I have a question in two parts. Part 1. I've been painting the last few days and I now have a bedroom that is "French Castle". It has put me to wondering about those color names from Glidden, Benjamin Moore, and Behr. Where do the names come from? Who makes them up? Do you think they throw the dictionary in one of those paint shakers and randomly pick out two words to make a name? Maybe they hire an English major to look at every color and aha! choose the perfect description. And has anyone else noticed how often the color names bear no resemblance whatsoever to a color? I wonder what color "file cabinet" is. Sorry, I just made that one up. Come to think of it, the question about paint colors could apply to clothing color. I guess you could even wear a file cabinet.
Part 2. While driving down the road, I never talk on the cell phone. And you know how hard it is to drive 25 mph and stay interested in the road? I look at Rabbits, Voyagers, Chargers, and Thunderbirds and wonder if I could make up the perfect car model name. I don't feel like I've succeeded, yet but I'll bet you two can do it. What is a perfect car model name that GM et al haven't thought of yet?
Jenn:
Good question. One of my ex-boyfriends painted his living room "ant lace". Being a dude, he never thought there was anything odd about "ant lace". I finally decided that it had to be short for "antique lace". But really, what's the difference? I bet it's the same color as "French Castle". Really, when you think about it, all they need to do is number the damn things. Worked just fine for "Chanel No. 5" and "WD-40" Frankly, I think you have the best answer yourself: they throw a dictionary and a color wheel in a paint shaker, and voila, "file cabinet".
As far as car names go, I've never seen the point. It's a car. I get in, turn the key, push the pedal, it goes. As long as I can fit two dog crates and turn up the radio if it makes a funny noise, I'm all good. Have you noticed too that some car makers have quite given up on names and are just going with random batches of letters and numbers? I drive an MDX. Ford makes an F350. I think they actually took a hint from the paint people and now they just drop the alphabet and some numbers in a paint shaker and see what comes out.....
BLONDIE:
I lived in a big house with my French ex-husband. Sorry, but I can't ever remember feeling like I was in a French Castle. More like a big house with a french ass. Oh, you're talking about color here. Paint colors are becoming like Crayola crayons...strange names like rubber tire and garbage pail. It's just my luck that I didn't get the dammed job of being a color namer. It probably pays pretty well. I'm not sure how they come up with the names, but I do know that I'm really just a fan of black, white, brown and maybe some hot pink. Well, that's just for my clothing--my walls? Eggnog, cafe au lait, buttercream, pomegranate. As you can see, I love food, so I want food on my walls. What's my answer? I have no flipping clue. Did you come to me for an answer???
As far as part two, naming cars. Well, there's another dream job. I remember cars I drove in college and they had names like "piece of shit" and "rattle trap". I wonder how those would sell? I agree with Jenn about the numbers thing...they are just running out of car names so now we have jumble letters for car names. It's like dammed word search to figure out what model you have. All I know is I have a black car (I call it black, they call it "Black Sapphire Metallic"). It's black dammit. My car has a name: Stella. Yes, I named my car. Because the stupid letter/number combination is obnoxious. What's in a name, anyway? I just like to drive...fast.
Sorry I wasn't more help. Can you ask something like "what time is dinner" next time??
SCROLL DOWN TO THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE and send us your question. WE KNOW you have one.....
