#151B8D or #000099 - They're Both the Same To Me

In an earlier post I ranted (?) about the connection that the color green has with now current idea of concern for the environment. I remember when I was in high school in the early 70's the big thing was "ecology". Now there is a word I haven't heard in a while. Anyway, it seems that everyone and everything wants to jump on the "green"bandwagon. Why even Mr. Obama is now saying that he wants Mr. Green; OOPS! that should be Mr. Gore, to advise him on solving the vexing environmental issues that face us and will surely lead us to a quick demise if not addressed in a timely fashion. As you may remember, I chose to switch the font color to green as a small show of support. Extremely small show of support actually. In fact, I don't really support it at all. I just simply thought it would be kind of fun to do. But I digress!

In the above referenced post I also mentioned that I really like the color blue. My brother then wrote me and said he liked blue also and would post on it soon. He did and here it is on HORST ONLINE. His post got me thinking about something. Now that is an accomplishment. I have been asked before, "What were you thinking?" Now I can honestly say that I was thinking about what in the world does blue mean. How do you define a color? And no, I don't mean some silly hexadecimal code or some other such nonsense.

So I did a little research. Very little in fact. Well to be perfectly honest I googled "blue" and just started looking for things that looked like they might tell me something interesting. Here is what I found. On Emily Gems I learned that blue is the preferred color of conservatives. At Color Wheel Pro I found out that blue is associated with males and is considered masculine. So far, so good! In the Bible, blue is seen as a heavenly color. At three-musketeers.net I read that blue is associated with femininity and girls with pure qualities. Wait a minute. Isn't that different than the other thing I read? The same site said that it blue can symbolize depression.

Hey, I don't like where this is going now. I think I'll wind this up and just leave this whole meaning thing alone. I still like blue and the reason is simply because I like it. So there! I don't care about the meaning. It's pretty and I like pretty. Yeah, it's also cool and calming and relaxing, and reminds me of the sky, and water, and pretty blue eyes, and bluebonnets, and blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.

© 2008 Barry T Horst This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

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WSO + Garfunkel = You Can Call Me Al

Last night I was watching TV. There was an ad for Art Garfunkel coming to Waco to appear with the Waco Symphony Orchestra (WSO) on January 11, 2008. Of course, in my mind the first thing I thought of was Paul Simon. After all, there was a time when the two were synonomous. Albeit, a long, long time ago. Then all of a sudden the words, "You can call me Al!" came forth from my mouth.

This song was released in 1986 as the first single from the Paul Simon album Graceland. Paul Simon and Chevy Chase recorded a video of the song when Simon appeared on an episode of Saturday Night Live.

Naturally I had to look up the video. This is what I found.

Doing some research I found that the title "You Can Call Me Al" is a reference to a Depression era song, "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" by Yip Harburg and Jay Gorney:

Say, don't you remember, they called me Al,
It was Al, all the time,
Say, don't you remember, I'm your pal!
Brother, can you spare a dime?

And what is it with these lines?

I can call you Betty,
And Betty, when you call me,
You can call me Al!

According to an entry I found on Wikipedia, Paul Simon allegedly wrote the song after attending a party with his then wife Carrie Fisher. A man at the party kept calling Paul "Al", and Carrie "Betty", inspiring Simon to write a song. Who knows? At least it sounds good.

Another interesting fact is that Al Gore used the song during the 1992 presidential campaign as he stumped alongside Bill Clinton. I also found this on Wikipedia.

© 2008 Barry T Horst


This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.