Althouse: "When I was a kid, my dad said he hated green, and I was like, 'Yeah, me, too!'"

February 26, 2017

"When I was a kid, my dad said he hated green, and I was like, 'Yeah, me, too!'"

"And besides, green is too close to blue. Like get out of here, it’s an off-brand blue."

59 comments:

rhhardin said...: Grue was used in phil 101, meaning green before year 2000 and blue afterwards, to prove that you don't yet have enough evidence for even the simplest thing, for instance color.

The matter was settled after 2000 came.

Who knows what year they use in phil 101 courses now.; 2/26/17, 8:42 AM
Curious George said...: Novak is a funny guy, and great comedy writer, director, and actor. He's smart funny.; 2/26/17, 9:00 AM
Sean Gleeson said...: The article has him gushing over his Rolex Daytona watch, a thick iron wrist weight with no fewer than four dials crowded onto its face. He actually says, "One thing I love about a really nice, simple watch is..." I assume he was joking.; 2/26/17, 9:09 AM
Known Unknown said...: I'll give him some credit as most of the things he's talking about are reasonably-priced. Only the Rolex would be considered a luxury item.

He's not a GOOPster.; 2/26/17, 9:12 AM
rehajm said...: Blue is an off brand green.

I'm stealing the fancy watch/casual everything else thing.; 2/26/17, 9:15 AM
rehajm said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 2/26/17, 9:17 AM
rehajm said...: I believe his 'simplicity' refers to a traditional timepiece vs something like an iWatch.; 2/26/17, 9:18 AM
rhhardin said...: Everything I wear, same thing every day, was chosen to wash in the same load, and I haven't worn a watch since 1987.

Functionality is everything.; 2/26/17, 9:22 AM
Unknown said...: Green is ok. It's not wrong to say it's just blue - same as a Democrat is just a Marxist. They're related like that. I like a nice pair of green shorts.; 2/26/17, 9:23 AM
rhhardin said...: Crocs save you probably a year of lace-tying over a lifetime.

Only when there's snow do you need to go LLBean slip-on waterproof shoes, which require sitting down to put on but not lacing.; 2/26/17, 9:24 AM
rhhardin said...: A lute player who's 60 years old has spent 20 years tuning.; 2/26/17, 9:26 AM
Mark said...: Green is trans-blue, not a second-class, off-brand blue, you transphobic hater.; 2/26/17, 9:28 AM
khematite said...: "And blue always comes last."

http://www.radiolab.org/story/211213-sky-isnt-blue/; 2/26/17, 9:32 AM
Triangle Man said...: "Difficult colour, green… very tricky."; 2/26/17, 9:39 AM
Qwerty Smith said...: My browser placed a Dickies ad for shorts below this story and an Amazon ad for green shirts next to it. It's like Chrome is trolling Ann and BJ.

(OK, I know the ads are just based on browsing history, but still...); 2/26/17, 9:55 AM
Paddy O said...: Blue is like one of those obsessive parents at their kid's soccer game.; 2/26/17, 10:10 AM
Dust Bunny Queen said...: LLBean slip-on waterproof shoes,

Oh Hell no!. Those shoes aren't "high" enough to keep the snow from getting inside your shoes When there is snow I need something that is higher and with good tread.

I use Sorrel Snow Packs for trudging around in the snow. I've had my pair for over 20 years.

Green is one of my favorite colors for decorating. Using it as a base upon which you can add other bright accents. Certain shades of green though. Sage or a greyed green is nice. Spare me from chartreuse or any kind of yellow tinged green. Barf!; 2/26/17, 10:11 AM
Paddy O said...: Blue is like the guy friend of the hot girl in high school.; 2/26/17, 10:12 AM
tds said...: He just called a Rolex "a simple watch"; 2/26/17, 10:14 AM
Fernandinande said...: The heartbreak and togetherness of inherited color blindness are things of wonder.; 2/26/17, 10:17 AM
traditionalguy said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 2/26/17, 10:27 AM
traditionalguy said...: There will green hills in California until summer starts the yellow blend until I is white. Water makes green life that feeds all the creation.; 2/26/17, 10:27 AM
Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...: tds said...
He just called a Rolex "a simple watch"

Yes, I also thought that was bit much.; 2/26/17, 10:30 AM
Richard said...: It's not easy being green. :); 2/26/17, 10:36 AM
MathMom said...: Without green, Superman couldn't fly!; 2/26/17, 10:45 AM
Big Mike said...: @Althouse, please warn us when you are linking to the Times or WaPo. I just used my last monthly free access on this piece of fluff and foolishness. No more Times articles for me until Wednesday at the earliest.; 2/26/17, 10:45 AM
JackWayne said...: Big Mike, maybe you know this so sorry if you do. Hold your finger/thumb on the link and it will pop up as a selection. Then you can choose to open or cancel.; 2/26/17, 10:55 AM
Bruce Hayden said...: Talking about snow boots made me chuckle. Wintering now somewhere it snows maybe once a decade. And even then it doesn't stick. I have maybe three pairs of snow boots. One is at the condo in the CO mtns. The other two have taken up residence in our garage here. Had my partner's daughter and SiL over yesterday to help with the unpacking and to cart some of the excess away. The topic all day was the snow shovel I ended up shipping down here from CO. I was surprised that it survived the day in the garage - I think the answer for it, and the two pair of snow boots is to haul them up to our place in MT. Not that we really need them there, because we always bail out before the first snow of the year, but they might, sitting in the garage there, make us look like more serious Montanans.

Snow is a bittersweet memory. Haven't been without it for an entire year for 2/3 of a century now. But I hate shoveling snow. Last shoveling of such may ultimately have been in CO to allow the movers to get to the stairs downstairs a bit over a month ago. Weird. Already missing something I really didn't like.; 2/26/17, 10:58 AM
Big Mike said...: @Jack, I'm new to iPhones. Thanks for the tip.; 2/26/17, 11:07 AM
Otto said...: In designing display avionics for the military back in the 60s, we used a green phosphor in our CRTs. Reason why - the military had done extensive studies on the most pleasing color to the eye and found that it was green. Green is the middle frequency in the visible spectrum.; 2/26/17, 11:10 AM
FullMoon said...: Big Mike said... [hush][hide comment]

@Althouse, please warn us when you are linking to the Times or WaPo. I just used my last monthly free access on this piece of fluff and foolishness. No more Times articles for me until Wednesday at the earliest.

Delete any related cookies, and your free stuff starts over.; 2/26/17, 11:11 AM
khesanh0802 said...: Like the Oscars I am supposed to care about this, why?; 2/26/17, 11:12 AM
Bruce Hayden said...: Not all Rolexes are that complex - my partner has one that only, I think, has the single dial. And, then something for the day of the month. But, it has junk on the crystal, which makes it close to useless, for anything except expensive jewelry. So, I am constantly responding to her requests for the time, that maybe we should trade it in for something a bit more pragmatic, with, maybe, large digits, that I wouldn't have to separately insure. Maybe even a smart watch - except that she can't really handle a thermostat that you have to switch between Heat and Cool, to do heating and cooling. Somehow it escapes her that if you turn the thermostat up to 75 degrees when it Cool mode, it isn't going to get any warmer (and, no, turning it up to 85 doesn't heat it any faster, even in Heat mode - it just means that you will quickly be trying to cool the house back down in Heat mode, which doesn't work any better than trying to heat the house in Cool mode). But life would be much easier if she could just ask her watch what time it was. At least easier on me.

And, yes, even at $200 a thermostat, I plan to replace the two we have with ones that will integrate into our security system, because they are smart enough to know that if you are trying to move to a higher temp, you need the furnace, and if you are moving to a lower temp, you need the air conditioners. The Rolex is a different story.; 2/26/17, 11:16 AM
Michael K said...: "But, it has junk on the crystal, which makes it close to useless, for anything except expensive jewelry. "

I have had one for 35 years. About every three years I have it serviced. Usually I notice it is starting to lose time. When I see that, it is time to service it. The service includes replacing the crystal and costs about $250.

Rolexes are like Mercedes. A friend used to say he would take his Mercedes to the dealer who always said, "Well this is very rare in Mercedes but it happens" and then do $1000 service. At least it is better than Ferrari which has a service at about 20,000 miles that costs $10,000;; 2/26/17, 11:33 AM
Wince said...: Quite the opposite, as kid, blue was my favorite color. At one point I switched to green, because it was related, memorably when I bought a green Duncan yo-yo.

Maybe it was because I grew up the next town over in a less affluent community. Lots of actors and entertainment industry types hail from Newton. As I noticed at the time, graduates of my high school got jobs removing the asbestos from Newton's high schools.; 2/26/17, 11:33 AM
J. Farmer said...: "Blue" and "Green" are just social constructs, people.; 2/26/17, 11:46 AM
HoodlumDoodlum said...: Research suggests humans couldn't see the color blue until modern times; 2/26/17, 12:17 PM
Michael K said...: Interesting, Hoodlum.

Blue, of course, is at the short wave end of the spectrum. Shorter is ultraviolet which is dangerous.; 2/26/17, 1:22 PM
veni vidi vici said...: "I was like" is the self-identifying hallmark of the moron.; 2/26/17, 1:29 PM
Simon Kenton said...: I can't believe you did this to us, Ms Althouse. A "polymath" talking about T-shirts. And offering nothing insightful, nothing learned or learnable, nothing in the least polymathic, nothing worth reading. The only thing that saves this is that some of your commenters can be interesting about almost anything. You have left us 3 minutes closer to the grave, for nothing. A bill for $15 follows, calculated as 3 minutes at $300/hr.; 2/26/17, 1:48 PM
MathMom said...: HoodlumDoodlum -

The Last Judgement, painted by Michelangelo, has intense blue in it. It was painted in the 1500s. Weird, eh?

Also, I believe lapis lazuli has been around forever, and prized for its blueness. Here is a head covering from ancient Egypt made of lapis. (Yes, he mentions Egypt in the article, but there are also bluebirds...and bluebonnets...)

And, of course, there is this. King Tut.; 2/26/17, 2:03 PM
F said...: There's five minutes of my life I won't get back.; 2/26/17, 2:03 PM
Qwerty Smith said...: Simon Kenton said... A "polymath" talking about T-shirts. And offering nothing insightful, nothing learned or learnable, nothing in the least polymathic, nothing worth reading.

A polymath just needs to study lots of things, not necessarily worthwhile things. Suppose that you randomly selected ten dissertations published by a university press, in ten different fields. Do you suppose that any of them would be worth reading? Now suppose they were all written by the same person.

Perhaps we need a special definition: "Modern polymath; n.: 1. A person who has mastered the empty jargon of many fields while having nothing interesting to say about the human condition. 2. One engaged in 'interdisciplinary research'."; 2/26/17, 2:12 PM
Michelle Dulak Thomson said...: I was just reading a short story about art forgery yesterday. Ultramarine was the old blue. Prussian blue came in around 1804. Cobalt blue and synthetic ultramarine after that. But all that time, none of us could see blue?; 2/26/17, 2:32 PM
Anonymous said...: Across that little lake to the East there is a BIG difference between Green (and White) and Blue (and Maize, because, well Yellow has other meanings), and Red is considered evil.; 2/26/17, 3:19 PM
Jupiter said...: Michael K said...

"Blue, of course, is at the short wave end of the spectrum. Shorter is ultraviolet which is dangerous."

Well, no, violet is shorter than blue. Then comes ultraviolet.

The minimum of the absorbance spectrum of the atmosphere occurs in the green band, as plants figured out a long time ago. And the human eye can distinguish more shades of green than any other color, presumably so as to tell all those plants apart. Blue is just -- sad.; 2/26/17, 3:36 PM
Michael K said...: "Well, no, violet is shorter than blue. Then comes ultraviolet."

I know but that is the blue end, which was the point.

Maybe there is an evolutionary benefit to avoiding that end of the spectrum.

Complementary colors are also significant in medicine. A green laser is more absorbed by red, like blood vessels.

Blue is also the color that can be seen the farthest at night. That's why red light is used at sea. It has less effect on dark adaptation.

In my sailboat, we had little fluorescent lights that could be switched from white to red. At night we always used red.; 2/26/17, 3:52 PM
Anonymous said...: Caring about what B.J. Novak wears is exactly what's wrong with the world.; 2/26/17, 4:03 PM
Paco Wové said...: "Research suggests humans couldn't see the color blue until modern times"

That's not 'research', that's humanities bullshit.; 2/26/17, 5:18 PM
rhhardin said...: Roy NMI Biv.; 2/26/17, 6:07 PM
M15ery said...: "@Althouse, please warn us when you are linking to the Times or WaPo. I just used my last monthly free access on this piece of fluff and foolishness. No more Times articles for me until Wednesday at the earliest."

Open it in an Incognito Tab (or Window). Don't bother erasing cookies.; 2/26/17, 6:16 PM
Guildofcannonballs said...: One of the most common occurrences of my day to day existence is the notion, recurring Hella often as it were, I can't recall the point.

What the Hell was it all about?

I am making a cognizant decision to revert back to Gram Parsons' "A Song For You" unless some fucking pricks wanna bitch Gram didn't perform that fucker either.

Oh my land is like a wild goose
It wanders all around everywhere
Trembles and it shakes 'til every tree is loose
It rolls the meadows and it rolls the nails

So take me down to your dance floor
I won't mind the people when they stare
Paint a different color on your front door
And tomorrow we will still be there

Jesus built a ship to sing a song to
It sails in rivers and it sails the tide
Some of my friends don't know who they belong to
Some can't get a single thing to work inside

So take me down to your dance floor
But I won't mind the people when they stare

Paint a different color on your front door
And tomorrow we will still be there

I love you everyday, now I'm leavin'
I can see the sorrow in your eyes
I hope you know a lot more than you're believin'
Just so the sun don't hurt you when you cry

Oh, take me down to your dance floor
I won't mind the people when they stare
Paint a different color on your front door
And tomorrow we may still be there
And tomorrow we may still be there

Read more at http://www.songlyrics.com/gram-parsons/a-song-for-you-lyrics/#uWj7mztA0lwFTw7J.99; 2/26/17, 6:21 PM
Guildofcannonballs said...: BECAUSE i LIKE TO THIS VERY DAY 'TOUCH OF GREY'!; 2/26/17, 8:24 PM
Bad Lieutenant said...: I hazily understand that during World War II, in England at the RAF, they were investigating the possibility of using ultraviolet light for night operations, because a very small percent of the population could see in the ultraviolet spectrum.

Ultimately it was determined that the blonde, blue-eyed people who were most susceptible to this phenomenon were more widely found in the German population rather than the British. So the experiments were discontinued.

Doesn't mean that an individual so adapted should not benefit. Perhaps there are people who can see in the infrared as well.; 2/26/17, 8:40 PM
Mr. Majestyk said...: I wonder what the Himda tribe would say if you asked them what the color of the sky is.; 2/26/17, 8:51 PM
Jaq said...: What's funny about the idea that colors are "social constructs" is that we humans feel that certain color combinations work together and sometimes they really "pop." Like my pool is an aqua color, and I have these orange flowers, and seen with the pool in the background, the combination is striking. Anyway, colorful birds usually look like their colors were chosen off of a color wheel too, to compliment while contrasting. So I am thinking that color perception goes way back in evolution, or there are some real rules based on physics.

Mozart supposedly had a pet starling who would sing back his compositions to him, and whenever his melody would vary from the major, or I guess "natural" scale by a sharp, for example, the bird would flat that note. Mozart was inconsolable when that bird died.; 2/27/17, 5:16 AM
Curious George said...: The Packers wear green. I hate the Packers. But not because of the green.

BTW, Packer fans the colors are not "green and gold" they're green and yellow.; 2/27/17, 7:47 AM
MacMacConnell said...: First, it is amazing that people that pretend to know about clothing don't know the difference between a flight jacket and a bomber jacket.

Secondly, Rolexes should be respected for their workmanship, but only the Day Dates are simple in appearance and most are so thick they wear your shirt cuffs out. Rolex is known for it's ability to survive the deep, the downside is that when you become exhausted treading water the weight of the Rolex will take you to those certified depths. The upside is that when they recover your body your heirs will inherit a working watch. ;-) If you want and can afford an expensive simple watch get a Tiffany's tank.

Thirdly, the only thing this Hollwood d-bag and I are in agreement with is the Classic Adidas Stan Smith, not the ghettoized modern version. They sell both.; 2/27/17, 8:50 AM
Bill Peschel said...: "@Althouse, please warn us when you are linking to the Times or WaPo. I just used my last monthly free access on this piece of fluff and foolishness. No more Times articles for me until Wednesday at the earliest."

Ann has trained me to hover over the link.; 2/27/17, 10:24 AM