The Man Replies: It 's Birthday Belleville Mature Big?

Q. And in 200 Belleville '2014 birthday? There are no plans yet to celebrate? Perhaps another big red shoes, so we have a similar pair?

- New Brunswick, Belleville

A. The only "shoes", you will see that time is one of Ed Sullivan "really big show" - a funny observation, which might even surpass Fest 175th city, Mayor Mark Eckert enjoyed in 1989.

In fact, you're jumping the gun a little, but next year, you can expect Eckert recommend that the City Council appoints a committee to start planning the party.

"It's a little early," he said. "But once we enter the first part of 2012, then we'll really start to make plans and have a group of people to start riding an idea of ​​what we do."

After all, I do not think we forget to say hello, George Blair, 10 March 1814, has asked the county seat moved to Cahokia a new, more centrally located in the solution in the middle of harvest? He shows his determination, Blair donated acres of land in the town square, cross the "Belleville" and "a beautiful city."

Now, Eckert is hoping to establish at least one wingding quartoseptcentennial compete with the city held a parade in 1989, and the ball at an auction, all culminating in a period of three days at the end of summer block party .

"What I would do and have not yet done is go back and pull the file to the 175th," said Eckert. "So we use it as a bit of a model, then we will begin to make plans and preparations, but if I have something to do with it. - If I have nothing to say - let's make this a very special celebration."

Q. Why is it called the Purple Finch, Purple Finch, when the breast is red? There is no purple dress Purple Finch, and I can say.

- Stephen Krause, of Collinsville

A. Trust me - your astute observation has not gone unnoticed by some of the best brains of the bird-of our time.

"(The name" Purple Finch ") may be misleading for a beginner, it is not purple, because we understand the term today, as is blue, or yellow," wrote Arthur Cleveland Bent in his 21-volume "Life of historic North American Birds. " "Crimson Finch would be a better name.

"However," he said Bent, "" purple "biblical and classical writers were very different from the Finch purple red man."

In other words, once you learn the history of color, the name of the bird may be less confusing. Long before the birth of Christ, seeking to recover from The Color Purple, that people saw in nature was an extremely difficult task.

Tyrian purple, for example, is a native of Tyre as early as 1600 BC It was produced by mucus gland hypobrachial of marine molluscs. Sound exotic? Well, get this: It would have been 12 000 shells to extract only 1 / 20 of a gram of pure color.

You can imagine how expensive it was. As a result, purple became the color of royalty because only the kings and queens can afford. Even the Roman emperor Aurelia reportedly rejected his wife's dyed purple silk dress, because you pay their weight in gold, according to a printing expert Dr. Richard Podhajny.

But as the Roman Empire fell, so did the use of Tyrian purple. In fact, the large scale production apparently stopped with the fall of Constantinople in 1453. He was replaced by expensive colors like a madman, a group of plants that produces a bright red dye.

Ten years later Pope Paul II introduced the "purple cardinal," which was a red dye extracted from the insect Kermes, according Podhajny. This tissue bright red, the color first luxury in the medieval period - and perhaps led to what you feel is inaccurate name of "purple" Well, because it was the color that people had come to associate with violet .

And just to show you that history is not all birds, Linfield College in McMinnville, Oregon, in 1917, the purple cardinal (Scarlet) and purple as the colors of the school.

Today, trivia

Just for fun: How many were only four letters of their names? (Think of a question, and not be too hasty in your answer.)

Answer to Thursday's trivia: To visit the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, you have to fly to Copenhagen, Denmark. There, about 20 kilometers north of Copenhagen, Denmark is the most visited art museum, with its famous collection of postwar art. Its unusual name comes from Alexander Brown, the owner of the property first, he called home after his three wives, all of whom were named Louise. The museum itself, which is included in Patricia Schultz's book "1000 Places To See Before You Die", was released in 1958 by Knud W. Jensen.