A different way of celebrating our independence

Tomorrow is Independence Day for the US, to commemorate the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Here's a cute video of Captain America and other superheroes celebrating it.

Good Billy Mays ad

I still can't believe Billy Mays died--he seemed to be at the height of his success and fame, and seemed healthy as well. Here's a good ad that he did for ESPN--it's campy and clearly doesn't take itself too seriously. It mocks advertising by breaking down the obvious and using purposely stiff actors. It's just entertaining on various levels and contains cultural commentary as well.

Puce and taupe sound more colorful than flea and mole

In a recent post, I discussed how speakers of different languages see color differently. Continuing with the theme of color, I thought that it might be interesting to explore how certain colors obtained their names.

For instance, turquoise is derived from a French word for "Turkish," as the bluish stone for which the color is name was known in French as "la pierre turquoise" (the Turkish stone). Logically, such colors as topaz, sapphire, jade, amber, ebony, and emerald also come from their respective stones, just as gold and silver come from precious metals.

The colors ultramarine and aquamarine refer, not surprisingly, to the sea, as well as to stones. Aquamarine originally referred to the color of a type of stone that came from the Mediterranean region and suggested the color of that sea, whereas ultramarine was used to designate the color of a stone (lapis lazuli, imported from Asia), that originated across the sea ("ultra" in this sense meaning "beyond" and not "excessive").

Pink was named for a flower known as a "pink," although the etymology of the word gets a bit murky, as the original word leading, by way of Dutch, to the name of the flower may have meant "small" or "hole." Violet and rose have similar floral origins.

A number of color names come from fabrics. These include ecru and beige from French, as well as "scarlet," from Persian. Colors have also been named for dyes or dye-producing plants. Purple comes from Greek via Latin. Crimson comes to English through Old Spanish, Arabic, and Sanskrit, while indigo, meaning "the Indian dye," comes from Portuguese. Magenta was taken in the 19th-century from one of Garibaldi's then-sensational Italian victories and used to market a type of photographic dye.

Some colors have surprisingly bizarre origins. Puce, originally a French word, means "flea-colored." Taupe, also French, refers to the color of a mole (the animal, not the skin blemish). Perhaps more appetizingly, maroon comes from a French word for a type of chestnut. Teal, an English word with Old English roots, is named for a color pattern found on a type of river duck, also known as a teal.

For an interesting discussion on many of these colors as well as observations on how certain color names, such as khaki and auburn, have shifted to denote different colors over time, please visit Word Wide Words.

(Posted by language fan and friend Silas McCracken. And feel free to join his Facebook fan page too.)

Taking a staycation

I'm going to take a staycation by enjoying a summer break in Chicago. I think that's a great word to express staying at home to vacation. And apparently it's a 21st century word, according to a travel article:

A Nexis search reveals that the first published use of staycation (as far as Nexis knows) was in the Myrtle Beach Sun-News on July 11, 2003. In a story entitled "Sports World Doesn't Stop for Vacation," Terry Massey uses the term to describe nine vacation days spent at home in Myrtle beach watching sports on television and preparing a nursery for a new baby.

I just realized that I should contact Mr. Massey to find out if he created that word, and what he thinks of it. So stay tuned--I'll probably do an update if I can get a hold of him (and if I'm not too lazy to do it :D)

I highly recommend this book

Right now I'm reading a few books, one of which is a language book that was sent to me (which I haven't finished yet), but I just finished an excellent book about the rise and fall of the company that produced Veggie Tales, and the creator's personal journey as he discovered that he was in over his head and ended up failing--his company went into bankruptcy and he had to sell the whole thing off to pay off a lawsuit. Just a total nightmare, but he admits that he was to blame for the company's demise.

But in the larger picture, he's not a failure, because he was able to create another company and continue making a living from being creative. But it's really a good lesson on a lot of levels about what it's like to go for something so big, you either can't handle it or your ego gets in the way, or both.

You can read an excerpt at his site, which seems to me like it was originally a blog post that became a book. But the post is long enough to get a pretty good idea of what happened to his company.

I also liked the book because it was well-written and conversational. Honestly, I don't like books that seem self conscious or too rigid. But this one flowed and the information, advice, and insight were worth it.

btw--I only saw one episode of Veggie Tales, and that's only because I was reading this book.

More people hate working at home

Almost four years ago, I did a post about working at home. I'd been working at home for a while before I did that post, but I was really starting to hate it. I liked working independently and still do, even though my primary work isn't at home, but I hated waking up and being alone in my place and never hearing other people talk, unless I went to a cafe, where I felt alone anyway, since it was just a place full of individuals not interacting with me.

And I'm not one of those people who finds online interaction fulfilling--it can actually be creepy and very dissatisfying because people are anonymous and the online scene is superficial. There seem to be a lot of people online who make "friends" at sites or interact a lot online with their real-life friends, who they barely see offline. So they use social apps, IM, etc., to connect, but I've realized that nothing beats seeing someone in person or even talking with them on the phone.

When I was primarily working at home, I did a search online to see if anyone else out there didn't like working at home, but it was hard to find articles or blogs that talked about it. So I started to think I was even more alone, and wondered if I was weak for not really liking the isolation or such byproducts of a more technological world.

Well I did another search online today, and now I see more posts about not liking working at home, including a good one by a software developer who bluntly says that he "absolutely hate[s] working from home" and "working from home permanently is like being locked away in solitary confinement."

I'm surprised his employer doesn't mind him writing about it, but apparently they don't care. I'm glad he's honest about it, and I like how his post is written. I've found a lot of other blogs and articles online, but I think he expresses himself well.

Download the book

Here's a preview of the anthology I put together. Now you can download it for half the price of the print version available at Amazon. It features various writers, including bloggers--check out the preview below to see the writers' bios.

Down the Block