MOCHA MOUSSE

First, on the Congressional front:

• 52-year old Mike Johnson (on the left, becomes 53 on January 30), from Louisiana, narrowly, and with some difficulty, was voted on the first ballot as Speaker of the House.  This was expected, but was nevertheless an embarrassment the way it happened.

• 
  63-year old John Thune (he turns 64 on January 7), from South Dakota, is now Majority Leader of the Senate, replacing Mitch McConnell.

Then, the daily Donald Trump incident.  Judge Juan Merchan denied Trump's bid to dismiss the case, and said the sentencing will be announced on January 10, ten days before Inauguration Day.  Whew for Trump, for the judge did also say that there will be no jail sentence at this time.  Huh?  Well, let's see what Merchan says on January 10.

The Sentry Tournament of Champions is being played in Kapalua on Maui, 15 miles north of the village of Lahaina, which was decimated last year by fire.  How different they look.

This Lahaina tragedy was all the more difficult for us because just a couple of months before the firestorm, we spent Day 51 of our Seabourn cruise there and saw rainbows and whales, plus fed pigeons at that famous Lahaina Banyan Tree.  Photos we took, and how the tree is now recovering.

Well, on to the topic of the day, colors.  In September of last year I posted on Chartreuse Green, the color for the Summer of 2024, and one of my favorite liquers.  My top college course was Color, so all throughout my life I have had an affinity for the range of hues we can see.  

From Forbes:

The color forecast industry is in full end-of-the-year tilt, pumping out favored hues for 2025 that include Purple Basil (Glidden), Mapped Blue (Dutch Boy), Cinnamon Slate (Benjamin Moore) and Rumors, a muted ruby red color forecast by Behr. Pantone, the king of color forecasters, will announce its Color of the Year on December 5. A Pantone countdown clock includes a chance to guess the color from ten color families.

Pantone's Color of the Year for 2025 is Mocha Mousse, #17-1230.

According to their release, Pantone select a color each year to capture the global zeitgeist.  They further created complementary hues to partner in harmony:

Then a cornucopia of scented floral tones to blend with soft mocha and shaded willow green.

Or link to Motorola.

Libratone.

Joybird.

Rich neutrality.

Subtle sophistication.

Limited action collection.

Pantone was brought to life inn 1963, 61 years ago through the printing industry.  The induction for color of the years goes back to 1999, when they selected Cerulean as the Color of the Year for 2000.

You will see subtleties of the color of the year in commercials, editorials, paintings and interior design.  Certainly clothing.  Designers are challenged by that color.

2024.

2022.

2021.

2021.

2020.

Black has never been a color of the year.  A good prediction might well be that hue in light of what the Donald Trump Administration will be doing in 2025.

To close, Billboard seven years ago provided 10 songs about colors.  Never heard of any of them.  Smooth Radio four years ago also ranked color songs.  At least most of them were recognizable.  Click on this and view the video of them all.

• #1    Yellow Submarine, The Beatles
• #2    Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Elton John
• #3    Brown Eyed Girl, Van Morrison.

• 
  #4    Green Onions, Booker T and the MGs
• #5    Green Green Grass of Home, Tom Jones
• #6    Purple Haze, Jimi Hendrix
• #7    Mellow Yellow, Donovan
• #8    Blue Velvet, Bobby Vinton
• #9    A Whiter Shade of Pale, Procol Harum

• 
  #10  Nights in White Satin, The Moody Blues
• #11  Blackbird, Paul McCartney
• #12  Band of Gold, Freda Payne
• #13  Mr Blue Sky, ELO
• #14  Forever in Blue Jeans, Neil Diamond
• #15  Red Red Wine, UB40
• #16  Gold, Spandau Ballet

• 
  #17  I Guess That's Why They Call it the Blues, Elton John
• #18  Purple Rain, Prince
• #19  Lady in Red, Chris de Burgh
• #20  99 Red Balloons, Nena
• #21  Black Velvet, Alannah Myles
• #22  Fields of Gold, Sting

• 
  #23  White Flag, Dido
• #24  Back to Black, Amy Winehouse
• #25  Behind Blue Eyes, The Who
• #26  Evergreen, Will Young
• #27  Back in Black, AC/DC
• #28  Behind These Hazel Eyes, Kelly Clarkson
• #29  Big Yellow Taxi, Joni Mitchell

• 
  #30  Black Coffee, All Saints
• Goes on to #51, including #49 Bing Crosby's White Christmas, Gene Autry's Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and The Rolling Stones' Brown Sugar.  Go to THIS to watch each video.

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