[Histonet] My bit of trivia for today - True Blue

[Sherwood, Margaret]

I love Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me!  Interesting bit of trivia. 


Peggy Sherwood
Lab Associate, Photopathology
Wellman Center for Photomedicine (EDR 214)
Massachusetts General Hospital
50 Blossom Street
Boston, MA 02114-2696
617-724-4839 (voice mail)
617-726-6983 (lab)
617-726-1206 (fax)
msherwood <@t> partners.org

-----Original Message-----
From: histonet-bounces <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu
[mailto:histonet-bounces <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu] On Behalf Of Morken, Timothy
Sent: Monday, November 07, 2011 1:09 PM
To: histonet <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu
Subject: [Histonet] My bit of trivia for today - True Blue

I was listening to the Wait Wait Don't Tell Me radio show this weekend and they
had to come up with the derivation of "True Blue" as a saying. Turns out it had
to do with blue dye colorfastness. Later they would call it Fast Blue - but that
does not convey the later meaning of the phrase..


'True blue' is supposed to derive from the blue cloth that was made at Coventry,
England in the late middle ages. The town's dyers had a reputation for producing
material that didn't fade with washing, i.e. it remained 'fast' or 'true'. The
phrase 'as true as Coventry blue' originated then and is still used (in Coventry
at least). The town's standing was recorded in 1670 by John Ray in the first
edition of A Compleat Collection of English Proverbs:

"Coventry had formerly the reputation for dying of blues; insomuch that true
blue became a Proverb to signifie one that was always the same and like
himself."


Tim Morken
Supervisor, Histology, IPOX
UC San Francisco Medical Center
Box 1656
1600 Divisidero St, B217
San Francisco, CA 94115
USA

415.514.6042 (office)
415.885.7409 Fax
tim.morken <@t> ucsfmedctr.org<mailto:tim.morken <@t> ucsfmedctr.org>


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