Roy G Biv

Herewith, my (Canadian) Thanksgiving post. YouTube still has no category for my content, which is a nature-photography/feel-good mash-up, 100% non-denominational, non-partisan, and non-fattening. I can’t imagine why.

One thing I learned making this video is that the mnemonic for the spectrum – Roy G. Biv – has been misleading us for a while. In my case, since sometime in junior high, I think. Apparently Isaac Newton decided there were going to be seven colours before he, you know, looked at the spectrum. Most of us can’t distinguish that seventh colour — indigo — that he shoehorned between blue and violet.

Not busy cooking turkey? Feel free to revisit my previous non-video posts for pretty much more of the same: here, and here.

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14 Responses to Roy G Biv

  1. For the first time in memory I am not cooking turkey for Thanksgiving. Out of training and foolish fancy, I bought one, but had to depend on help from a fellow shopper to get it out of the basket and onto the check-out conveyor belt and back into the cart. I gifted it to son Alex and six-kid family who will make short work of the beast tomorrow. I will roast more easily manageable game hens tomorrow. The prospect lends an autumnal maple glow of anticipation to the day.

    • Isabel Gibson says:

      Laurna – I wish you well with your game hens. I struggle with roasting all forms of poultry. Interestingly, the butcher in the small town of Pakenham near Ottawa says that they’re getting in more 8lb chickens for people this year. A COVID phenomenon, perhaps? Maybe people are still not gathering in large or extra-familial groups.

  2. Well done Isabel. Creative use of your nice images.

    I guess I always ignore the “i” and just went with Roy G. Bv (and massacred the pronunciation)

    • Isabel Gibson says:

      Jim R – Many thanks. I clearly remember a male teacher telling us about Roy, but don’t remember what year of school it was. But I believe you are now authorized to ignore the “i” – physicists say it’s OK.

  3. Jim Taylor says:

    I never had a mnemonic at all; I just had a visual of the colour spectrum. Easier to remember than a meaningless acronym of someone I had never met, and never hoped to meet.

    We don’t get red leaves out here, except where invasive sumacs have taken root. But I went for a long drive, Friday, down the Nicola Valley to the Fraser Canyon, and back via Kamloops, and the aspen/poplar clans were all dressed up in glorious yellows and oranges. Also light and dark ochres for the grasses. But I’d have to add black — charred trees and scorched earth from the fires that ravaged the valley earlier in the summer, during the “heat dome” days. Great drive; sad drive.

    • Isabel Gibson says:

      Jim – Sounds lovely, if poignant. Maybe your recent synesthetic experience is a sign of a good visual memory, especially for colour. I couldn’t reproduce a rainbow or spectrum from memory without the mnemonic. Apparently some kids (Brits, I assume) learned it as “Richard of York gave battle in vain.”

  4. Excellent photos in a moving video (pun not intended). You are ahead of the curve. Non-denominational fall festival is the equitable time to give special thanks for what we have. Your emphasis on colour in natural settings is truly uplifting.

    • Isabel Gibson says:

      Judith – Many thanks. It would be fun to do a series of these for every city we visit . . .

  5. Tom Watson says:

    Loved the spectrum! Thanks!
    Tom

  6. John Whitman says:

    Isabel – at my advanced stage in life, I just learned that my early education was deficient. Until now, I had never heard of “Roy G Biv”. Is that from the same source as “Bunny Hug”?

    P.S. Did you know that YouTube kindly substitutes your original video with other You Tube videos people might like to watch like “Killing Rommel” or “Eisenhower’s Lockheed Air Force One.”

    • Isabel Gibson says:

      John – Just as well you missed Roy: you’d have to unlearn him now. And no, I didn’t know YouTube subbed my video – maybe I’m inserting it incorrectly.

  7. John Whitman says:

    Isabel – FYI, after posting my original comment about YouTube the link reverted back to your original video on Thanksgiving colors. Strange, that??

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