmp fmmmmp, echoes the sound of a falling body hitting the ground, as in the graphic novel ShadowFall by Kaichi Satake. 
All of these color name insights are derived from my Dictionary of Improbable Words, which is available for online reading. [Read the entire article in my guest blog at ColourLovers.com.]
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If you've stumbled upon a lucky penny and have a friend who may be down on his or her luck, print out our free, personalized Transfer of Luck Certificate (inspired by the Lucky Penny web site). Rendered in fine calligraphy, the certificate is easy to generate and completely free to print in high resolution. From the certificate:According to the truths of the Penny Priestess, (1) luck is neither created nor destroyed, (2) copper is an excellent conductor of luck, (3) a falling penny acquires a luck charge coincident with the gravitational pull of the earth, (4) the luck force occurs in discrete but non-quantifiable units, and (5) luck is uncertain. May this transfer of the pennies here attached serve to distribute fortune more equitably. Create your own Luck Transfer Certificate » |
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First came the mischievous Irish Straw Boys, the original party crashers. Now comes the rascally German "Zerrissen Jungen" (shredded boys), sporting masks of shredded paper.
This photo is actually by Frankfurt's Pixelgarten. We made up the stuff about "Zerrissen Jungen."
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The poet Geof Huth offers this lovely commentary on why we notice and in fact need "11:11": 11:11 At certain points in measured time, the world seems to come into alignment, concepts tend to clarify, ideas gel. But we know in our hearts that this is false, that midnight is as meaningless a concept as the idea that a new year begins at a certain second after a particular midnight. We cannot believe fully in these ideas because we understand that we worship and are guided by arbitrary signs created by humans: sequences of numbers, sounds, or letters. ||:|| But we continue to follow these signs because they direct our lives so well. Their meaningless is the source of their meaning and their power. We imbue them with their significance, so we believe them. Even if they become twisted out of shape, we continue to believe them, we continue to see them, we continue to understand them. |||| We can reduce the information in a sign and still be able to read it, still be able to make sense of it, to add sense to it. We do this to eradicate ambiguity, to make sense. The world is a mass of contradictory signs, so we must choose the ones to read, how to read them, the ones to believe. :::: In the end, we have only ourselves to blame. We look for symmetry. It pleases us. That is what we like about architecture, a metrical poem, crossword puzzles, seemingly deft plotting in a story. And the only thing that makes the asymmetrical interesting is that it runs counter to an existing symmetry. We need symmetry. We need symmetry to give beauty to the surprisingly asymmetrical. .... We need 11:11 to find ourselves an idea to play with. We need 11:11 to feel our lives are temporarily in balance. We need 11:11 to feel human. Without 11:11, the world just runs away from us, untamed, untameable, even unsought. ---------- Sexy Girl responds: 11:11 is my fav time. To me it represents dimensional unity... like playing two octaves at once on the piano. Same but different. Somehow the harmonious moment is magnified when the two are played as one. Kinda like love relationships are meant to be ... yeah.
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by jovikeThe Little-Known Meanings of Crazy Color NamesColors with seemingly incomprehensible names actually tell fascinating and humorous stories, at least to those who are willing to delve beneath the surface. Join me on a strange and wonderful adventure into the uncharted fringes of language, where we'll discover new "shades of meaning." The chilly blue color called brrrrrrr refers to the "Official State Motto of Alaska," according to humorist Dave Barry (Dave Barry’s Only Travel Guide You’ll Ever Need). 
by Dalephonics
With an additional "r," the watery color called brrrrrrrr conjures up the sound of someone shaking water out of his or her ears after crawling out from under a waterfall, as in Sacred Journey of the Peaceful Warrior by Dan Millman. 
The green color called bbbbbb echoes a vocal imitation of "a sailing boat in a tub of water," as discussed in Baby Talk: The Art of Communicating with Infants and Toddlers by Monica Devine. 
The orange color called "bssss bssss" refers to the German word for the buzzing of a bee. 
The electric green color called bzzt recalls the crackle of a security spotlight turning on, as in Revenge of the Lawn Gnomes by Teddy Marguiles. 
The bright yellow color called bzzz refers to a deliberately mumbled word, due to passive-aggression (Nancy Scheper-Hughes, Saints, Scholars, and Schizophrenics: Mental Illness in Rural Ireland, Twentieth Anniversary Edition). 
The sanguine color called ccc echoes an ambiguous sound made by someone paralyzed with fear, as in the novel Theo Slugg in Low Spirits by Simon Goswell. 
The tawny color called chchch refers to a sound that Guatemalan village children make to get attention (Jason A. Lubam, “Diary of a Jungle Acupuncturist,” Acupuncture Today). 
With an additional "ch," the smoky purple color called chchchch refers to a French word for musical percussion lacking a definite note (fr.AudioFanzine.com). 
Add yet another "ch," and the golden color called chchchchch echoes the “guttural unvoiced growl” of a tiger (Metamorphosism.com). 
All of these color name insights are derived from my Dictionary of Improbable Words, which is available for online reading. [Read the entire article in my guest blog at ColourLovers.com.]
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According to Plato, a particular bicycle with two wheels missing is distinct from the abstract form of Bicycle-ness. A Bicycle is the ideal that allows us to identify the distorted reflections of bicycles all around us. --- Sara Luz wrote: Good old Plato. He knew what he was talking about.
Platonic idealism photographed by Melita Dennett on Church Street, Brighton.
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To the dim-lit shore of the mind Strange things come drifting When the tide is high. —Emmy Veronica Sanders, " Driftwood" |
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 by pootjThe Search for Silent ColorsWe all know garishly loud colors when we see them. Typically in the range of red, orange, and yellow, loud colors are unwelcome in business attire, unless one's business happens to be the circus. And we all know quiet colors by their instant calming effect. The quiet range of blue, green, and violet is beloved by home designers. But what of silent colors? If they exist, would we find them in cloistered monasteries, or hushed libraries, or ruined castles? The American ornithologist Roger Tory Peterson found a "sea of silent colors" when he tearfully witnessed the grandeur of the Grand Canyon for the first time. He reported a vivid array of silent reds, yellows, grays, and lavenders ( Wild America, 1997).  by davidanthonyporterThe poet A. F. Moritz found silent colors within the curves of a white seashell. He described a "diminished spectrum" of "shades of milk" ("You, Whoever You Are," Early Poems, 1983). The naturalist Timothy Duane found "the silent colors of winter" blanketing the Sierra mountain chain ( Shaping the Sierra, 2000). When feminist activist Ginny Foat found herself incarcerated, she discovered silent grays, blacks, and greens in the steel and cinder blocks of her cell ( Never Guilty, Never Free, 1985). [Read the entire article in my guest blog at ColourLovers.com.]
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"Once more I wondered, as I had the first time I saw him, why these handsome features didn't add up to a handsome face." — Zeruya Shalev, Love Life (2001) |
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The best place to learn long division is at a multiplication table. |
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 by Raf ArtistaHow to Create Sublime ColorsWhat color is so awe-inspiring, so out-of-this-world that it elevates viewers to new heights of wonderment? The quest for the sublime color is as old as pigment and likely older still. Imagine the first humans to witness a majestic sunrise. They’d have had a transcendental experience, in that sublime colors open a window into a realm of grandeur beyond mere human experience. Imagine the first artists experimenting with dyes like alchemists in search of the Philosopher’s Stone, driven to discover the secret of sublime color and to possess the power to turn the ordinary into something extraordinary. Sublime colors are commonly described as being: - incomparably beautiful
- exquisite
- cheerful
- timeless
- soft
- active
- natural (sunrise, clouds, rainbows, mountains, or sea, for example)
- radiant
- sentimental
- magnificent
- glorious
- lofty, divine (in that they foster a spiritual experience)
- shimmering
Ultraviolet and deep indigo are often called sublime, and black more so. Color expert Benjamin Jan Kouwer notes that Western culture once hailed yellow as a sublime color with a favorable symbolic meaning (Colors and Their Character, 1949). Color mixers usually discover sublime beauty by accident, but art teacher Gabriel Boray suggests that artists can hone their sense of the sublime through careful practice. Boray developed a system for sublime color mixing. Through his system, colorists learn to feel when a color is “singing.” Boray instructs the colorist to begin with two complementary colors of the same temperature (such as a warm yellow and a warm ultramarine). “Mix 5 variations between them, from yellow-green to blue-green, paying careful attention to separating them enough to be recognized as a unique variation.” By adding a tiny amount of blue into the yellow, then a bit more, and more again, each variation will be distinct. “After you have 5 clear color variations between those two, create one in between each (there may be many more than one), until you have 10 variations. Now look at those colors. Are they clean and unique? They should be singing. If they aren’t singing, you are to immediately find the correct light to see the variations properly, or rush outside, close your eyes, and take 10 deep breaths while telling yourself you are a master of color! If the colors exist—and an infinite amount of colors exist—then you can identify them.” Boray assures that “When you open your eyes you will see nature as you may never have before. Return to your exercise, choose two more colors and continue. Combine as many pairs of colors, creating 5, then 10, or more variations. Gradually you will begin to feel the changes in your blood. Go outside again and look at something in nature. Make a ring with your thumb and forefinger and look as if through a magnifying glass. See the infinite variations. The same colors you see are available to you for painting. There is no barrier between your mind and your brush.” [Read the entire article in my guest blog at ColourLovers.com.]
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 by superdoveBlonde Pony Tails: The Human-Horse ConnectionHumans have been fascinated by white horses for millennia. Geneticists have now pinpointed the "genetic architecture" that connects blonde manes in people and equines. The study of white horses goes all the way back to ancient Rome, where depigmented horses were identified as "candidus" (white) or "glaucus" (gray). The PLoS Genetics journal notes that two thousand years ago, the white horse was held sacred by the Saxons. It served as an augur for the German tribes, its behavior considered a sign of divine approval or disapproval. The white horse was so revered that it featured on the flags of Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia. Even earlier, white horses were celebrated by the Celts in Great Britain. The White Horse of Uffington (Oxfordshire, England) is Bronze Age hillside artefact, dating back approximately 3,000 years. The figure of a 374-foot long horse (perhaps representing the Celtic horse goddess Epona) was cut into the soil, its white coat naturally pigmented by the chalk beneath the turf. The PLoS Genetics journal points out that most white horses carry a "graying-with-age mutation." They are born with a solid-colored coat which turns white by age of four to six. However, occasionally a pony is born with a solid white coat. Take, for example, the solid white mare named Cigale, born in 1957 out of solid brown parents from the Swiss Franches-Montagnes Horse population. Geneticists have studied all of Cigale's white-born descendants and isolated an inherited mutation in their pigment forming cells. Different horse populations, such as white Thoroughbreds, Arabians, and Camarillo White Horses, reveal independent pigmentation mutation events. In other words, the white horses in each equine family exhibit their own special brand of mutation leading to their white coats. But the common chromosomal factor appears to be what geneticists call the KIT gene, responsible not only for white horses but also for blonde people. White horses appear in the religious literature of many lands. Here's a small sampling: - In the New Testament's Book of Revelation, one of the four horsemen of the Apocalypse rides a white horse.
- In Japan, the white horse is a Shinto symbol of purity and divine authority.
- In Islam, the Prophet ascended to heaven on the back of a white horse.
- In Hinduism, the god Kalki rides a white horse while brandishing a comet-like sword.
- In Nordic lore, the god Odin rises a white horse named Sleipnir.
- In Greek mythology, the white and winged Pegasus sprang from the blood of Medusa when Perseus decapitated her.
[Read the entire article in my guest blog at ColourLovers.com.]
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 by TzatzikiTeardrops as PrismsIntense moments in life can bring tears of both joy and pain. There can also be tears of something that transcends bodily feelings and emotions. These are tears of realization, when a union of some sort transforms into communion, or a passion transforms into compassion. "Bliss" might be the best word for this tearful state of being, though words are too limited. One way to inspire such tears is to look deeply into someone's eyes and to hold the gaze. A friend once shared the insight that teardrops are prisms, reflecting and refracting angles and colors of life that can't be seen with dry eyes. Mozambique author Mia Couto suggests that tearful eyes are liquid conduits to the world of the unconscious, and that through the prism of a teardrop you can see visions of things not as you wish they were but as they really are. It's as if teardrops dissolve away one's defensive walls to reveal the archetypes dwelling in the background, the mythology taking place beneath the surface of the workaday world. Throughout the ages, the joys, pains, and revelations of life have invited artists to gaze through teardrop prisms and to share their visions. [Read the entire article in my guest blog at ColourLovers.com.]
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"Horses are, in fact, natural Taoists. ... Taoism is best known in popular culture for the 'yin-yang' circle, its two interlocking tadpole-like symbols representing the balance of opposites in the universe and in the human psyche: white and black, light and dark, sound and silence, doing something and doing nothing. To the relentlessly assertive, patriarchal Western mind, the Taoist picture of reality at first appears contrary to everything we believe because it asks us to consider the opposite of our normal inclinations. One of the most famous quotes from the Tao Te Ching advises us to 'know the yang, but keep to the yin,' which often appears in translation as 'know the masculine but keep to the feminine.' When I was with horses, I began to live this philosophy." — Linda Kohanov, The Tao of Equus |
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Original Content Copyright © 2025 by Craig Conley. All rights reserved.
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