G is for Green

The flag of Brazil
There was an answer on the game show JEOPARDY! recently (2010, Jan 27)- IT'S NO WHITE $1000: According to Webster's, the serpentine shade of this color is "paler than citrine".
The question was "What is green"? I had no idea. (I guessed yellow.)

I'm a Roy G. Biv kind of guy, that, of course, representing the main colors of rainbow. You know, yellow and blue equals green; the basic stuff.

But in fact, I do there are lots of gradations of green. I'm also aware in the color spectrum as used in HTML, that colors are "defined using a hexadecimal (hex) notation for the combination of Red, Green, and Blue color values (RGB)".

Flag of Norfolk Island, "tax free haven of Australia"
I've always been fascinated by flags. For flags, green can symbolize the Earth, agriculture, fertility, and/or the Muslim religion.

Before our child was born - and we never knew the gender until she was born - we categorically eliminated some names from consideration:
Olive Green
Kelly Green
Forest Green

And since my last name IS Green, I get to list some of my favorite green things:


Vermont: the nearby Green Mountain state


M&Ms and, specifically, Tegan's continuing green M&M challenge.


Monopoly: one of my favorite board games features little green houses

Green Goblin: favorite villain in my favorite comic book, Spider-Man


The Green Lantern/Green Arrow comics of the mid-1970s.


Going green: the 3 Rs of reduce, reuse & recycle

Greenwich Mean Time: longitude and time are reckoned by the prime meridian


Green Eggs and Ham: An editor bet that Dr. Seuss could not write a book using 50 words or less; he lost. It's Dr. Seuss' birthday today!

Naturally, the music:

Al Green-Take Me To The River
Creedence Clearwater Revival-Green River
The Lemon Pipers-Green Tambourine
And finally, the song that's been sung by Frank Sinatra, Audra McDonald, Van Morrison and countless others, but never better than by the amphibian: Being Green-Kermit the Frog.


ABC Wednesday

ROG

G is for Green

When I give out my name on the phone, I usually spell out R-O-G-E-R and say, "Green, like the color". As often as not, the reply is, "Is that with an E?" I thought, since my last name is Green (not Greene), that I'd reflect on the color green. Of course, no analysis is more clear than the late Joe Raposo's meditation, Bein' green.

It's not that easy bein' green

Green is a secondary color, comprised of blue and yellow

Having to spend each day
The color of the leaves
JEOPARDY! clue, 5 Feb 09 in Basic Science: "The name of this green pigment found in plants is partly from the Greek for 'green'

When I think it could be nicer
Bein' red or yellow or gold
Or something much more colorful like that

Of course, autumn leaves ARE those colors; they are also dying.

It's not easy bein' green
One of the most popular children's songs in MY neighborhood was "Great Green Gobs of Greasy Grimy Gopher Guts"; heard THAT a lot.

It seems you blend in
With so many other ordinary things

Of course, kids tease, as they do. the one name I was called the most, which actually didn't much bother me, is Mr. Green Jeans, the sidekick on the long-running, CBS-TV weekday morning show, Captain Kangaroo. He was played by the late Hugh "Lumpy" Brannum.

And people tend to pass you over
One of the definitions of green is inexperienced, like a greenhorn rookie

'Cause you're not standing out
Like flashy sparkles in the water
Or stars in the sky
Though in fact, many animals either are green or can turn green as protection from predators, using it as camouflage.

But green's the color of spring
(Will spring ever arrive?)

And green can be cool
Green Tambourine - the Lemon Pipers

(and here's a cover version)

and friendly like
The persistent Sam I Am in Green Eggs and Ham (Dr. Seuss' birthday was Monday)



And green can be big like an ocean
Or important like a mountain
Green means go. And speaking of which, Garrett Augustus Morgan (1877-1963) developed several commercial products, many of which are still in use today. Morgan is probably best known for inventing the gas mask and the traffic light.

Or tall like a tree
I must admit unwarranted joy when the conversation comes around to going green, meaning being environmental.

When green is all there is to be

When i was in college, I'd occasionally hear the punchline to the movie Soylent Green,, starring Charlton Heston, directed at me, long before I got around actually seeing the film; talk about a spoiler!

It could make you wonder why
But why wonder, why wonder?
About the only time I ever read either Green Lantern or Green Arrow comic books is when they appeared together in that Denny O'Neil/Neal Adams series

I am green and it'll do fine
It's beautiful and I think it's what I want to be

The song has been performed by a number of folks including Frank Sinatra, and that guy born on the Emerald Isle, Van Morrison. still the best version starts off like this from the star of Sesame Street and the Muppet Show:

Greetings, Kermit the Frog here
And today I'd like to tell you a little bit
About the color green
Do you know what's green?
Well I am for one thing
You see frogs are green, and I'm a frog
And that means I'm green, you see



JEOPARDY! question: What is chlorophyll?
ROG

An Irish Blessing

(Found here)

From JEOPARDY!, Thursday, May 17, 2007
The largest art theft in U.S. history was at 1:24 a.m. on this date in 1990, while Boston slumbered after partying.
***
Apparently, there could have been some ethno-theological near-catastrophe going on today: St. Patrick's Day arrived during Holy Week. This convergence hasn't happened since 1940, when the wearing of the green collided with Palm Sunday, and before that, 1913, with the holiday on Monday of the sacred period. Of course, Albany, with its large Irish Catholic population, had its parade, check that, PARADES and The St. Patrick's Day mass, which CANNOT, apparently, be substituted for one of the Holy Week masses, on Saturday. So there can be time for both the saints AND the sinners, who, of course, are usually the same people.

Naturally, every day is St. Patrick's Day for me; with a name like Roger O'Green, how can it be otherwise?

So my friend Mary sent me some appropriate factoids from something called FITNET:

There is a factoid floating around that Coca-Cola was originally green. To the best of my research this is false and would fall under the category of urban legend. Although the concoction was at one time sold in green bottles. Maybe the rumor was related to the position the company takes on the environment.

"Lord, keep my memory green." -Charles Dickens

"Research is a scientific activity dedicated to discovering what makes grass green." -Russell Baker

"A stockbroker urged me to buy a stock that would triple its value every year. I told him, 'At my age, I don't even buy green bananas.'" -Claude Pepper

"Are you green and growing or ripe and rotting?" -Ray Kroc

"Do not call for black power or green power. Call for brain power." -Barbara Jordan

"If you can sell green toothpaste in this country, you can sell opera." -Sarah Caldwell

"I was the toast of two continents: Greenland and Australia." -Dorothy Parker

"It's not easy being green." -Kermit the Frog
***
The JEOPARDY! question: What is March 18? (Check the time!)

ROG