Purple passion

Be honest with you, my dear Peggy was not so much into football until the Baltimore Ravens came to town. After the team's nickname and colors and uniforms were designed, the team held a grand unveiling downtown, and when Peggy saw the late wide receiver Michael Jackson strut out wearing #81 she exclaimed, "Oh look! They wear purple outfits!" and she was a fan for life.

"Uniforms." Not outfits.

But the color of products makes a difference, and if a "brand" can be identified by a particular hue, so much the better. You think of black and orange, Baltimore Orioles come to town - the birds and the Birds.  John Deere tractors are John Deere green. You want to send a package, you wonder what Brown can do for you today. And a sharp-eyed gift-getter knows the Tiffany shade of turquoisiness at 50 yards.


The late entertainer Prince was, for a while, known by a logo and not his name. He gave that up after no one on earth could figure out what the devil he was talking about, but notice the color he used - Purple - was the color that came to be identified with him. The song and the movie Purple Rain came out decades ago, but even now, a year and a half after he died, Prince is still called "The Purple One" by his legions of fans. 

And now the Pantone Color Institute, the people whose business it is to register all the colors we use and to not the trends of color popularity, has bestowed upon Mr Prince Rogers Nelson his own color.  And - spoiler alert - it's purple!

Laurie Pressman, vice president of Pantone, said it was an honor to help develop Prince's hue.
"A musical icon known for his artistic brilliance, Love Symbol #2 is emblematic of Prince's distinctive style," she said. "Long associated with the purple family, Love Symbol #2 enables Prince's unique purple shade to be consistently replicated and maintain the same iconic status as the man himself."

Yes, people in the business world really do talk like that.

But here is the color that will be forever linked to the man who sang "Ronnie Talk to Russia"(my personal favorite, and one that could be easily revived as "Donnie Talk To Kim" today)...

How many shades of purple are there, anyhow?

I have to hope there is a certain bit of orange in that mix, because, guess what? Tyka Nelson, Prince's sister who seems to be a spokesperson for his estate, says his favorite color was not purple after all, but orange, which nothing rhymes with (purple, of course, rhymes with everyone's favorite pancake topping, maple surple.)

Prince's guitar 

"The standout piece for me is his orange Cloud guitar," Tyka said. "It is strange because people always associate the color purple with Prince, but his favorite color was actually orange."

My favorite colors, if you wonder, are brown and orange - the colors of the Cleveland Browns, but they became the Ravens, so there you go...