After-Orts #30
When a name for a color is absent from a language, it is usually blue. When a name for a color is indefinite, it is usually green. Ancient Hebrew, Welsh, Vietnamese, and, until recently, Japanese, lack a word for blue… The Icelandic word for blue and black is the same, one word that fits sea, lava, and raven.
It has been shown that the words for colors enter evolving languages in this order, nearly universally: black, white, and red, then yellow and green (in either order), with green covering blue until blue comes into itself. Once blue is acquired, it eclipses green. Once named, blue pushes green into a less definite version. Green confusion is manifest in turquoise, the is-it-blue-or-is-it-green color.
— Ellen Meloy (1946–2004) in The Anthropology of Turquoise: Reflections on Desert, Sea, Stone and Sky
https://mailchi.mp/brainpickings/music-color-love
No, the New York Times does not have evidence of watermelons growing on Mars.
https://futurism.com/new-york-times-watermelons-mars
“Nature does crazy stuff. This might be one of those instances.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/10/us/black-feet-maine-beaches.html
. . . here and there a touch of good grammar for picturesqueness.
-- Mark Twain