1347 – Roy G Biv | Tales Rarely Told

Episode 1347 – Roy G Biv | Tales Rarely Told

 

[START OF RECORDING]

 

SCOOTER: Friends beyond the binary, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, it’s time for the podcaster who, at the time of recording this, finally found his lights that go in RGB order. No ‘IV’, but it had…we got RGB. You say, hm, what was that guy that wrote Moby Dick? I wonder what he was like. What about the guy that wrote Don Quixote? Did they ever have something they chased after, and what would make someone make a sleep podcast? What do they chase after, besides their own tail? Again, I can't even remember if I have a archetypal or a vestigial tail that I chase around. Every once in a while somebody taps me on the shoulder, including my dog; she says, you don’t have…by the way, did you know you don’t have a tail? So, my…it’s never been publicized before, but dogs can shrug their shoulders.

 

I guess it’s basically with a look versus a actual shrug of their shoulders. But she’s like, you don’t have a tail. No, yeah, but I gotta chase it right now. Weren’t you talking about something else? Oh, chasing windmills, chasing sea mammals, or in my case, trying to find lights that go in ROYGBIV order. Tonight we have a bedtime story that’s ROYGBIV-related. So, I’m glad you're here. Here in 2025, I’m trying to make the best possible podcast to put you to sleep. So, if you're new, welcome. This isn't a podcast that puts you to sleep directly. It keeps you company and attempts to ease things in the deep, dark night by distraction and to make your life better just by distraction and friendly, meandering tales. Now, it doesn't work for everybody, but give it a few tries and see how it goes. I really hope it can help you out.

 

If at some point you know Sleep With Me is not for you, we have a website set up, sleepwithmepodcast.com/nothankyou, that has other sleepy stuff on there. But I’m glad you're here, and we do this together with the show. I make the podcast that puts you to sleep, right, but we do it together collectively. I’m not able to do this alone. So, the people that support the show directly, support the sponsors, or just spread the word about the podcast and let other people know about it enable and empower me to put you to sleep. But your actions also affect so many other people in a positive way. So, I’m glad to be here to do that, and thank you for making it possible for me to put you to sleep. Here’s a couple of the ways…if you say, well, how do I? Here’s a couple ways we're able to do it for you twice a week, only if you're a regular listener, by the way. Thanks.

 

INTRO: [INTRO MUSIC] Hey, are you up all night tossing, turning, mind racing? Trouble getting to sleep? Trouble staying asleep? Well, welcome. This is Sleep With Me, the podcast that puts you to sleep. We do it with a bedtime story. Alls you need to do is get in bed, turn out the lights, and press Play. I’m gonna do the rest. What I’m going to attempt to do is create a safe place where you could set aside whatever’s keeping you awake. It could be thoughts, things you're thinking about, thoughts about the past, the present, the future, so, thinking thoughts…thoughts, feelings, anything you're…coming up for you physically or emotionally. So, physical sensations, changes in time, temperature, routine, work schedule, travel, guests, seasons, any…whatever it is.

 

You could be going through something or getting over something or in the middle of something or you could be baffled, or whatever it is. The only reason I run through some of that stuff is so you know you're not alone. We are in this together. Separate but together is the way this podcast works, which is different. Together…separate…separateness together; I guess that’s what it is, or togetherness separately. It’s a little bit of both because…what do I mean by any of that or why is it important to point out? Well, you found your way to the show, right? Maybe it’s because you have trouble getting to sleep, trouble staying asleep, waking up, maybe you got a stressful day. Whatever it is, I’ve dealt with pretty much all of those and I know how it feels for me.

 

I know how it feels for me when I’m in a house full of people, when I’m sharing a room with somebody, and when I’m alone by myself, and I know it never feels great, right? I don't know if that’s what it’s like for you. I don't know if I can relate to how it feels for you, but the beauty of this podcast is there’s enough people listening right now that somewhere in the world there’s somebody that can relate exactly to where you're at or pretty closely to where you're at, and they're a regular listener of the show and they're thinking about you and what you're dealing with, 'cause they’ve been there. Just like the show doesn't fix anything, it doesn't really make anything go away…they're just glad you're here ‘cause they say, man, I’ve been there and I know what it’s like for me.

 

So, I hope this podcast can just help you out, to ease things in the deep, dark night, to give you some comfort like it has for me. So, they're thinking of you in this positive way, and I’m not kidding; this is the most…one of the most important parts about the show. Right? The show does not work for everybody. Not everybody likes me or the podcast, but they hope this podcast is a fit for you, right? That you say, oh, after the third try, I realized I had been looking for something like this. This show is very…I didn’t know there would be something like this out there, and then that one day you could be that welcoming presence, 'cause people can feel it. People can feel it when you're putting that…just a mild smile on your face and saying, yeah, I’m glad you're here. This is a weird one.

 

This podcast is strange, but I hope it helps you like it helped me, 'cause I can see you hurting out there and I know what it feels like to hurt like that. So, I’m glad you're here. So are a bunch of other people. Not only that; the reason I’m glad and other people are glad you're here is because you deserve a good night's sleep. You deserve a bedtime where you could get the rest you need so your life is more manageable, so that you could be out there living your life tomorrow, not tired or not dreading tomorrow night or whatever, that your life is more manageable, ideally that you could be out there flourishing, which means that not only is our world…your world a better place; our world’s a better place. We need you in it. We need you rest…we want that for you and we…I think the world’s a better place with you flourishing in it.

 

So, that’s…those are the important things about the show. The way it works is I send my voice across the deep, dark night. I use lulling, soothing, creaky, dulcet tones, pointless meanders, and superfluous tangents, which means I go off topic, I get mixed up, I forget what I was talking about, then I go back to what I was talking about, then I repeat myself and a lot of stuff like that, and a lot of filler words, pregnant pauses, utterances. So…those weren't even on purpose, but that’s what it is, because I’m just here to meander and keep you company. It does take some getting used to. I said it earlier; I’ll say it again, 'cause it’s okay if you don’t like me or the show. It’s okay if…or it’s very normal to be skeptical or doubtful. You are looking for something to help you fall asleep.

 

Maybe you searched for the show, maybe somebody recommended it, maybe you heard about it somewhere, and you have an idea of what would be a sleep podcast, right, and this is not sounding like it. On top of that, if you're anything like me, you tried tons of other stuff, probably a lot of stuff you paid for to help you fall asleep, and none of that worked regularly. It only worked intermittently. For me, it would be like two nights, and then it wouldn't work again. So, coming to the show and then hearing me ramble about nothing and say, wait…even when I’m gonna say…get more into, of course you're skeptical or doubtful. Of course you're like, what is this dude going on about? I thought this was a sleep podcast.

 

But just see how it goes, because most regular listeners say, hey, it took two or three tries for me to get used to the show, the structure of the show, and then I realized, oh, yeah, that…yeah, I didn’t realize it was never supposed to make any sense. Huh. Now I get that I…I don't get it, and now I get that. So, just give it a few tries and see how it goes. If you already know it’s a ‘no’, that’s okay, 'cause Sleep With Me is here to help you find something else. Sleepwithmepodcast.com/nothankyou; it has other sleep podcasts out there, and, yeah, then you could find something that works for you. If this show doesn't work for you, I want you to find something that will work for you, 'cause everything I said, I mean. I mean, I’d love it if it works for you and we get to hang and I get to talk to you about goofy stuff; tonight, ROYGBIV.

 

Or, not ROYG…ROYGBIV is just…whatever that is, words that stand for something. So, yeah. So, just see how it goes. But yeah, if it’s a ‘no’…sleepwithmepodcast.com/nothankyou. What else do you need to know? Oh, most…this is a podcast you just kinda barely listen to, which I kind of alluded to already. It’s almost like background noise that you could listen to or a TV on in the other room or something streaming under your pillow or music on next door that’s not bad or whatever it is, sports on at a distance on the radio. This is a show you could just barely listen to in a out-of-focus or sand-through-your-hands-type way, and that also takes some getting used to. It’s a podcast you don’t listen to. Even most sleep audios that I’ve used in the past, that’s one of the things.

 

They were either not engaging enough or too engaging. Like, I had to go on a journey or pay attention or visualize something, and I know that works for people. I’m not being negative. I just said for me, it didn’t work. For me, that’s stuff that was too passive…I would want to listen to it, even…and then I would be in the forest making up my own story, but then it would tie back to whatever was keeping me awake, and then…and that’s the other thing, is like, there was already a story going on in my head of whatever it is that was keeping me awake or related to that or keeping me from sleeping. So, this is a podcast you could just barely listen to that’s a mild distraction, and it doesn't put you to sleep. This podcast is not meant to put you to sleep. It’s meant to keep you company while you fall asleep.

 

There is no pressure to fall asleep with this show. That’s why I’m here over an hour. That’s why we have so many episodes in our archives and we have so many different styles of shows that come out on a regular basis, so you have…you say, okay, I don't gotta worry about it. The show’s gonna be…the show’s over an hour? Okay, cool. Or I could queue up episode after episode. Yeah, there’s no pressure to fall asleep. I’m not here to put you to sleep. I’m here to keep you company and then you wake up tomorrow. You say, holy cow… I mean, that’s the only thing that ever worked for me anyway, right, is not trying…I’ve been trying to fall asleep my whole life, and it’s only when…and I can't directly not try to fall asleep. So, this podcast kinda helps with that.

 

I’m just here to be your bore-friend, your bore-bae, your bore-sib, your bore-cuz, your Borbie, your neigh-bore, your boreman, your bores, your Boris Borlaf, your…what else? I don't even know. Bore-cuz, bore-sib, bore-bruh, your best bore-friend f’eva, and to keep you company while you fall asleep, just like if I was a friend and you called me. I’ll be there talking about nothing. So, that’s a couple things to know. The other thing that throws people off when they're new…and we don’t change the structure of the show very often. We’ve been doing this a long time, right? So, the structure of the show is intentional, but if you become a regular listener, it’s also…you can…there’s a couple different ways you could adapt how you listen.

 

But most people listen to this ad-supported version linearly, either the full episode or with a timer, like a sleep timer for forty-five or sixty minutes, thirty minutes. But you can adapt how you listen. So, I’m gonna run through that and why we structure the way…the show just so if you're already skeptical or doubtful or you're not liking this, I can at least meet you where you are. So, the show starts off with a greeting, which is important so you feel seen and welcomed in. Maybe I say something silly so you get the sense…oh, okay, I could check that show out. Okay, then there’s support so that paying for the podcast is optional. Most people would prefer to support the show by just listening to the sponsors and then not having to worry about it.

 

If you want something ad-free, you get that on Sleep With Me+ or you could get it through our referral program. So, then after the support is a long, meandering intro. It’s totally separate from the support. It’s a show within a show. We're about twelve minutes into it, I think, and it’s anywhere from fifteen to twenty minutes long where I explain what the podcast is in an incredibly inefficient way that follows a similar structure every time but is new every time. The reason for that is, one, like I said earlier, I needed something and I wanted to make something that was kind of engaging and had variety but also felt familiar. So, it felt like a friend or friendly, but I didn’t know what my friend was gonna talk about exactly. So, it’d have a sense of newness, too, and surprise, but boring, dull surprises.

 

So, that’s why the intro is…goes on and on and on and is different every time, but it also serves this other important purpose. I’d love to serve some porpoises as a helper. Not serve them…you know what I’m saying. Porpoises, can I make a podcast for you? But the purpose of the intro is also to ease you into bedtime, not to put you to sleep. The intro is about fifteen to twenty minutes long for your wind down, for a buffer between wake time and drifting-off time. So, you could listen while you're getting ready for bed, you're in bed getting comfortable, or you're doing some other chill, wind-down activity. That’s just what’s been shown to work. It works for me most of the time personally. If you don’t want a show with intros, we have Bedtime Stories from Sleep With Me, which is just the stories.

 

So, you could check that out there. But that’s why the intro goes on and on and on, to ease you into bedtime. This version of the podcast is not…if you listen all night or you listen to episode after episode after episode, you're definitely better off investing in Sleep With Me+ or whatever, 'cause most people, yeah, they wind down during the intro and then later on they’ll fall asleep during the story. It’s not…meaning there’s a right or wrong way to listen. It’s just, we structure the show so it can be adaptable but also with…in mind that, whatever, sixty or…I don't know. It’s not that important. But I think you get my drift. It’s kinda modular. It’s just to benefit the most people that are hurting in the way we hurt in the deep, dark night as we can.

 

Okay, so, that…after the intro is support, then tonight will be our bedtime story. It’ll be about forty-five, fifty minutes long, and it’ll be a tale about a boy named Teddy and his journey on the ROYGBIV…discoveries of being a ROYGBIV, as well as a little bit of a tangent…a personal tangent at the beginning about learning about ROYGBIV and the magic of mixing paint colors and stuff. So, yeah, I guess that’s it. I’m really glad you're here. I work hard. So do…a team of people work hard on this show, which I guess is pretty…to make it sound free and easy, right, and to help out. So, I’m really glad you're here if you're new or you're a regular listener or you're coming back or whatever it is. I really hope we can help you fall asleep. Thank you again for coming by, and here’s a couple ways we're able to do it for you twice a week.

 

Alright everybody, welcome to a tales never told, Trending-Tuesday-style episode where I randomly…I try to pick random…I use a randomizer for our meander points, right? Tonight’s tale never told…a tale rarely told or a tale lullingly told is about ROYGBIV, which is…what is that? That’s a set of letters that make a word that stands for something else, and there’s a lot of words in my head, but none of them are correct of what that is. It’s not an enneagram or an anagram, I don't believe, or an…whatever that…morphism or whatever. But this is a tale…but this is a tale about ROYGBIV.

 

Now, there is some history of ROYGBIV and prisms and things like that, but…and again, I don't know if this is a generational thing, but at some point…and maybe this is a generational thing, where you say, Generation X, man, what’s up with you guys? I do hear that a lot, and it’s interesting. It’s…come in both directions, which is really good, and I’m in acceptance. We're quite the generation. I don't want to point fingers, right, but I do want to have some touchtones. So, when we were…when I was learning, which was a challenge for anyone trying to teach me, there was a few things they try…were important to learn, at least where…the schools I went to. It was interesting because…well, one was phonics, which…I don't know. We’ll skip over that.

 

Clouds, which we’ve covered in two or three episodes…for some reason, the curriculum in the 1980s into the 1990s was like, these kids need to know the names of clouds, and I’m not just talking about descriptive language to use in poetry. These children need technical knowledge of clouds. That was one thing. There was a couple other ones that I was always like, huh…looking back, I say, that’s interesting. Now, this isn't to say it’s entirely useless to know the difference…well, I don't know the difference between an altonimbus and…I wouldn't know my altonimbus from my altocumulus, and you could bet I’m serious about that. I mean, I could use it as a joke, and I do have a cloud-finder or a cloud-namer that I got from my mom, another treasured object of mine…or my mom and my dad. It’s just a little thing.

 

It’s like a piece of paper that…with two circles, and you say, oh, there’s the cloud. That’s the name of it. So, that part of my education never took. There was other…I can't remember the other ones. Well, one of them is the subject of this episode, or leads to the subject of this episode, which was ROYGBIV. There was probably a time we got to play with prisms, though I’m only guessing that mine was taken away because, one, I tried to maybe concentrate the light or whatever. I think then they had plastic prisms you could hold up to a window, and then glass prisms. If you listened to the show in the last two years, I did…I don't think I talked about this. So, I did find a not…technically not a Hello Kitty…it looked like it was…it’s plastic.

 

It looks like it’s cut glass, and it’s a lookalike Hello Kitty finial, which, I mean, they didn’t license Hello Kitty, but pretty striking…a striking…it bears a striking resemblance to Hello Kitty, and it’s a finial to go on the top of a lamp, and it’s made from cut plastic to look like cut glass, which means it does not have any prism properties. But at some point in my education, they were like, you gotta learn ROYGBIV, the…I don't know what it’s called. The color spectrum, I’m gonna call it…and we're gonna test you on this. It wasn’t…well, okay, a couple things. Oh, also…yeah, this was an important part of my…I don't know. I don't think Henry James or Thomas Hardy or any of them wrote about this.

 

Portrait of…or any of the people that wrote about the artist as a young person or whatever, because…but, okay, so, they covered when light goes through…when sunlight goes through a prism — I’m paraphrasing from memory — you get a rainbow. Also happens magic…also when leprechauns are present and hiding…I never know if it’s hiding their gold…something related…leprechauns must loathe rainbows, right, and rain. Do you think when it rains, the leprechauns are like…? Oh, there’s a famous myth…set of mythology. Let me just explain it…that there’s leprechauns, which are like elvish beings, similar to elvish…a elf and a dwarf…more dwarven than elvish, I guess. That’s not meant in an insulting way. They're just not as pretty as elves.

 

I’m sure there’s pretty leprechauns out there, but that some…at the end of a rainbow, the leprechaun…is where leprechauns keep their gold. I believe — because most people are right-handed — that it’s always at the right side of the rainbow, but maybe I’m wrong. Maybe it’s on the left side. Maybe that’s just my own…'cause everybody’s always looking to the…I say, what about the left side? But I think in the right-handed world, the rainbow starts on the left, ends on the right. The gold is on the right, and…so, it just makes me think; how come…? If this is true…I mean, if it was true, one, it would have to be some sort…the rainbow would have to create some sort of portal, I guess, 'cause otherwise there’s leprechauns everywhere and they're hiding their gold.

 

I’m not exactly sure why…I mean…and I mean to say, you’re working your whole life to gather this gold or something? I don't know about that. But it just makes me think…it doesn't get promoted like this, but leprechauns must love sunshine, but not sunlight and rain combined, or mist or whatever. Double rainbow; double the gold. Maybe that’s what that person was…sometimes when people meet me in person…and this is a pretty dated…I mean, not as dated as all the other references, but there’s the double-rainbow guy, and sometimes people say, I thought you were gonna be like the double-rainbow guy. I say, I don't even know if…did he even show up on camera? I thought he was just saying ‘double rainbow’ and groaning with joy.

 

Okay, so, the leprechaun thing is just a tangent, 'cause I don't think it’s related to any of this. But so, when I was a child, I was…we were…I mean, of the education I remember and not doing good at…clouds and colors and prisms and ROYGBIV. Now, I think for the teacher, probably the prism part was pretty sweet because you have a visual aid, it’s somewhat interesting…it’s also pretty magical. So, the presentation of that part might not have been that bad. Maybe they had a movie about it. I don't know. I’d love…if we were watching a movie, it was like, okay, I may get through today. But then it came down to how do you…that…oh boy, is this gonna be…? Future…when…Generation X, when you're the adults in the room, you're gonna really need this stuff. It turns out, for a sleep podcast, ROYGBIV comes up a lot.

 

But they say, not only do you need to know that these are colors, but you need to know what order they occur in. There’s this easy…is it a pneumonic device? That just popped in my head, too…to remember it. There’s also one about…that’s a English one, but it’s…maybe that’s a pneumonic device. I don't know. But this one stuck, unlike the clouds. I don't know if there was…all clouds are in the sky and eat sunshine or something. That was like remembering the notes in piano lessons. No good boy practices…no good boys practice piano all the time or whatever it was. I said, I’ll never remember that because I can't remember…I can remember practice. Okay, but back to this ROYGBIV thing. It was easy to learn, but we had tests about it and stuff or whatever. We had homework.

 

ROYGBIV stands for red, orange, yellow…it was also on television shows, too. Probably…contact is a reason…probably on the electric company. But red, orange, yellow; ROY…G, green…BIV; blue, indigo, violet. Now, I’m sure that’s where most of the questions came because…that BIV part probably threw most people off, 'cause you’d say, what’s…where’s the differences? Or, how…? I mean, I guess even now as an adult or as a person that invented something called the ROYGBIV Institute, we do have to kinda skip over and then just do blue and purple. But also you'd say…I’m sure red, orange, and yellow say, what up with that? Like, what’s up, man? Or even green.

 

The green is in a tough spot; not only just in the middle and the middle child of colors, of the color spectrum, but green doesn't even…even though green and red, they're holiday colors, green goes with other stuff, the…I don't know, it doesn't blend…there’s some nice blends. BIV is a nice blend, and then ROY makes a nice blend of colors. So, that was my education. This is what led me to make a sleep podcast. But I wasn’t the only one learning this stuff, and a lot of people say, oh, it was Isaac Newton or whatever. But I recently heard this tale never told about a boy named Teddy, a young boy named Teddy, and his relationship with the ROYGBIV spectrum.

 

Teddy was…once upon a time, Teddy was a…he was a young lad just at the age where they decide…you're not quite ready for the birds and the bees, but you're ready for the BIV and the R to the…you're ready for the color spectrum. Another thing I should note is that I don't think they do this…I don't think this is a gift anymore, but they used to…it used to be a prop…popular gift to get…give kids chemistry sets. Now, this was a different time when there was more space and, I don't know, but you would give a kid…and Radio Shack was a big place to buy gifts. Not that you would only get a chemistry set at it, but nowadays I’m like, chem…if someone gave my daughter a chemistry set between the ages of two and thirteen or fourteen, I would have been like, what are you doing?

 

What are you giving her a chem…? What? Okay, could you tell me about that ahead of time next time? ‘Cause I don't even…you give a kid a chemistry set? Oh, it’s the happiest, joyous days of my life. Didn’t you…? Oh yeah, I got multiple chemistry sets. I was always trying to find ways to…but, I mean, I didn’t…I wasn’t one to follow the instructions, but I just don’t think it’s a good…I mean, a chemistry set? What are you doing? Now, luckily, Teddy was raised by not me, because…Teddy had gotten a chemistry set, and he was one of the people that not just followed the instructions but talked to his science teacher, and his science teacher told him about the magic of chemicals that would come in a child’s chemistry set. He helped Teddy unlock the power of chemistry. First, of course…well, we’ll get to some of the things.

 

Now, another thing that was mind-blowing…probably around the time…maybe…they would teach about complimentary colors, primary colors…and I would say this is almost…the first time you discover it was almost more magic than the prism. The prism was one kind of magic, but you only…a magic you observed, right, but you didn’t participate in. I think this is probably transgenerational, but then you would learn about the idea. I mean, think about the first time…now, the first time most…at least in the US…I’d love to hear from people around the world…that you have experience using colors to create art would normally be via crayons. Now I’d say predominately crayons in the last thirty years, but it could have been colored pencils or markers.

 

There’s a limitation with those, at least that I know of, where crayons are wax, dyed wax, maybe. I think so. Markers are like ink in a tube attached to some felt…felt-tipped marker, and pencils are colored pencils. Not…maybe…I don't know if they use graphite in those. But you would…your first experience is…I think nowadays, and I think this is probably normal…my daughter’s first experience was probably at a restaurant with crayons, then crayons at home. You say, yeah, give this kid three crayons, and then that’ll compete with the tablet. But the limitation of those, at least in my experience…again, so, you could get deluxe sets of crayons with a lot of colors, but you couldn't mix colors.

 

I think a crayon…if you went over one color with another one, maybe you could kinda create another color, but when you got to school and the day you would be able to mix…particularly some sort of acrylic or latex paint or watercolor…a little bit less…a little bit less flashy, no offense to watercolors. They look great. Watercolors; I love looking at…I mean, all of these things I’m best as an observer. But when you first saw…I mean, I can't tell you how mind-blowing it was — even now, I guess as an adult — that you could take red and blue and make purple. Seeing that…and especially if it was done in a delicate way…'cause every time, they’d say, if you mix everything, it’s just gonna turn black or brown. I’d say, well, I was trying to get…they say, yeah, just follow what we're telling you. But that’s why I make a sleep podcast.

 

Then you could make green with, I don't know, yellow and blue, maybe? Orange; red and yellow. BIV…oh yeah, but purple would be, I guess, different shades of red and blue. I don't know, that was pretty magical. It’s just seeing colors change and being like, wow…you can't deconstruct colors, at least with…in this example. There probably is…I don't know. Is there a way? Maybe that was…that was what Cher was singing about? If I could turn back time and then I could find a way, I’d bring the primary colors back to you. I think that’s what she was singing about. Okay, that’s all to set up this Teddy, right? So, Teddy, he didn’t…he was a dreamer, a dreamer…organic, chemistry dreamer. And inorganic chemistry, maybe. But his teacher knew how to focus him.

 

He said, you know what’s gonna be really cool…sure, you can make invisible ink. I don't know, maybe that’s just lemon and something else. Or you can make fizzy stuff. But he told him you can make paint and colors out of these chemicals. He showed Teddy how to make the colors. There was a couple things that Teddy learned, right? He was actually making dye and not paint, kinda like similar…and then he discovered food coloring at home, and then he started to also…okay, I’m only using these particular chemicals. It’s…that’s exciting to me. All of a sudden he’s making all these chemicals. Now, this is a strange story, but in a sleep podcast, we don’t omit needless words, right? So, we don’t omit needless words. So, I’ll put in all the words.

 

So, what Teddy started to do…'cause he was younger, right, and he was a bit of a dreamer. He thought that he really had unlocked practical magic, and this…the fact that this magic was practical was kinda mind-blowing, right, that he could do something with something that looked like one thing and create something else. He didn’t have…so, then he said, well, why…this magic must be transferable, right? ‘Cause he…kids this particular age, they watch a lot…we were raised by television and commercials. So, we have Teddy, our hero, and he believes in magic…the magic of chemistry. So, Teddy was interested in taking this magic that he had learned from chemistry…the chemistry of colors. Holy cow, talk about…no wonder I forgot that I took in class in college called The Chemistry of Art.

 

So, maybe some of this is…some of this magic is latent in my mind. But Teddy was already beyond my collegial level at The Chemistry of Art, 'cause he was using…creating dyes, real dyes. Then he started to learn more from his chemistry professor about these dyes and even mixing stuff and food coloring to make darker and darker dyes. But he wanted to use his magic in a personal way. Not to personalize it, because that word is considered pretentious sometimes, you know? You want to make it good and keep it clean, personal. He wanted to make personal use of this magic. So, he’s like, man, what is the first way I should try? But then he said, isn't that…? He came to one of his siblings and said, do you know what the infinitive is? ‘Cause…does try take the infinitive…?

 

Try and has one…that’s kinda like…has that become an idiom or not? Is it relaxed and acceptable? They said, well, what are you gonna try? He said, I’m going to try to change. They said, well, great. Yeah, that’s part of the…you're not quite at that…I mean, you're changing a little bit, but it’ll be a few…quite a few more years ‘til you'll change in the way you might be thinking. But little did they know that he had something totally different in mind. Now, his imagination was a lot bigger than…kids’ imaginations is kind…can be limitless, right? This is also…in the eighties and nineties, there was less mirrors, at least that I was aware of. So, Teddy didn’t…he had a mirror in his bathroom, but he was…the mirror was also…he’s maybe three-and-a-half, four feet.

 

So, the mirrors weren't…it wasn’t like kids back then were doing a lot of looking in mirrors. Then what happened was somebody else said you and your chemistry…whatever. There was the point where his chemistry, his attachment to it, where he got a little hopeless…he was told this was pointless. Can't you do your homework? What kind of…what, do you think you're gonna grow up…? This is not…your future is not in chemistry sets. It’s in writing out ROYGBIV…you're supposed to write it out in cursive fifty-five times, and you gotta get your cursive…chemistry? You're supposed to be studying cursive writing and spelling. I don't care what chrome…I don't have a desire to know what chromium is. I have a desire to see you write ROYGBIV in cursive.

 

If you want to graduate, whatever, the third grade or the sixth grade, you gotta do what you're told, and apparently you're not. So, poor Teddy went into his garage, and he was a little down. But you know when kids are down and they have big imaginations, they get distracted in a easy way, and he started looking…and as the wall of his garage…when you pull into the garage, there’s shelves where all the old seats of the R to the A to the P…for seasonal stuff was put in boxes in the garage. You would have to climb up the shelves — but they were sturdy, sturdy shelves — and look through the boxes that way. He started going through the boxes, just kinda passing his time on a little adventure. It was just another set of synchronicity that he happened to open a box full of old Halloween costumes.

 

This isn't a Halloween tale, but Halloween is always on the mind of youth, and there’s never a bad time when you're a little kid…I don't know, ages to…whatever, little to sixth grade to find Halloween costumes, especially if you need to be distracted from some work. So, he found…and it’s interesting 'cause we’ve covered this and we’ve run it as a repeat…Ben Cooper Halloween costumes in particular. This one was still in the box, and if old Teddy had kept this thing, I’m sure it would be worth its weight in plastic and vinyl. But this was back before Marvel and all…not before Marvel, but before Marvel movies and all that stuff, and I believe this cosume was someone that was a rival of the webbed…the man of the webs, the great Web Surfer. Peter Parker, he goes…by day, Peter Parker. By night, the Surfer of Webs.

 

I’m pretty sure it was his rival, though it could have been Captain America. Maybe it was. Maybe it was both of their rivals. This was back in the eighties and the nineties. This person was…he was particularly…he was in one of the movies in a different way. His costume was red, and his name was Cherry, old Cherry Rival. Cherry Rival was his name, and Cherry Rival was a costume that one of his older brothers had worn. He started to think about how Cherry Rival looked, and he ran his fingers and hands over the mask, and the vinyl costume really didn’t add much. It was just a picture…but he said, wow, something about the texture of the mask and the color…and he thought about Cherry…he goes, this…Cherry Red would never take cursive. So, he came up with a plan, right?

 

He would become Cherry Red for school the next day, the big…turning in the cursive ROYGBIV. So, right when it’s time to do…right when it’s cursive time, when the clock struck 10:24, time to switch to cursive, he asked to use the restroom. At 10:20…it probably switched at 10:25. He returned to the classroom and he was red, cherry…not quite cherry red; more of like a maroonish red. It didn’t take…this one was…some of the children laughed. The teacher was stunned and she said, okay, better call your parents. The parents said, what happened? He said, well, I became Cherry Red because I don't know if we really…we spend a lot of time on cursive and ROYGBIV. They said, well, now you gotta write in cursive. I’m not Cherry Red.

 

So, that day passed, and it took a while and he returned…he wasn’t Cherry Red much longer. But he still was thinking about this ROYGBIV, too. He said, okay, well, Cherry Red didn’t work. How am I gonna really…? He was looking at his colors, and luckily he had…they had taken his chemistry set away. They said, until you get this love of organic chemistry and colors out of your mind, we're not…no more chemistry set for you. But they didn’t realize he had under…already unlocked the ingredients. So, he didn’t actually need the chemistry set because the colors…a lot of the ingredients were easy to obtain. It’s not like the colors made for unobtainium. So, then he made a couple more attempts. One was…which happened first?

 

Well, the first one was a reaction…a typical kid reaction was like, okay, I’m gonna find a new…I’m gonna go live with my grandparents. While his grandparents weren't named Murphy, there was a lot of red hair in his family. Now, you would classify…most people would classify as orange hair, not red, especially Teddy would. So, that’s interesting; they have orange hair, technically. So, then he took his hair and he dyed it orange. They said, what are you doing? ‘Cause he also got his forehead and his ears and his chin orange. He said, well, I wanted to be a real…I’ll prove that I’m a real Murphy. I’m a Murphy. They said, but you're not a Murphy. Your hair is not red. That’s…you haven't got to…that was another essential part, is learning why people…what the percentage of people’s hair turns red.

 

He said, no. They said, okay. Now, as far as kids go, Teddy was pretty conscientious. He knew…he would…it’s not like he turned everything else red; sometimes the collars of his shirt, but he was pretty good at applying dye to himself. I don't know how…and thinking about it, I say, this kid…they couldn't see this at the time, but, yeah, he did. So, he turned his hair orange. Then he thought about the color orange in more of…now, he happened to live in Syracuse, New York. That’s how I know this tale untold. Particularly in the eighties and the nineties, Syracuse University basketball was particularly a strong importance in young people’s lives. There was a character who would go to the Syracuse University sporting events called the Dome Ranger.

 

Now, if memory serves me, which it doesn't usually serve me very well, the Dome Ranger was probably just a fan, though it could have been a paid character. I don't know. He was someone that kinda reminded me personally of someone from the Federation of…what was the guy? Not Jesse, not Hulk, but…no…but one of those guys that wears tights and dances-off with people, the Worldwide Dancing Federation. He wasn’t really allowed to watch that stuff, either. So, whatever, he idolized this Dome Ranger. Syracuse also had an orange, which was…but so, Teddy looked at the orange and then he thought, man, if I’m orange, I’ll turn myself into the Dome Ranger, like the official orange of the Syracuse University. He turned himself orange, and that one he did a full-body orange.

 

They said, the Dome Ranger is not orange. Okay, if you…at this point his family’s like, if you want to go to school orange, you could go to school orange. He went to school and he introduced himself as the Dome Ranger or the Dome…and then they started saying he was the Dome Ranger Junior. Now, you gotta think about this in some sense…like, at some point, all…he didn’t have the nuance to know that…he started to like this attention, I think, and maybe it had magical properties. It made him different. It showed that…I don't know, maybe you don’t always want to get such great attention like that, but at some point he kind of was like, man, this feels good. This feels like magic, too. In his mind…it’s interesting that he never became an actor, because he was like the Dome Ranger.

 

He was orange and he felt like the Dome Ranger. Then it was almost like an adaptive way to deal with uncertainty. Not necessarily recommended anywhere on Planet Earth, but it worked for him. It was interesting because right after that Dome Ranger…the Dome Ranger moment, as it was known in his family, his grades started to go from Bs and Cs or Is…they would do NI, Needs Improvement, back then. Or he’d get NIs or Satisfactories. They gave grades for cursive writing. Believe it or not, they did. NI; Needs Improvement, or maybe even a U sometimes, Unsatisfactory. Then there was Satisfactory, maybe even Good and Excellent. So, he started to suddenly go from Needs Improvement to Satisfactory to Good. His colors would wear off. So, that was it for the orange.

 

Now, with yellow, you could kinda see where I’m going with this, though. With yellow, he started…this was, again, a seasonal thing. This just happened to be at winter when he was like, well, I guess I could try…he also knew that yellow didn’t quite work. He was like…he was starting to dream bigger than just one thing. He thought about how he changed his hair color, how he changed his body color, and he happened to watch a holiday special. I don't know which one it was. I think it was when Santa and Rudolph team up or…Santa and Rudolph team up to save the world or something like that. There’s this character…these characters called…this character called the Heat Miser, right? He has a twin brother.

 

But this was…the Heat Miser was very colorful in orange, red, and yellow, and also the gradations of those colors together. So, Teddy decided he would become the Heat Miser. It was a particularly popular special at the time, and it even had a song. Actually, by the time he changed himself, which was in the season after Thanksgiving but before Christmas break, he was so good at it — and he had actually developed his own costume and stuff — that they were like, yeah, you could go ahead…you could be in the school holiday special. You'll do a number as the Heat Miser. It was very well received because it was hilarious, and they said, man, that kid looks like the Heat Miser. You know, it was until February or whatever that…took him to like, whatever.

 

I don't even know what happens when you change your…it took a while for him to turn back…well, he actually never did, because then…now, over the holidays what happened was he had a sister that was slightly older than him but still a child, and then a younger brother. This also happened to be during the time of the Smurfs. Wait a second, we forgot about G, though. I guess I skipped over G, huh? ROYGBIV. Okay, so G, I think, was…that one was kinda easy now that I’m thinking about it. But I guess the reason I skipped over it is my own storytelling and stuff. So, there was a holiday, and this is a real holiday in Syracuse; Halfway to St. Patrick’s Day, I think it’s called, which I have no idea when that was. So, I guess I’m getting my…well, no, I was setting the seeds for the blue. But the green was Halfway to St. Patrick’s Day.

 

But I guess it makes more sense, 'cause it was after the holidays. Halfway to St. Patrick’s Day has gotta be during the summer, right? Half of three…three plus six is nine. So, yeah, it was…it was…must have been St. Patrick’s Day. So, St. Patrick’s Day and Halfway to St. Patrick’s Day. There’s…this is a big deal in Syracuse. There’s a tanker truck. Now, I never knew if the beer is actually in the tanker truck, even though I’ve worked at this event as an employee. I definitely worked at Halfway to St. Patrick’s Day and St. Patrick’s Day. So, they have green beer. I know in Chicago they change the river to green and stuff like that and they serve green beer. It looks like it comes in a tanker truck. Maybe it even does. They call it…I think they even call it Green Beer Day, maybe. I don't know. Maybe that’s just something else.

 

So, that one I just kinda forgot about 'cause he said, I’m gonna be green beer. They said, well…and then he…that was frustrating for him because they said, oh, look at the leprechaun. He goes, no, I’m green beer. Then he was like, I’m the boy that…and then they loved that. What do you mean you're…? What…you can't be green beer. You're a kid. Then he said, I’m the boy that swam in the green beer. So, everybody got a good laugh out of that one. But the one that was interest…the two that are interesting to me are the last two, I guess, because the one was like…so, the seed was planted over the holidays, so I guess this must have been in April, May, June. I guess the spring, post-swimming in green beer, a boy’s known to…his head knows to go to certain clouds. This particular boy, Teddy, he was in love with Smurfette.

 

So, Smurfette…so, there was a animated show called The Smurfs. I believe it’s still relevant; there’s been movies. But there was also Smurf toys. His sister and one of his brothers played with a lot of Smurfs. Also, people would collect the Smurfs. They weren't action figures; they were static figures. He loved Smurfette. He did. Smurfette was…she was the apple of his eye. So, this one’s kinda obvious. Surprising; no one saw it coming, but he decided he would become a Smurf. So, first he designed…now, I think the Smurfs, most of them…trying to think if they…they just wear pants, and their pants are…their shoes are built into their pants. I don't know if they wear shirts. Then they have a hat that kinda looks like a mushroom, and they're blue. They're blue and they deal with Azrael and Gargamel. So, he turned blue.

 

Again, he was very…it’s tough to know where…they said, what are you doing? He said, well, I’m gonna marry Smurfette. I’m gonna become a Smurf. They said, but you're a human. Can't you tell the size difference between Gargamel and Smurfette? He said, we’ll find a way to make it work. That’s why I’m blue, so she knows to trust me. Then they said, but do you know it’s a animated…? But they said, this is the kid that became the Heat Miser. So, I don't think he’s gonna know. He was a dreamer and eventually found out that as much as you may love Smurfette, she’s something to strive for…a destination you'll never get to. But he’s…he was down.

 

Then he said, you know…when he was down…and this comes back to…again, these are just things that…when you think about Generation X…he started to…in his latent mind…this isn't his conscious mind working this out. If it was…there was some sort of wisdom to this based on his…the value system he was taught by television and commercials. Like, loving Smurfette…you say, okay, I get it. No one…as different as it was in the time, it fit. So, then he must have thought…and again, I guess some of this is…I’m the tale-teller. Deep down after the Smurfette thing, he was down. He was comfortable at school but…people knew that he was in love with Smurfette, and then his popularity took a hit and his grades went down a little bit. That was the end of the semester, anyway.

 

But he needed some…he wanted to be in the arms of someone like a loving mentor that would hold him. As much as people like me tend to resist that kind of idea, it also holds some sway, right? To just be held in the loving arms of somebody soft and caring, somebody without judgment, somebody that’s always smiling, always seems full of joy, and cheery. Not just to be cared for by them once, but to be a part of that family. He had written this whole alternative thing to Grimace, who was…I want to say Grimace made a comeback this year at the Mets games, maybe? Maybe that’s somebody else. But Grimace is just this…I don't know a lot about Grimace. Grimace is purple, so we got our purple coming up here, and Grimace is…was a sidekick of Ronald McDonald’s or like a friend…it’s tough to say.

 

Grimace is a non-human being. Not sure of Grimace’s backstory at all other than that Grimace hung out with Ronald McDonald. He’s very happy, shaped like a pear, but purple, looked fuzzy and huggable…two arms, two legs, a mouth, always smiling, probably missing some stuff, but that’s Grimace. Interesting name. I mean, I may be mixing them up, but he decided he wanted to be Grimace’s son. I think he had watched enough movies that never quite made it, that this was something that was achievable. Maybe there was other movies like this in the eighties and the nineties…but that he would be Grimace’s son. So, he turned himself purple. Now, this did not work out as well because he started going to McDonalds, and this…at this time, McDonalds usually had a Playland, especially in winter cities.

 

They would have decent-quality playgrounds on the inside or sometimes the outside. But even on the inside, they have a small play structure. They seemed pretty well maintained. It might just be…this might be a myth. But he would go there and ask for Grimace, and they’d say, Grimace is not here, or are you purple, kid? He’d say, I’m Grimace’s son. He made himself a…out of kind of a paper-mache Grimace body, but he was…even somebody was like, are you purple under that outfit, man? Are you with…here with somebody? Is it your birthday party? So, he searched a lot of local McDonalds that he could get to, which were only a few, to be Grimace’s son. That didn’t work out, either.

 

But it was a fateful day because I guess…yeah, this was the spring or the summer, and after his third McDonalds where he realized Grimace isn't real, even though he kinda knew that already, he was walking home, back home, and his outfit was falling apart in the summer heat. But he happened upon this early summer, late-spring field covered in flowers, and he stood at the flowers and something guided him to just lay down in these flowers and rest. He realized…he started to just notice all the different flowers. First he noticed the indigo flowers and the violet flowers, which are actual violets. He said, these must be violets. There was something that shifted in him as he started to see all these colors he had experienced all around him; wildflowers, official flowers with names like violets, maybe there was daffodils.

 

I don't even know. Laying with these flowers, he started to reconnect this organic chemistry to this organic thing that…he just stared at these violets 'cause he had gone through this journey, right, and he had never gotten…luckily he didn’t change himself…I mean, Grimace is purple, somewhere on that spectrum of the BIV. He was just soaking in these violets, absolutely amazed. That’s when he knew that he…now, he didn’t have to change himself into these colors. He could just go out into the world. After that, he started to notice color everywhere. Not just ROYGBIV colors; a huge spectrum of colors. But also, something…he decided to form a institute that…this imaginary institute called the ROYGBIV Institute.

 

He said, one day, within the mind of a podcaster, I’m gonna start a institute that certifies holiday lights or regular lights that follow the ROYGBIV protocol, and light companies will pay us money to be ROYGBIV-certified. The light companies said, just by putting our lights in order? That doesn't…those ones don’t sell as good as…we have our own…no, we’ve done studies. But he had a dream to form the ROYGBIV Institute, and that is…when you hear me refer to it, it’s because of the journey of this lad named Teddy that we have the ROYGBIV Institute today within my mind. So, I hope you could rest in this field of flowers as well, get comfortable, and start to drift off. Goodnight.

 

[END OF RECORDING]

(Transcription performed by LeahTranscribes)

Tales Rarely Told / Trending Tuesday

 

Light Spectrum

https://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/science/toolbox/history_multiwavelength1.html

https://www.synchrotron-soleil.fr/en/videos/history-light-spectrum

https://library.si.edu/exhibition/color-in-a-new-light/science

 

Leprechaun Gold Myth

https://www.celtic-weddingrings.com/celtic-resources/myth-of-the-leprechaun?srsltid=AfmBOorY7FWFtFdYM_MxNi_r9gTfXe90ZuX5gg7cRKThoNRbp_9shS1C

https://historycooperative.org/leprechaun/

​https://mymodernmet.com/what-is-a-leprechaun/

 

Halfway to Saint Patrick’s Day

https://www.syracuse.com/living/2024/03/st-patrick-salt-and-spuds-exploring-syracuses-irish-roots.html

https://www.trapperspizza.com/stpatricks-day-syracuse/

https://www.stbaldricks.org/campaigns/halfway

 

The Dome Ranger

https://cuse.com/sports/2001/8/8/mascot

https://sujuiceonline.com/2021/11/11/orange-watch-memories-of-syracuse-basketball-captured-in-new-big-east-book/

https://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/09/sports/one-way-to-cheer-up-cheer-harder.html?unlocked_article_code=1.n04.P-MH.8XvyvKWyTOgc&smid=url-share

 

DOWN TO BUSINESS

I finally found some RGB lights

Did the guy who wrote Moby Dick have something he chased after?

I forget I don’t have a tail

Dogs can’t shrug their tails

 

PLUGS

Sleep With Me Plus; SleepPhones; Story Only Feed; Rusty Biscuit Links; Emily Tat Artwork; Crisis Textline

 

SPONSORS

Helix Sleep; Zocdoc; Progressive; Acorns; Quince; Mint Mobile

 

INTRO

Seasons

You could be baffled

Separate but Together

Someone else listening can relate to how you feel right now

They hope this podcast is a fit for you

People can feel that mild smile

We need you rested

I hope you find something that works for you

Talkin’ Roy G Biv

What’s the word for words that stand for something?

The boring amount of engaging

Your Boris Boreloff

Explaining the structure in an incredibly inefficient way

A podcast for porpoises

A tale about a boy named Teddy and the discoveries of ROYGBIV

The magic of mixing paint colors

 

STORY

Trending Tuesday Tale Rarely Told

It’s about ROYGBIV tonight

What’s the word for acronym?

What is up with Gen X, man?

Learning was a challenge for anyone trying to teach me

The 1980s Cloud Curriculum was huge

Technical Knowledge of Clouds

I wouldn’t know my altonimbus from my altocumulus nowadays

A Cloud Naming Guide I got for my parents

Playing with Prisms

Plastic vs Glass Prisms

I did find a lookalike Hello Kitty Finial recently

That did not have any prism properties

But learning ROYGBIV was essential

Explaining prisms

Leprechauns also cause prisms

Leprechauns must loathe rainbows

Explaining leprechaun mythology

They’re more dwarven than elvish, I suppose

Is the gold at the right side of the rainbow because most people are right-handed?

Presumably the rainbow creates a portal to where the gold is actually hidden

Leprechauns must love sunshine

Double Rainbow, Double Gold

Shoutout to the Double Rainbow Guy

I can’t remember my mnemonic devices

Red Orange Yellow Green Blue Indigo Violet

What’s up with BIV, eh?

Green, the middle child of the color spectrum

A tale about a boy named Teddy and his relationship to ROYGBIV

Kids used to get chemistry sets as gifts

If someone gave my child daughter a chemistry set nowadays, I’d be miffed

Teddy consulted with his science teacher

Unlocking the Power of Chemistry

Learning about mixing colors

The first experience of using colors to make art

The limitations of crayons and markers

Making colors by actually mixing paints

Teddy’s teacher taught him how to make dyes out of chemistry kit materials

Here, we don’t omit needless words

He really thought he had unlocked practical magic

Modern Day Alchemy, more or less

Teddy believes in the magic of chemistry

Whoa, I just remembered I took a Chemistry of Art class in college

Teddy inquires about the Infinitive

There were less mirrors around in the 80s and 90s

Teddy is trying to change

His teachers want Teddy to refocus his course of study

Teddy is down, but fortunately he has a big imagination

Boxes of C-R-A-P in the garage

Teddy opened a box of old Halloween costumes

He found some old Ben Cooper costumes

A costume worth its weight in plastic and vinyl

The Great Surfer of Webs

Old Cherry Rival

Cherry Red would never take cursive

Teddy would be Cherry Red for Cursive Time

He returned to class as Cherry Red

His chemistry set is confiscated but it’s too late

Teddy wanted to go live with his grandparents

There was a lot of orange hair in his family

Teddy dyed his hair orange

Proving he’s a real Murphy

Teddy happened to live in Syracuse and was obsessed with Syracuse basketball

The Dome Ranger

The Dome Ranger kind of reminded me of the worldwide dancing federation

He claimed to be dressing up as the Dome Ranger, Jr. 

It’s interesting Teddy never became an actor

An Adaptive Way to Deal With Uncertainty

His grades were getting better when he dressed as orange

Then he started with yellow (see where I’m going with this?)

A Holiday special where Santa and Rudolph team up to save the world

The Heatmiser

Dressing up as the Heatmiser

Oops, I forgot G, gotta go back

Halfway Saint Patrick’s Day, a real holiday in Syracuse

A tanker truck full of green beer

Teddy dressed in green as the boy that swam in the green beer

Blue

Teddy was in love with Smurfette

The Smurfs toys were static figures

It’s kind of obvious but no one saw it coming

I think the Smurfs’ shoes are built into their pants

He plans to marry Smurfette to become a Smurf by becoming blue

Smurfette is a destination you’ll never get to

A subconscious mind at work

He needed to be in the arms of a loving mentor

He found that mentorship in Grimace

I feel like Grimace had a comeback last year because of the Mets, maybe?

Shaped like a pear, purple, huggable

Teddy wanted to become Grimace’s son

The decent quality indoor playgrounds of McDonald’s

Asking for Grimace

Papier-Mache Grimace Body

He went to 3 McDonald’s and realized that Grimace isn’t real

Happening upon a blooming spring field

Lying down in a field of flowers

Noticing the indigo flowers and real-life violets

Looking at the colors around him

Reconnecting organic chemistry to organic life

Grimace is somewhere on the spectrum of the BIV

Then he decided to form an institute called the Roy G Biv Institute

An institute to certify holiday lights

And that’s how we came to have that institute in my mind

 

SUMMARY:

Episode: 1347

Title: Roy G Biv | Tales Rarely Told

Plugs: Sleep With Me Plus; SleepPhones; Story Only Feed; Rusty Biscuit Links; Emily Tat Artwork; Crisis Textline

Sponsors: Helix Sleep; Zocdoc; Progressive; Acorns; Quince; Mint Mobile

Notable Language:

• ROYGBIV-Related
• Separate but Together
• Mild Smile
• Acronym
• Technical Knowledge of Clouds
• Hello Kitty Finial
• Unlocking the Power of Chemistry
• The Chemistry of Colors
• C-R-A-P
• Old Cherry Rival
• Cursive Time
• The Heatmiser
• Papier-Mache Grimace Body
• Somewhere on the Spectrum of the BIV
• Roy G Biv-Certified

 

Notable Culture:

• Moby-Dick

• Don Quixote

• • Boris Karloff
  • Henry James
  • Thomas Hardy
  • Double Rainbow Guy

• The Electric Company

• • Radio Shack
  • Spider-Man
  • Captain America
  • Ben Cooper
  • The Dome Ranger
  • Syracuse University
  • Jesse Ventura
  • Hulk Hogan
  • Worldwide Wrestling Federation
  • Santa Claus
  • Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

• The Smurfs

• Halfway Saint Patrick’s Day
• Grimace
• McDonald’s

 

Notable Talking Points:

• Seasons
• You could be baffled
• Separate but Together
• Someone else listening can relate to how you feel right now
• They hope this podcast is a fit for you
• People can feel that mild smile
• We need you rested
• I hope you find something that works for you
• Talkin’ Roy G Biv
• What’s the word for words that stand for something?
• The boring amount of engaging
• Your Boris Boreloff
• Explaining the structure in an incredibly inefficient way
• A podcast for porpoises
• A tale about a boy named Teddy and the discoveries of ROYGBIV
• The magic of mixing paint colors
• Trending Tuesday Tale Rarely Told
• It’s about ROYGBIV tonight
• What’s the word for acronym?
• What is up with Gen X, man?
• Learning was a challenge for anyone trying to teach me
• The 1980s Cloud Curriculum was huge
• Technical Knowledge of Clouds
• I wouldn’t know my altonimbus from my altocumulus nowadays
• A Cloud Naming Guide I got for my parents
• Playing with Prisms
• Plastic vs Glass Prisms
• I did find a lookalike Hello Kitty Finial recently
• That did not have any prism properties
• But learning ROYGBIV was essential
• Explaining prisms
• Leprechauns also cause prisms
• Leprechauns must loathe rainbows
• Explaining leprechaun mythology
• They’re more dwarven than elvish, I suppose
• Is the gold at the right side of the rainbow because most people are right-handed?
• Presumably the rainbow creates a portal to where the gold is actually hidden
• Leprechauns must love sunshine
• Double Rainbow, Double Gold
• Shoutout to the Double Rainbow Guy
• I can’t remember my mnemonic devices
• Red Orange Yellow Green Blue Indigo Violet
• What’s up with BIV, eh?
• Green, the middle child of the color spectrum
• A tale about a boy named Teddy and his relationship to ROYGBIV
• Kids used to get chemistry sets as gifts
• If someone gave my child daughter a chemistry set nowadays, I’d be miffed
• Teddy consulted with his science teacher
• Unlocking the Power of Chemistry
• Learning about mixing colors
• The first experience of using colors to make art
• The limitations of crayons and markers
• Making colors by actually mixing paints
• Teddy’s teacher taught him how to make dyes out of chemistry kit materials
• Here, we don’t omit needless words
• He really thought he had unlocked practical magic
• Modern Day Alchemy, more or less
• Teddy believes in the magic of chemistry
• Whoa, I just remembered I took a Chemistry of Art class in college
• Teddy inquires about the Infinitive
• There were less mirrors around in the 80s and 90s
• Teddy is trying to change
• His teachers want Teddy to refocus his course of study
• Teddy is down, but fortunately he has a big imagination
• Boxes of C-R-A-P in the garage
• Teddy opened a box of old Halloween costumes
• He found some old Ben Cooper costumes
• A costume worth its weight in plastic and vinyl
• The Great Surfer of Webs
• Old Cherry Rival
• Cherry Red would never take cursive
• Teddy would be Cherry Red for Cursive Time
• He returned to class as Cherry Red
• His chemistry set is confiscated but it’s too late
• Teddy wanted to go live with his grandparents
• There was a lot of orange hair in his family
• Teddy dyed his hair orange
• Proving he’s a real Murphy
• Teddy happened to live in Syracuse and was obsessed with Syracuse basketball
• The Dome Ranger
• The Dome Ranger kind of reminded me of the worldwide dancing federation
• He claimed to be dressing up as the Dome Ranger, Jr. 
• It’s interesting Teddy never became an actor
• An Adaptive Way to Deal With Uncertainty
• His grades were getting better when he dressed as orange
• Then he started with yellow (see where I’m going with this?)
• A Holiday special where Santa and Rudolph team up to save the world
• The Heatmiser
• Dressing up as the Heatmiser
• Oops, I forgot G, gotta go back
• Halfway Saint Patrick’s Day, a real holiday in Syracuse
• A tanker truck full of green beer
• Teddy dressed in green as the boy that swam in the green beer
• Blue
• Teddy was in love with Smurfette
• The Smurfs toys were static figures
• It’s kind of obvious but no one saw it coming
• I think the Smurfs’ shoes are built into their pants
• He plans to marry Smurfette to become a Smurf by becoming blue
• Smurfette is a destination you’ll never get to
• A subconscious mind at work
• He needed to be in the arms of a loving mentor
• He found that mentorship in Grimace
• I feel like Grimace had a comeback last year because of the Mets, maybe?
• Shaped like a pear, purple, huggable
• Teddy wanted to become Grimace’s son
• The decent quality indoor playgrounds of McDonald’s
• Asking for Grimace
• Papier-Mache Grimace Body
• He went to 3 McDonald’s and realized that Grimace isn’t real
• Happening upon a blooming spring field
• Lying down in a field of flowers
• Noticing the indigo flowers and real-life violets
• Looking at the colors around him
• Reconnecting organic chemistry to organic life
• Grimace is somewhere on the spectrum of the BIV
• Then he decided to form an institute called the Roy G Biv Institute
• An institute to certify holiday lights
• And that’s how we came to have that institute in my mind