A weblog devoted to spurring a conversation among those who use words to varying degrees in their daily work. Hosted by John Ettorre, a Cleveland-based writer and editor. Please email me at: john.ettorre@gmail.com. "There comes a time when you realize that everything is a dream, and only those things preserved in writing have any possibility of being real." --James Salter
There's Just Something About Red
I'm a Cleveland, Ohio-based writer, editor and writing coach, with more than 25 years of experience, including stints in Chicago and Washington, D.C. My work has appeared in more than 100 print and online publications, from the New York Times and the Christian Science Monitor to local and regional publications. My work has been recognized by awards (including an Emmy) from four journalism groups.
10 Comments:
I never understood why communism was red. I'm sure there's a reason but I'm not going to look it up. In the UK Labour's colour is red; the Tories, blue; the Lib-Dems, green. All of this reminds me of a storyline of a children's TV show,The Tomorrow People, called 'The Blue and the Green' that centred on an alien race distributing blue and green badges to people. The people picked a badge at random and as soon as they picked one they became a part of that group and bitterly opposed to anyone wearing a badge of a different colour. Here's a link – scroll along to 13mins and watch 3 mins worth). It was a very powerful metaphor for the arbitrariness of war when people who were once friends (or brothers as in the clip) suddenly because of tribe or race (or badge colour) are turned overnight into enemies. On the whole though I approve of colour-coding things just maybe not people.
Funny, but as I posted this and thought about the word "red," its usage in the context of communism was the first thing that came to my mind, also. I suppose that labels us as children of the Cold War. Now that you mention it, I'm not sure how it came to be red either. I'll have to do a little Googling on that subject later.
I was at a cousin's wedding and there was one of the bride's sorority sisters dressed in a red form fitting dress. She had black sleek hair and bright red lips and nails, truly a drop dead gorgeous girl.
Every eye in the room was torn between the girl in red and the bride. Another cousin looked at me and said, "there's always one Lady in Red".
To me, red is the ultimate vampy, sexy, "JessicaRabbit-ish" color a woman can wear. And for men, it connotates the Donald Trump power tie.
Well, unless you're at an Ohio State game. Then you're simply a sports fan!
Wonderful story! Every male can attest to how alluring women in red generally are to our visually oriented selves. It makes them doubly alluring. We can't help it; it's just part of that programming hard-wired into our lizard brains through evolution. And the story about the woman in red competing for visual attention with the bride makes this doubly resonant.
"...hard-wired into our lizard brains...." Ha, that's funny.
I realized at some point after my divorce that I looked good in red. And when I was able to get a red car, well, I was thrilled!
Red is the color of life, energy, and passion. Too much red, though, can be a bloodbath, and that's no good....
I found photo #24, with the woman wearing the red dress and red bangles, a fascinating image. It makes me wonder, who's under that burqa?
I noticed you wore red the other day, Pat.
Indeed I did, John. ;-) Easier to pick me out in a crowd, I figure. Plus, that's one of my favorite cozy shirt jackets.
Little Red Riding Hood had a vulnerable quality.
True enough, Maria. And you'd stand out in any crowd, Pat.
Aw, shucks, John. :-)
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