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Guest blog by Black Bear [message #23038]

Wed, 11 November 2009 19:34

b_twin_1
Messages: 2593
Registered: September 2008
Location: Victoria, Australia

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Color me weird.

I've got a plan so cunning you could put a tail on it and call it a weasel ~ Blackadder

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Re: Guest blog by Black Bear [message #23053 is a reply to message #23038 ]

Wed, 11 November 2009 20:12

holmes44
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Registered: October 2008
Location: Sutton,Quebec

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great post black bear.i guess i don't have it because i have always viewed numbers and letters and etc in black and white unless some one drew them differently on paper like you did.

[Updated on: Wed, 11 November 2009 20:13]

Bonnie Holmes the faster ahead I go, the more behind I get

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Re: Guest blog by Black Bear [message #23059 is a reply to message #23038 ]

Wed, 11 November 2009 20:17

jmeadows
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Registered: September 2008
Location: Virginia, USA

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Love this! This is fascinating. (And I'm going to send it to a friend who's writing about a character with synesthesia.)

It doesn't sound at all weird to me. I associate things with colors too, but I'm more like Robin in that it changes all the time. (Except for taste. Red things always taste red. Don't you sometimes just crave red? Usually this takes me to tomato-based pasta sauce.) I think, for me anyway, a lot of my color association is because tomato-based pasta sauce is usually colored red. And the high pitched sound a running tap makes sounds silver because most taps are silver. Other things, not so much.

At any rate, I love the post. I'll be interested to follow the discussion.

Smooshes!

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Re: Guest blog by Black Bear [message #23067 is a reply to message #23038 ]

Wed, 11 November 2009 21:39

Stephanie
Messages: 89
Registered: October 2008
Location: Batavia, Ohio, USA

Member

Black bear I loved this post! Very interesting and informative. My high school english teacher told us about this, (she had it and she said that as a child she just thought everybody did too) but I don't know too much about it so your more detailed explanation is nice. Do you think this ability made reading more appealing as a child (or as an adult?) The only other person I know who has it is a huge reader.

Anyways, Robin's footnote about making the mug feel better made me giggle, I get that feeling mostly only when I'm shopping, and there's one little lonely thing left and you want to take it home so it's not lonely anymore. Having a small house has necessarily forced me to curb this habit but one can still feel sorry for the poor thing. Thanks Black Bear!

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Re: Guest blog by Black Bear [message #23069 is a reply to message #23038 ]

Wed, 11 November 2009 21:58

Guest

Fantastic post!! particularly liked the diagrams, I really understood where you were coming from.

There has been a really interesting documentary on this that I have seen a couple of times here on Sky - its a Brit program. I dont know if you have seen it, but you might find it interesting. There was a lady who saw things in colour like you do.

I don't think I have any kind of this - I do relate very strongly to smells and they trigger a lot of memories for me but thats unrelated.

Really interesting, thanks for sharing Smile

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Re: Guest blog by Black Bear [message #23072 is a reply to message #23038 ]

Wed, 11 November 2009 22:30

Black Bear
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Location: Indianapolis, IN USA

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Thanks for the kind words, all!

Interestingly, I don't find that colors have a taste at all... or at least, I've never thought of it as a discrete thing. But the sensation of being shocked that not everyone has this is apparently very common. I think I had always just assumed it had to do with some book or letter-magnets or something I'd had as a child... but when I thought about it, I realized that my childhood letter magnets had multiple versions of each letter--so why would the purple "B" have stuck with me and the orange "B" not so much? The individual states have color as well (Indiana's green) but I'm still not sure if that's related to a map puzzle I had when I was 3 or 4. But if that's all it is, then lots more people would have these associations...

I do tend to personify inanimate objects--though I'm not sure if I'd know whether one of my mugs was having a bad day, I do try to rotate through the mug collection regularly to ensure that none of them feels left out. Smile

That feels somehow different from the color thing to me, though I can't really explain it.

In other news, I had to spend much of today painting (working on a new exhibit) and I was almost painfully disappointed that I was stuck rolling on primer, which is white. I generally dislike pale colors and white in particular, so I didn't get a lot of joy of this (though I like painting, because it involves large swathes of color.) My coworker happened to be painting a door a bright intense blue, and I was very jealous. Smile

Sigh. Maybe later.

[Updated on: Wed, 11 November 2009 22:32]

_{"The time is always right to do what's right."--MLK Jr.}

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Re: Guest blog by Black Bear [message #23074 is a reply to message #23038 ]

Wed, 11 November 2009 22:57

katinseattle
Messages: 372
Registered: November 2008
Location: Seattle

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I predict you'll get a lot of comment on this. It's a fascinating post.

I've never associated numbers with colors, but with personality, yes. Not so much anymore, but I remember thinking about it long ago. All the numbers up to ten had their own story. Odd numbers are still, well, odd, except for five and its multiples.

I read once that most children feel that the furniture in their home has personality. I certainly did. I remember crouching by one big dresser when I was apparently just growing out of this phase. I was trying to hear what it was saying to me. I knew it was saying something because I remembered I'd heard it before.

When my mother broke up housekeeping, I spent mumble hundred dollars getting that dresser shipped here from Indiana. It sits next to my computer right now. It doesn't talk to me anymore, but it's friendly.

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Re: Guest blog by Black Bear [message #23077 is a reply to message #23038 ]

Wed, 11 November 2009 23:19

librarykat
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Registered: October 2008
Location: Redneck Riviera

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I know I have nothing like this, but it's fascinating to read about. Never ascribed personalities to furniture, or to color, or anything like that. No, I have just loved to hold books, always had to have lots of books around me. That's all. Absolutely normal, right?

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Re: Guest blog by Black Bear [message #23078 is a reply to message #23038 ]

Wed, 11 November 2009 23:20

blondviolinist
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Last spring, I had a long conversation with a synaesthete friend of mine, who also happens to have perfect pitch. She associates particular musical keys with particular colors. (I think she told me E major is light green? And that she doesn't really like E major.) The color of the key is not necessarily the color of the specific pitch. (I think it's been mentioned on the forum before that Olivier Messiaen had synasthesia? His comments on some of his pieces included his color impressions of the various sonorities used.)

Also, practically everything around her is gendered. She told me the gender of every one of her fingers (and no, of course they weren't all female.)

"Purity of heart is to will one thing." Kirkegaard

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Re: Guest blog by Black Bear [message #23079 is a reply to message #23038 ]

Wed, 11 November 2009 23:31

Kathy_S
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Registered: October 2008
Location: Indiana

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I might think of music as coming in different colors, but not numbers or letters! However, this suggests that the authors of some of my childhood favorites may have been less inventive than I thought.

Jennie D. Lindquist, The Golden Name Day, 1955:

Quote:

Nancy and Elsa had discovered that they saw words and names in color and were never tired of comparing notes. Sigrid and Helga did not have this gift and could not understand what the other two meant.
"How can you tell what color a name is?" Sigrid said. "You're just making it up."
"No, we're not, honest," said Elsa. "Nancy is mist green and gold as anything; and Sigrid is rose. To me the name Helga seems yellow, though."
"It does?" said Nancy. "Oh, no, it's blue as blue."
"What color is Cuckoo Clock?" asked Elsa.
"Blue-gray," said Nancy.
"No, more brownish," said Elsa, "and Danny is green and Hooligan is red and yellow."
"Oh, you're crazy," said Sigrid.

(In the context, Cuckoo Clock is a most talented cat, Danny the loyal and responsible farm dog, and Mrs. Hooligan a chicken.)

Ursula Nordstrom, The Secret Language, 1960:

Quote:

Lately Victoria had given up even trying to be good at arithmetic. She had some ideas of her own about numbers, but they had nothing to do with arithmetic. For instance, she always thought of certain numbers as girls, and others as boys. The girls were 1,3,5,7 and 8. The boys were 2,4,6 and 9. ....

There's a lot more, as Victoria's more mathematically inclined friend Martha argues that it makes no sense, especially scrambling even and odd numbers. It also comes out that that colors have gender....

Quote:

Martha thought for a moment. "All right," she said finally. "But I should think green would be a boy."
"Well, it's not," Victoria said sharply. "It's a girl."
"Vick, couldn't you change on the numbers and have 8 a boy?" Martha said suddenly. She never gave up easily.
But Victoria couldn't change that. And she went on hating arithmetic.

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Re: Guest blog by Black Bear [message #23081 is a reply to message #23059 ]

Thu, 12 November 2009 01:40

Diane in MN
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Location: Twin Cities, MN, USA

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jmeadows wrote on Wed, 11 November 2009 19:17

Except for taste. Red things always taste red. Don't you sometimes just crave red? Usually this takes me to tomato-based pasta sauce.

I think of "red" as a distinct taste, or possibly lack of taste, only in the context of red Jell-O or red hard candy: you can't tell what actual food it's meant to taste like, but the flavor you get is definitely red. Red is really the only color I can say this about, though.

_{"The point of books is to have way too many but to always feel you never have enough . . . " Louise Erdrich}

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Re: Guest blog by Black Bear [message #23082 is a reply to message #23038 ]

Thu, 12 November 2009 01:52

Diane in MN
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Location: Twin Cities, MN, USA

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Thanks, Black Bear, for this interesting post. I'm in no way synaesthetic, but I don't have a particularly visual imagination, either. I wonder if the two things tend to go together? As long as you have escaped being compulsive about the color associations, though--I'm thinking about the sailboats here--it must give you an interesting perspective on the things around you.

I sympathize with your feelings about rolling primer. BORING. I hope you get to play with the nice paints instead!

_{"The point of books is to have way too many but to always feel you never have enough . . . " Louise Erdrich}

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Re: Guest blog by Black Bear [message #23083 is a reply to message #23038 ]

Thu, 12 November 2009 02:01

Diane in MN
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Registered: October 2008
Location: Twin Cities, MN, USA

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And I also have dogs, so that talking to myself can pass as respectable.

I talk to the dogs all the time, which is all well and good unless I do it in a public place when they aren't actually around . . . Funny thing, people have to see dogs to appreciate that you're talking to dogs. Smile

_{"The point of books is to have way too many but to always feel you never have enough . . . " Louise Erdrich}

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Re: Guest blog by Black Bear [message #23085 is a reply to message #23038 ]

Thu, 12 November 2009 06:05

L.R.K.
Messages: 1079
Registered: October 2008
Location: Sweden

Senior Member

Thanks, Black Bear! Really interesting post.

Quote:

If I said to you, “What color is the number four?” would you have a ready answer for me? Or would you look at me like I was nuts? If it’s the former, then you’ve probably got some degree of synesthesia. If it’s the latter, you don’t.

No, I wouldn't have a ready answer, so I obviously don't have synesthesia - but on the other hand, I wouldn't look at you as if you were nuts.

Colours mean a lot to me, and always have - perhaps because I can see them really well. So I identify things that I can't otherwise see very well with what colour they are - which train station it is, for instance. If you tell me what colour a thing is, it makes it much easier for me to find it.

I remember in 7th/8th class maybe, we did a visual test. I, of course, did not expect to do well. I still remember the feeling when I was given the card to look at, and was told to say what number it was. First there was nothing and then the number just came floating up! It was a miracle - my feeling of despondency vanished, and was exchanged for exhileration as I was given card after card, and I could see them! Yes, I know this may sound ridiculous, since it wasn't really my doing - it felt like a triumph. (But then there were - or are - all the times when I've felt that my not being able to do something - or being so much slower than everyone else - is my fault.) It was, of course, a test to see how well one could see colour - so that was when I knew I had perfectly good eyesight where that was concerned at any rate! Mamma says she always knew that, because when little I'd not say that there is a car, but there is a red car.

Anyway - I love colours. Colours are nice. Smile

And while numbers and days may have no specific colours for me, I don't see why they shouldn't. Smile

Why, I feel all thin, sort of stretched, if you know what I mean, like butter that has been scraped over too much bread.

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Re: Guest blog by Black Bear [message #23086 is a reply to message #23038 ]

Thu, 12 November 2009 06:09

scarhandpiper
Messages: 95
Registered: October 2008
Location: Utah

Member

Numbers also have personalities. They interact with other numbers in non-mathematical ways, rather in personality ways. Which makes getting the answer right almost impossible.

I was horrible in math.

I was interested to learn that the colors I associate with numbers and letters and days are not the same colors that you have, Black Bear.

Scar

"People think that stories are shaped by people. In fact, it's the other way around."
T.P.

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Re: Guest blog by Black Bear [message #23087 is a reply to message #23038 ]

Thu, 12 November 2009 06:21

L.R.K.
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Registered: October 2008
Location: Sweden

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As for things - things have always had personalities for me. More when I was a child - nearly everything had personalities for me then. Cars, for instance - all cars had different personalities (helped, no doubt, by the fact, that I couldn't see the driver.)

Not so much anymore - thinking about it, though, that makes me a bit sad, it was so much more interesting that way.

But some things still do have personalities - just not everything. Sometimes the personality just jumps out at me. We call my reading-lamp Sharabi (drunkard - yes, it's unsteady on its feet - er - foot), we never speak of him as "a lamp", no it's always Sharabi.

And I do feel sorry for things - it makes it really, really hard to throw anything away!

Things Are People Too! Smile

Why, I feel all thin, sort of stretched, if you know what I mean, like butter that has been scraped over too much bread.

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Re: Guest blog by Black Bear [message #23088 is a reply to message #23038 ]

Thu, 12 November 2009 06:41

Melissa Mead
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Registered: October 2008
Location: Albany, NY, USA

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Fascinating post! Thank you!
I read a book that claims we all have an innate ability for synesthesia, but most of us lose it fairly young. I don't have it, but it makes sense to me.
And things with feelings? Oh yeah. I remember bursting into tears when my mom burnt the box my "teddy bear perfume" had come in.

Member of Carpe Libris: http://carpelibris.wordpress.com/

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Re: Guest blog by Black Bear [message #23090 is a reply to message #23038 ]

Thu, 12 November 2009 07:11

Mrs Redboots
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Location: London, UK

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I am slightly synaesthetic, I think - not to a huge degree, but months definitely have colours, and many numbers and letters do, if I stop to think about it. And when I was a child, at least one of my friends had a dark-brown voice.

Mrs Redboots
I love my computer because my friends live in it!

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Re: Guest blog by Black Bear [message #23091 is a reply to message #23082 ]

Thu, 12 November 2009 07:44

Black Bear
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Location: Indianapolis, IN USA

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Diane in MN wrote on Thu, 12 November 2009 01:52

As long as you have escaped being compulsive about the color associations, though--I'm thinking about the sailboats here--it must give you an interesting perspective on the things around you.

Well, I wouldn't say I've ESCAPED it. Smile

But I'm certainly less emotionally tied to it than I once was. I still pay attention to whether I get the green sailboat or the blue, and there may be a brief flash of disappointment if it's not the one I wanted... but I'd say it's less anxiety-inducing.

_{"The time is always right to do what's right."--MLK Jr.}

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Re: Guest blog by Black Bear [message #23092 is a reply to message #23087 ]

Thu, 12 November 2009 07:46

AJLR
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Location: England, UK

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L.R.K. wrote on Thu, 12 November 2009 11:21

And I do feel sorry for things - it makes it really, really hard to throw anything away!

Things Are People Too! Smile

Oh yes, I agree absolutely with this. It can be really heart-wrenching to throw some things away. And yet if one doesn't, one is in danger of ending up like a great-aunt of mine who had a big, old, four-storey house in London so crammed full of things that some rooms were impossible to enter. And too many things have expectations of one, it seems!

_{"Never let a computer know you're in a hurry."}

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Re: Guest blog by Black Bear [message #23093 is a reply to message #23086 ]

Thu, 12 November 2009 07:50

Black Bear
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scarhandpiper wrote on Thu, 12 November 2009 06:09

I was interested to learn that the colors I associate with numbers and letters and days are not the same colors that you have, Black Bear.

This is also apparently fairly common--though there are a couple of letters/numbers that a large % of synesthetes match up on, it mostly seems completely random. Again suggesting it's not due to some popular book or toy that some of us internalized more than others. Smile

I remember reading that nearly all color synesthetes think "A" is red. A for apple, maybe? But then it goes all wonky from there, I've no freakin' clue why B would be purple. But it sure is for me.

Interesting what someone said above about fives. I would have said that 5's were nicer than the other odd numbers, possibly because their multiples are so easy to calculate. For someone who always had trouble with math, that fact would definitely make fives more friendly than, say, nines....

_{"The time is always right to do what's right."--MLK Jr.}

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Re: Guest blog by Black Bear [message #23094 is a reply to message #23038 ]

Thu, 12 November 2009 07:52

AJLR
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Location: England, UK

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Fascinating post, Black Bear! I think I've probably got some degree of synesthesia too, though not to the same extent as you have. Days of the week have colours, yes, as do some smells.

Do you like being wired in this way? I can imagine it adds interest to how one sees the world, in many ways, but are there times when it gets in the way or stops you doing things?

_{"Never let a computer know you're in a hurry."}

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Re: Guest blog by Black Bear [message #23095 is a reply to message #23087 ]

Thu, 12 November 2009 07:53

Black Bear
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L.R.K. wrote on Thu, 12 November 2009 06:21

But some things still do have personalities - just not everything. Sometimes the personality just jumps out at me. We call my reading-lamp Sharabi (drunkard - yes, it's unsteady on its feet - er - foot), we never speak of him as "a lamp", no it's always Sharabi.

And I do feel sorry for things - it makes it really, really hard to throw anything away!

Things Are People Too! Smile

Right on!

This ad always irritated the hell out of me. Smile

_{"The time is always right to do what's right."--MLK Jr.}

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Re: Guest blog by Black Bear [message #23096 is a reply to message #23094 ]

Thu, 12 November 2009 07:56

Black Bear
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Location: Indianapolis, IN USA

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It never really gets in the way of things--I gather it does for some synesthetes, but I think my "case" is fairly mild. I think it does contribute to me being a bit more obsessive-compulsive than I might otherwise be (I do strange stuff involving sorting candy by color before I eat it, etc.) but I woudn't call that a downside. But I can't imagine not being obsessive about color, it seems so very natural to me. And I think it makes me a far better painter (future guest blog, yes Robin) than I would be otherwise, I think about how colors fit together and whether they "like" one another or not, and--to me at least--things come out looking really good when I'm finished.

_{"The time is always right to do what's right."--MLK Jr.}

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Re: Guest blog by Black Bear [message #23097 is a reply to message #23096 ]

Thu, 12 November 2009 08:22

blondviolinist
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Black Bear wrote on Thu, 12 November 2009 07:56

(I do strange stuff involving sorting candy by color before I eat it, etc.)

Wait, wait. You mean that isn't completely normal? I always have to decide, when eating M&Ms, if I am going to be "adult," and eat them as they come out of the package, or sort them carefully and eat them according to color. And always, at the end of the package, I have to be left with a combination of colors I like. Finishing an M&Ms package with a bite of brown, orange, and yellow would not make me happy.

"Purity of heart is to will one thing." Kirkegaard

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Re: Guest blog by Black Bear [message #23098 is a reply to message #23087 ]

Thu, 12 November 2009 11:29

katinseattle
Messages: 372
Registered: November 2008
Location: Seattle

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L.R.K. wrote on Thu, 12 November 2009 03:21

As for things - things have always had personalities for me...
Things Are People Too! Smile

My mother is especially this way. She first came to computers in her 70's. The cursor was Junior, as in, "Junior's not going where I want him to."

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Re: Guest blog by Black Bear [message #23099 is a reply to message #23038 ]

Thu, 12 November 2009 11:42

Vikkik
Messages: 343
Registered: October 2008
Location: Near Windsor

Senior Member

Thank you Black Bear! That was fascinating Smile

I don't tend to associate colours with letters/numbers/things as such, but I definitely attribute personalities to inanimate objects - for example, I can remember being given a chocolate teddy bear figure and not being able to bring myself to eat it because it was cute, and it would be cruel to eat it.
And I was terribly upset by getting rid of my first car, because it had its own personality , and I felt like I'd betrayed it...
And if I pick up a teddy bear in a shop I pretty much HAVE to buy it, because otherwise I've got its hopes up by picking it up, and putting it down and leaving it there would be very cruel... (this may have something to do with the amount of bears populating my house !!)
I also tend to sort a packet of sweets by colour before I eat them, not quite as much now as I used to when I was a kid - back then I HAD to eat the colours in the right order.

Don't worry about the dust bunnies, they're just here to guard the treasure.....

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Re: Guest blog by Black Bear [message #23104 is a reply to message #23097 ]

Thu, 12 November 2009 17:35

Black Bear
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Yes, well, it's not just eating it by color.... it's lining it up in little carefully apportioned rainbows and eating one each along the line until I'm left with one perfect set. Ye gods, M&M's take me forever.

_{"The time is always right to do what's right."--MLK Jr.}

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Re: Guest blog by Black Bear [message #23112 is a reply to message #23104 ]

Thu, 12 November 2009 20:11

abigailmm
Messages: 545
Registered: January 2009
Location: Texas, USA

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I am not at all synaesthetic, but certain other comments here certainly resonate. Ye gods, that Ikea ad! I'll just have to hope that someone came along and scavenged the poor thing. I can usually leave truly inanimate objects in the shop, but in a garden center I am a real sucker for the little spindly leftovers that should have been in the ground, or at least larger pots, a month ago. The sad thing is that after I get them home, they may linger in the little pots ANOTHER month.

M&Ms -- I have a game I play with the Christmas mint ones (and WHY don't they sell them all year? if mint chocolate is good in December, it's good the rest of the year). The mint ones are tri-colored, red, white, or green. To keep myself from gobbling an entire big bag while commuting, I limited my consumption to certain ones. I would reach into the bag and retrieve three pieces. If they were two of one color and one of another, I tossed them back. Three of one color, I ate one and put back two. A perfect set of all three colors -- down the hatch! I had all the probabilities worked out, and muttered as I drove, keeping track of whether I was ahead of the odds.

I don't commute any more, and generally resist big bags of candy. But it was kind of fun, in an obsessive sort of way.

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Re: Guest blog by Black Bear [message #23114 is a reply to message #23097 ]

Thu, 12 November 2009 20:15

Melissa Mead
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Location: Albany, NY, USA

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blondviolinist wrote on Thu, 12 November 2009 08:22

Black Bear wrote on Thu, 12 November 2009 07:56

(I do strange stuff involving sorting candy by color before I eat it, etc.)

My whole family sorts M&Ms by color. (The switch from Tan to Blue really messed with our system.) And I always sort Skittles, and save the grape and cherry for last.

[Updated on: Thu, 12 November 2009 20:17]

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Re: Guest blog by Black Bear [message #23115 is a reply to message #23099 ]

Thu, 12 November 2009 20:16

Melissa Mead
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Location: Albany, NY, USA

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Vikkik wrote on Thu, 12 November 2009 11:42

Thank you Black Bear! That was fascinating Smile

Do you feel bad about eating Gummi Bears too? I do.

[Updated on: Thu, 12 November 2009 21:20]

Member of Carpe Libris: http://carpelibris.wordpress.com/

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Re: Guest blog by Black Bear [message #23117 is a reply to message #23038 ]

Thu, 12 November 2009 20:51

hearthrose
Messages: 27
Registered: September 2009
Location: SoCal

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This was very interesting!

I have a very very teensy touch of this... certainly A is a red letter, if one wishes to color "A" and not read past it at the speed of light.

But more so - color as mood? Do you know the VERY first thing I did when I moved into my (dead) mother-in-law's house? I painted the living room. She had painted it *rose*. With beige furniture and closed shades and ... YIKES. It was the most depressing room ever. I could just visualize her sitting in it, missing her (previously deceased) husband and ... yuck. There wasn't a bright or vibrant color to be found in the whole house - it was all softly neutral (rose, plum, beige, dusty blue).

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Re: Guest blog by Black Bear [message #23119 is a reply to message #23067 ]

Thu, 12 November 2009 21:13

rainycity1
Messages: 193
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Location: Seattle

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Stephanie wrote on Wed, 11 November 2009 18:39

Anyways, Robin's footnote about making the mug feel better made me giggle, I get that feeling mostly only when I'm shopping, and there's one little lonely thing left and you want to take it home so it's not lonely anymore.

Good grief. I thought I was the only one who did things like this. I *still* have the little ceramic bunny that I bought from a Woolworth's Store (back when the US still had them, which was a long time ago) because before it was fired something crunched its toe, and I thought, 'poor thing, no one will ever buy a crippled ceramic bunny...'

FairyTales - http://xkcd.com/872/

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Re: Guest blog by Black Bear [message #23120 is a reply to message #23092 ]

Thu, 12 November 2009 21:22

L.R.K.
Messages: 1079
Registered: October 2008
Location: Sweden

Senior Member

AJLR wrote on Thu, 12 November 2009 13:46

L.R.K. wrote on Thu, 12 November 2009 11:21

And I do feel sorry for things - it makes it really, really hard to throw anything away!

Things Are People Too! Smile

Perhaps somewhat ominously, I see nothing wrong with that... Of course, I don't really tend to buy many things - I mostly buy books. Smile

But once something is bought...

Why, I feel all thin, sort of stretched, if you know what I mean, like butter that has been scraped over too much bread.

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Re: Guest blog by Black Bear [message #23121 is a reply to message #23119 ]

Thu, 12 November 2009 21:22

Melissa Mead
Messages: 989
Registered: October 2008
Location: Albany, NY, USA

Senior Member

[quote title=rainycity1 wrote on Thu, 12 November 2009 21:13]

Stephanie wrote on Wed, 11 November 2009 18:39

I *still* have the little ceramic bunny that I bought from a Woolworth's Store (back when the US still had them, which was a long time ago) because before it was fired something crunched its toe, and I thought, 'poor thing, no one will ever buy a crippled ceramic bunny...'

Now I feel old. My husband used to work for Woolworth's. He was their Santa Claus, too.

Member of Carpe Libris: http://carpelibris.wordpress.com/

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Re: Guest blog by Black Bear [message #23122 is a reply to message #23095 ]

Thu, 12 November 2009 21:24

L.R.K.
Messages: 1079
Registered: October 2008
Location: Sweden

Senior Member

Black Bear wrote on Thu, 12 November 2009 13:53

L.R.K. wrote on Thu, 12 November 2009 06:21

Right on!

This ad always irritated the hell out of me. Smile

Oh nooooo.... poor lamp! This makes me nearly want to rush off and give Sharabi a hug of reassurance (he's from Ikea too, I think.)

Why, I feel all thin, sort of stretched, if you know what I mean, like butter that has been scraped over too much bread.

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Re: Guest blog by Black Bear [message #23126 is a reply to message #23038 ]

Thu, 12 November 2009 21:27

shalea
Messages: 779
Registered: October 2008
Location: Raleigh, North Carolina, ...

Senior Member

Fascinating indeed. I don't associate numbers or letters with colors, but smells certainly (though it's as much an association between "things which smell like that" and the scent). And I used to associate colors with people's personalities though I find I don't now as much as I used to.

I do have a hard time eating things like M&Ms without sorting by color.

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Re: Guest blog by Black Bear [message #23128 is a reply to message #23086 ]

Thu, 12 November 2009 21:39

rainycity1
Messages: 193
Registered: September 2009
Location: Seattle

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scarhandpiper wrote on Thu, 12 November 2009 03:09

That's interesting. I can see how that would have made math challenging.

It took me forever to learn my 'timeses' (you know, two times three is...). When they finally 'stuck' I found that the numbers up to about eleven had developed personalities and quite often genders. For example, Seven (a nice feminine personality) takes Six (young or adolescent, probably male) to Forty-two (which is a location); Eight (who is male and rather a snot) can't be outdone and takes Six to Forty-eight. Those relationships still instantly come to mind when I multiple anything, even now.

FairyTales - http://xkcd.com/872/

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Re: Guest blog by Black Bear [message #23131 is a reply to message #23112 ]

Thu, 12 November 2009 22:38

Maren
Messages: 1330
Registered: October 2008
Location: Louisiana

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abigailmm wrote on Thu, 12 November 2009 20:11

M&Ms -- I have a game I play with the Christmas mint ones (and WHY don't they sell them all year? if mint chocolate is good in December, it's good the rest of the year).

There is a mint flavor in the Premium ones, which you can get all the time. They're bigger, more expensive for a smaller package, and according to my mom, kind of chewy. They're all the same mottled green color. Smile

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Re: Guest blog by Black Bear [message #23132 is a reply to message #23128 ]

Fri, 13 November 2009 00:03

jmeadows
Messages: 3148
Registered: September 2008
Location: Virginia, USA

Senior Member
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rainycity1 wrote on Thu, 12 November 2009 21:39

My third grade teacher actually gave the numbers backstories when she was teaching us how to multiply. It's alarming how much that helped me. I still feel like those numbers are characters today.

Smooshes!

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