Bavarian Chalet. Mushroom Basket. Moose Point. Who in the heck comes up with the names of paint, anyway? Must be the same people who get paid to give names like Love Child, Sellout, and Apocalypse to shades of lipstick. Martha and Grant discuss wacky color names. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Wacky Names for Colors”
You’re listening to A Way with Words. I’m Grant Barrett.
And I’m Martha Barnette.
I’m thinking of painting the bedroom.
And I have a bunch of paint chips here, but I can’t decide which color to use.
Do you think I should use Bavarian Chalet?
I’m sorry?
Mushroom Basket, Moose Point, or Kryptonite?
Which one?
Are these comic books?
What are you describing here?
These sound like…
These are the colors of the paint chips.
Where are you buying your paint, honey?
That’s what I’m saying.
I mean, I’m exhausted just reading these names.
I’m giving up on the project.
I’m not going to walk into a room that’s painted kryptonite.
You’re not?
I’ll lose all my powers.
Would you walk into Mushroom Basket?
I mean, these…
Who…
I don’t know.
Is this going to have rock walls and like flagstone floor?
This sounds like a…
Right?
It sounds like something that kind of dim with candles stuck in sconces out to the side.
No, that’s what I have already, but I want to change the look.
Every time I look at these paint chips, it just wears me out.
And then I start thinking, who the heck gets paid probably lots of money to come up with these names, and how do they do it, and why?
Great job.
Great job.
Good for them.
Somebody’s got the best job in the world.
I mean, it’s not me.
I have the second best job in the world.
But that must be a really great job.
Oh, that color’s Western Reserve.
But you know what it reminds me of?
Lipsticks are the same way.
They are.
I walk by a Sephora on the way to the office every day, and I’m telling you, crazy stuff they have in there.
I have no interest in this stuff otherwise except for the names.
It’s just crazy.
Well, I should hope so.
Listen to this.
These are real lipstick names.
Apocalypse, Oil Slick.
Apocalypse.
I like that.
Oil Slick, Love Child, Sellout, Trainwreck, Buzzkill.
Who are they pitching this stuff to?
I know who they’re pitching it to.
You.
The anti-Barbie set.
You know, these girls who didn’t want to be the princess, didn’t want to have the fairy costume with the little wings.
They wanted to be dark and mysterious and women of power, kind of a mix of Betty Boop and Elvira, right?
Well, for the record, I’m wearing Neutrogena Groove.
Oh, are you?
Yeah.
I make a free today.
Well, if you want to talk about words or color names or pronunciation or regional dialects or slang, call us 1-877-929-9673.
That’s 1-877-W-A-Y-W-O-R-D.
Or send an email to words@waywordradio.org.
