Making Light:  Open thread 39 ::: April 15, 2005, 07:14 PM

Lisa Goldstein:

  Then there's the guy who asked for the book with the red cover,
  about a submarine.  We actually figured that one out -- it was
  Hunt for the Red October -- which had a gray cover.

Well, yes.  The wiring between our color words and color perceptions
is weirder than it seems.  I've seen a T-shirt that has the words

green
blue
red
yellow
orange

printed in bright red, orange, blue, red, and yellow (or some other
permutation--I'm not sure it matters).  The challenge is to say what
colors the words are.  Sounds easy, but it makes your mouth go funny.
Not terribly relevant to your anecdote, but interesting?