The American Color

A thought occurs: if one were to mix the colors of the United States flag, in the proportions they appear on the flag, what would be the one resultant color to represent America?

First let's get our colors. This site explains:

The exact shades of blue and red are numbers 80075 and 80180 in the Standard Color Card of America published by the Color Association of the United States. In the Pantone system the colors are: Blue PMS 282 and Red PMS 193. The RGB numbers are: #002868 (blue) and #BF0A30 (red).

But then other sites disagree. You'd think this would be a standard thing which would be easy to find. Who is authoritative? I'm not sure, but I'm going to go with the website of the US Consulates in the United Kingdom which states that the blue is "Old Glory Blue" (HEX: #002147) and "Old Glory Red" (HEX: #BB133E).

Note: The standards of the Color Association of the United States mean nothing to me, the Pantone system is not helpful, but with the Hex numbers we have something we can use later.

Now for the ratios. 

I asked ChatGPT what the ratios were for the colors of the American flag and it said 60% white, 40% red, 3.9% blue. Aside from the fact that that doesn't add to 100%, 3.9% blue sounds impossible. Thanks, ChatGPT.

So, more searching... the best source I could find is a random forum post by some random dude calling himself "Dr. No." Dr. No says:

The current USA flag is 41.5% red and as a bonus I'll throw in the fact that the other color percentages are 40.9% white and 17.6% blue.

 I'm not one to take the word of a random weirdo on the internet, but believe it or not, I've looked for alternatives and this is somehow the best source I could find. So we have the ratios... I guess.

Now to mix the exact colors in the exact correct proportion, we need an online color mixer that allows for Hex value inputs and percentages. I found dopelycolors, which doesn't allow for tenths of a percent, so I'll round. All of the ratios round up - the red has the lowest decimal so the red gets rounded down.

Taking all of this into account, the end result color of America is:

Turkish Rose (HEX: #B5768F)

What are the chances? What are the chances that The Great American Color would just happen to have another country in its name?

So there you have it. I knew it was going to be a form of purple but I was hoping for a richer purple. But the numbers are the numbers. Wear Turkish Rose and you can be patriotic in a way that communicates nothing and only confuses people if you explain it.

Wild Bill's Rocket Pop Soda

 

Celebrating Independence Day with a Wild Bill's Rocket Pop soda. As suggested by the side of the can, this is soda that's meant to taste like a Rocket Pop (or Bomb Pop) which is a name I only recently learned. Bomb Pops are the red, white and blue popsicles sometimes shaped like rockets.

Does it succeed? It does! It absolutely succeeds in simulating that Rocket Pop taste and it independently succeeds in being a great tasting soda.

If I'm being a soda critic, it comes in a taller, thinner can that's in-style these days, which I don't like and I think the carbonation could be bumped up a bit higher. It's made with sugar, which is nice and it's caffeine-free. One of the things I was curious about with a soda that's supposed to be red, white and blue is what color would it be? And it's clear, so that's as it probably should be.

Happy Independence Day to you.

8.5/10. Very good, recommended.

Ricky Gervais - Finding Leo

 

Gotta love the digital cameras of the early 2000s.

Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant try to contact Leonardo DiCaprio to do a guest role on their HBO Show "Extras." The audio's a little rough and Ricky's had a few cocktails. I'd actually forgotten all about this - an absolute classic.

The Charismatic Voice - Chicago

 

I'm a big fan of "25 or 6 to 4." Although she doesn't harp on it, for me it's the bass line.

If you'd like to see my shallow dive on Chicago, see this post.

And speaking of the bass, here's a fun fact for your next barbecue or otherwise social engagement...

Three classic rock songs with the same chord progression:

1) Chicago - 25 or 6 to 4

2) Green Day - Brain Stew

3) Led Zeppelin - Babe I'm Gonna Leave You

Eh? Eh? Where else are you going to get that? Granted, I don't have other examples to make this a running thing. Still, pretty interesting, I think. Who did it best?

Visiting a 7-11 at 2:30AM in 1987

 

We're supposed to think that styles and fashion and food all change over time but human nature doesn't. So I'm on very shaky philosophical ground if I suggest that people have changed in the short time from 1987 to now.

The people in this video have joy, particularly mirth, or at least the spark of life. If a teen took out their phone and started filming people in a 7-11 today, would they find anything other than misery and annoyance? I'm generalizing of course, but I think it's true. It would be wrong to say that human nature has changed but - what would you say - the personality of our society has changed.

"New" XFM Audio Uncovered

 

I've listened to The Ricky Gervais show on XFM so many times, I pretty much have it memorized. But now someone's gone back and re-visited the original tapes(?) and uncovered previously deleted audio.

It's mostly stuff like throwing to commercial, but let's face it, how often are you going to get new XFM material?