The Colour Blue
Matt Seinberg

As long as I can remember, blue has been my favourite colour. I don't know why, other that I always found it pleasing. I've always had blue shirts of all types; tees, polos and button downs. In my teen years, I painted my bedroom blue, with a carpet of blue, red and white. It was quiet the room with posters all over the place, along with radio station bumper stickers and posters.

The battle of the chair and the bed.

I'm looking at that picture now. I still wonder how my mother put up with it since it was always quite messy. My father used to come in my room and take clothes off my desk chair and put it on my bed. I then proceeded to put them back on the chair. It became a game and, eventually, the chair won.

My least favourite colour is green. Wouldn't you know it; my first car was a used 1970 Volkswagen Squareback wagon that was a hunter green. I hated that car from the day we got it to the day I sold it. Since the car had a rear-mounted engine, it was air-cooled. That meant no air conditioning in the summer and hardly any heat in the winter.

It also had a mysterious leak. We had that car serviced more times than I can remember. Eventually it just stopped on its own. One time I had a friend "attempt" to do a tune up it and it just wasn't running right. My father and I took it to the dealer and when he looked at the engine, the service advisor just shook his head and said I was lucky that the engine didn't catch on fire. My friend used speaker wire to do something and, of course, that was wrong. My father wasn't too happy with me at that particular moment.

My favourite car is my current one, a 2010 Mazda 6 in Mica Blue Metallic. It has a Bose 10 speaker stereo system, leather interior and many, many safety features. I'll keep that car until it dies or becomes too expensive to maintain.

A little bit of blue would look better.

Blue also seems to be a popular colour these days for young women to use to highlight their hair. It looks nice when it's just a little bit, but when it's the entire head, I think that's a bit much. There's a woman, where I work, that did her hair in a magenta colour. Though it looks nice, I think a little bit of blue would have looked nicer.

Black leggings seem to be a huge fashion choice among women these days as well. I believe that if you have the appropriate body for leggings you can wear them. If you are on the "larger" side, avoid leggings at all costs. I was in Target recently and this rather hefty young lady was in front of me, wearing almost see through black leggings and a spaghetti thin piece of fabric that was supposed to pass as underwear. Did she not look in the mirror before leaving the house or didn't someone tell her how hideous she looked? I've said it before; it's like rubbernecking on the road at an accident. You don't want to stop and stare, but it's there in front of you. Luckily, I was wearing my sunglasses.

Another thing I find interesting is how younger people wear mismatched socks. My daughters do it and one young man at work does it as well. It certainly saves the trouble of having to match them up after doing laundry. Moreover, if one gets lost in the dryer, it doesn't matter.

We learned from a young age on that red means stop, yellow means caution and green means go. When did yellow at stoplights become "go on speed up and make the light before it turns red?" That's one of the reasons many municipalities have installed red light cameras at many intersections. Yes, they are to deter running a red light and possibly causing an accident, but they also generate lots of money for the municipality.

A red sports car blows by me and I hope.

I love to see a red sports car blow past me on the highway, just hoping that there's a cop up ahead ready to give him a ticket. That's why red sports cars are nicknamed "arrest me red." They get what they deserve.

Many colours are also associated with certain holidays. With Easter coming up, those colours are pink, yellow, light blue and light green. Christmas is red and green; Hanukkah is blue and white. Thanksgiving is a combination of brown, gold and yellow for fall colours. Halloween is orange, of course.

Did you know that blue is a soothing colour? I suppose that's why I like it so much.