You may be surprised to realize that I did not go to elementary school with many of your cow-folk.

Magenta Ain't A Colour

If the eye receives light of more than one wavelength, the colour generated in the brain is formed from the sum of the input responses on the retina. For example, if red light and green light enter the eye at the same time, the resulting colour produced in the brain is yellow, the colour halfway between red and green in the spectrum.

So what does the brain do when our eyes detect wavelengths from both ends of the light spectrum at once (i.e. red and violet light)? Generally speaking, it has two options for interpreting the input data:

a) Sum the input responses to produce a colour halfway between red and violet in the spectrum (which would in this case produce green – not a very representative colour of a red and violet mix)

b) Invent a new colour halfway between red and violet

Magenta is the evidence that the brain takes option b – it has apparently constructed a colour to bridge the gap between red and violet, because such a colour does not exist in the light spectrum. Magenta has no wavelength attributed to it, unlike all the other spectrum colours.

When did men stop wearing hats? '50s? '60s?

Early to mid-sixties.

Nate's mainlining some sort of X-Box game and Abby's devouring the Marvel Encyclopedia we dug up out of a box yesterday.

She asked me in all seriousness if she could be a cartoonist.

I replied, "Why not?"

When did men stop wearing hats? '50s? '60s?

Before then, a man was supposed to take off his hat when talking to a woman, right?

Sixties, pretty much. I think I heard that Kennedy was the last president to wear a hat on his way to inauguration, though he took it off during the actual ceremony.

And yes. Doff your hat when greeting a woman, take it off for a longer conversation. Also, take off the hat when going indoors. (When I was stage managing Brighton Beach Memoirs, we had such hat trouble with the male actors. The stage was set up on three levels -- house upstairs, house downstairs, and porch/street -- and people frequently walked into or out of the house. There was a coat/hat rack right inside the door, and each male character had a hat that he had to put on every time he went outside and take off every time he went inside, and none of them could ever remember it. Then we got into lighting problems when we realized that the baseball cap that the teenage boy character wore would cast a shadow on his face with the lighting, so he had to not only remember to put on the hat, but to put it on way on the back of his head.)

President's Day is the beginning of Midwinter Break in Emmett's school district, aka "Ski Week."

They get a Midwinter Break? And then also a spring break? We usually got Presidents Day off, and then nothing else until spring break, which was usually either the week before or the week after Easter.

So we did go to see the cyclists. It was fun but OMG almost as many cars as cyclists. My sister got a great photo of Lance Armstrong, actually. And now of course it's lovely outside, so I'm no longer so scared of the drive home.

In MA, we got February and April vacations (3rd week of each), and then were in school until late June. In in my head it was because of heating bills.

They get a Midwinter Break? And then also a spring break?

Yep. Plus two weeks for xmas. But I think they start earlier (usually last week of August) so it's the same amount of schooldays. Since it's not superhot in the Bay Area there's not the big cost savings you get in the South by keeping the air conditioning off for an extra week.

So even public schools get a week off at Presidents Day in the Bay Area? And I thought it was just for the kids from private schools. I had a whole justification in my head based on how only people wealthy enough to afford private school tuition would consider a week off in Feb to go skiing a NEED. But clearly I was wrong. Crazy. Well we Southern Californians do not get a Feb break.

mac is off for this full week. While they get a break in December, I think this one is the semester break.

Well we survived Hotel for Dogs, but we skipped pizza - too full on popcorn and soda. mac was teary twice in the film. The kids are orphans, are repeatedly told no one wants them, and then they are split up at one point. poor noodle. He seems fine now, but I am staying close and giving extra hugs and comfort. Why must all kids in kid's movies deal with separation from family?