The Color Red
The Color Purple was a movie that will stand the test of time like other great movies such as Gone with the Wind, Singing in the Rain, and Dude, Where's my Car? With stars such as Danny Glover, Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey, everyone anxiously anticipated the release.
Friday, I saw the movie The DaVinci Code. The problem is, I read the book. Granted, the movie and the book were very much alike, but in my honest opinion, I would give it no better than a "C." It was mostly the acting. My problem is, the book gave me a very good visual as to who the main characters were and how they interacted. Tom Hanks and Audrey Tautou did not fit. It really appeared they were just saying the words as they were written and there wasn't any real acting. It was like they stood there and read a book. Very disappointing. That was my Friday (well, that and drinking profusely).
Saturday, I shopped for some clothes and spent the afternoon washing and waxing my truck in the beautiful sunshine.
Sunday, I planted my fifty shrubs to create my new hedge for cartoon animals to jump over, and I planted some trees. This required me to spend the entire day outside with the bugs in the sun. Now I am red.
Red.
There are plenty of things to wonder about in this world but one that lies close to my heart is "red." Redskin, redneck, red-handed...red. Why are Natives considered redskins? Why the big controversy about the Washington Redskins? Believe it or not...I have answers.
Natives were given the color red not as an offensive descriptor, but as a designator. Before George Washington was a glimmer in his Mom's eye, a man named Samuel Smith wrote some letters about his interactions with the Native tribes and the fear that surrounded the communities. This fear was stirred by stories of attacks by the "Red Skin men." This however is the first instance recorded of the term and was not seen or heard used again for another 26 years.
It was actually a Taensa Chief that told a story to a French priest that started with (I am paraphrasing of course) "A black man, a white man and a red man looking at a pile of horse dung..." You see, the Taensa Tribe refer to themselves as "Red Men" in their own language. Townspeople all over began referring to Natives as Red and later Redskins.(ref)
The Washington Redskins football team also earned the name honestly. The team was originally known as the Boston Braves, but changed to the Boston Redskins when they left Braves field for Fenway Park. The name "Redskins" was chosen to honor the team's coach, William "Lone Star" Dietz, whose mother was Sioux. In 1937 the team moved to Washington, D.C. and became the Washington Redskins. (ref)
This brings me to my point (as I almost always have one). Wear sunscreen. I spent one and a half full days out in the sun washing trucks and planting shrubs. I now feel the pain of red skin all over this Redskin. I should have thought about it earlier, but it was such a nice day and dipping myself in a vat of sunscreen didn't hit the radar.
I should have listened to Baz Luhrman. "Ladies and Gentlemen of the class of 2006...Wear sunscreen. If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience."
Did you know...
During sunrise and sunset the distance that the light has to travel from the Sun to an observer is at its greatest. This means the a large amount of blue and violet light has been scattered by the atmosphere so the light that is received by an observer is mostly of a longer wavelength and therefore appears to be red.
Friday, I saw the movie The DaVinci Code. The problem is, I read the book. Granted, the movie and the book were very much alike, but in my honest opinion, I would give it no better than a "C." It was mostly the acting. My problem is, the book gave me a very good visual as to who the main characters were and how they interacted. Tom Hanks and Audrey Tautou did not fit. It really appeared they were just saying the words as they were written and there wasn't any real acting. It was like they stood there and read a book. Very disappointing. That was my Friday (well, that and drinking profusely).
Saturday, I shopped for some clothes and spent the afternoon washing and waxing my truck in the beautiful sunshine.
Sunday, I planted my fifty shrubs to create my new hedge for cartoon animals to jump over, and I planted some trees. This required me to spend the entire day outside with the bugs in the sun. Now I am red.
Red.
There are plenty of things to wonder about in this world but one that lies close to my heart is "red." Redskin, redneck, red-handed...red. Why are Natives considered redskins? Why the big controversy about the Washington Redskins? Believe it or not...I have answers.
Natives were given the color red not as an offensive descriptor, but as a designator. Before George Washington was a glimmer in his Mom's eye, a man named Samuel Smith wrote some letters about his interactions with the Native tribes and the fear that surrounded the communities. This fear was stirred by stories of attacks by the "Red Skin men." This however is the first instance recorded of the term and was not seen or heard used again for another 26 years.
It was actually a Taensa Chief that told a story to a French priest that started with (I am paraphrasing of course) "A black man, a white man and a red man looking at a pile of horse dung..." You see, the Taensa Tribe refer to themselves as "Red Men" in their own language. Townspeople all over began referring to Natives as Red and later Redskins.(ref)
The Washington Redskins football team also earned the name honestly. The team was originally known as the Boston Braves, but changed to the Boston Redskins when they left Braves field for Fenway Park. The name "Redskins" was chosen to honor the team's coach, William "Lone Star" Dietz, whose mother was Sioux. In 1937 the team moved to Washington, D.C. and became the Washington Redskins. (ref)
This brings me to my point (as I almost always have one). Wear sunscreen. I spent one and a half full days out in the sun washing trucks and planting shrubs. I now feel the pain of red skin all over this Redskin. I should have thought about it earlier, but it was such a nice day and dipping myself in a vat of sunscreen didn't hit the radar.
I should have listened to Baz Luhrman. "Ladies and Gentlemen of the class of 2006...Wear sunscreen. If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience."
Did you know...
During sunrise and sunset the distance that the light has to travel from the Sun to an observer is at its greatest. This means the a large amount of blue and violet light has been scattered by the atmosphere so the light that is received by an observer is mostly of a longer wavelength and therefore appears to be red.
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