June 5, 2001
10:48 AM   Subscribe

We've discussed the 2000 Census a few times before, but we've never debated the 2000 Crayola Color Census. It's childhood nostalgia second only to the smell of Play-Doh. You can read up on the history of the colors and see the most popular ones. Nearly all of the top ten colors are shades of blue, which shouldn't be too surprising. Me? I'm a burnt sienna kinda guy.
posted by Aaaugh! (15 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
cerise, my Ghod. Why not puce? Were they asking kids or window-dressers?

Now then, for the real kids in the audience, I want a Crayola taste test. I like lemon yellow by itself but crimson goes better with peanut butter.
posted by jfuller at 11:01 AM on June 5, 2001


midnight blue
posted by rebeccablood at 11:09 AM on June 5, 2001


Rebecca made me burst out into a Lou Gramm song. How embarrassing.

I didn't really have a hard and fast favorite--though I do remember wearing a lot of Forest Greens down to nubs--but I do recall balefully snapping many Orange-Reds and Red-Oranges in half and hurling them away. They made me hostile: ugly colors, nearly identical, so unimaginatively named, so useless for coloring anything good . . . I may have issues.
posted by Skot at 11:21 AM on June 5, 2001


Thank god periwinkle and cornflower are still in there. I'll never forgive them for retiring raw umber, though, and I'm sure my more alma-matriotic colleagues here at Michigan are still pissed about maize (wankers).
posted by rodii at 11:37 AM on June 5, 2001


Pine Green- Just like Christmas.
posted by Cavatica at 11:40 AM on June 5, 2001


I liked silver a lot. The mystery of metallic crayons never ceased to amaze my knee-high-to-a-grasshopper self.

But now I feel old because I've found that there's a new metallic called "antique brass", and am disturbed that someone thought it was a good idea to mess with the time-tested gold-silver-copper trio.

Thanks a lot, Aaaugh! ;)
posted by Sapphireblue at 11:41 AM on June 5, 2001


my favourites are / were purple (violet), silver, periwinkle and a beautiful blue-red whose name eludes me (and it's not on the list darnit!) I remember getting the 96 crayon set for my birthday when I was around six, and it was one of the best gifts someone could have bought for me. :)

the names seem to have gotten pretty cutesified in the last little while, but that won't stop me from colouring. Actually, I have a 24pk of crayolas on my desk right now...they're good for thinking on paper with when drawing something out.

hmm...must get another 96pk and a big colouring book.
posted by melissa at 11:58 AM on June 5, 2001


What galls me is that the overall favorite color is "blue".

That's right, just plain blue.

For yuks, make sure you click on the celebrity links to see why they chose "blue" as their favorite color, especially Scott Fankhouser.

As for me, I choose copper.
posted by Avogadro at 11:58 AM on June 5, 2001


Found in a diaper gold...
posted by machaus at 12:06 PM on June 5, 2001


My favorite blue is actually a different hue, but I'll always be partial to the one-time Prussian Blue. In the fourth grade we had a family history unit, and I told the class that my German ancestors emigrated in 1792 from what was then Prussia. I thought this was pretty neat, to be from a country that didn't exist anymore.

Unfortunately, I got beat up after school for being "Russian" and endured a year of being called "Commie". I have an acute understanding of why Crayola changed the name.
posted by dhartung at 12:18 PM on June 5, 2001


An interesting tidbit:

Indian Red [was] renamed Chestnut in 1999 in response to educators who felt some children wrongly perceived the crayon color was intended to represent the skin color of Native Americans. The name originated from a reddish-brown pigment found near India commonly used in fine artist oil paint.

All in all, though, I'm a little PO'd reading throught the history section. So many of my favorite colors (maize, orange red, raw umber) have been canned in favor of some pretty crappy ones (macaroni and cheese?!).

Sigh...I'm old.
posted by jpoulos at 12:52 PM on June 5, 2001


Much to the delight of middle schoolers everywhere (I'm sure), they now have a color called "Beaver". (No, really: I saw it on the history page.)
posted by binkin at 1:14 PM on June 5, 2001


cornflower. love the word and the colour.
posted by heather at 2:06 PM on June 5, 2001


When I was six I seriously freaked out the lady at the wallpaper shop by demanding periwinkle wallpaper with cornflower accents. No crayolas in her household, I guess.
posted by mimi at 2:14 PM on June 5, 2001


As a child, I was always angered by the fact that all of the colors tasted the same....and yes, I also used to eat paste.
posted by mrBMsandwich at 7:42 PM on June 5, 2001


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