From: PAPAI@kcgl1.eng.ohio-state.edu (Jonathan Papai)
Subject: Re: Strange Brews (was Re: Passionfruit and Spam)
Organization: The Ohio State University
 <1992Dec11.011746.1@violet.ccit.arizona.edu>
Distribution: world,local
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1992 07:07:47 GMT


	In the interest of research, I posted the following
exchange to the fine folks over at soc.culture.japan, who I
figured might know a little about the topic.  I never had found
"violinist" = "midori" in any translation dic. as greg franklin
claimed:  here is the original message:


......................................................

From: f67700241@violet.ccit.arizona.edu (Greg Franklin)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Strange Brews (was Re: Passionfruit and Spam)

In article <1992Dec10.041538.9563@grebyn.com>, sgs@grebyn.com (Stephen G. Smith) writes:
>In article <4702.434.uupcb@ehbbs.gwinnett.com> harris.minter@ehbbs.gwinnett.com (Harris Minter)  writes:
>
> |>	That's why I drink Midori!  Midori, for this who don't know is a
> |>very tasty melon liqueur (sp?), in an astounding nuclear bright-GREEN color.
> |>I happen to like the taste of this stuff, but nothing compares to the look
> |>on people's faces when you drink this liquid that looks like antifreeze
> |>(antifreeze is green, right?).  Also good as a "Green Russian" with vodka
>
> Then there's always Blue Curacao, a liqueor that is a color that might
> be described as "Tyd-e Bowl Blue".  Used for drinks with names like
> "smurf juice" and "transmission fluid".

I suppose I will have to run through this one more time...the liqueur
called Midori (which means "violinist" in Japanese) is very similar in
color to the famed Desert Storm Cola, which you can probably find in
old Kyoto in one of those side-street vending machines.

The can is camouflage-colored, the cola is a bright green, and the
fizz....well, it's not exactly napalm, but it's strong.  It wasn't
as bad as some of the "fruit-juice" flavored stuff I had over there.
--
...................................................................



>>>>>>>>>>>James Liu takes umbrage at the term "Nuclear green".


From: jcliu@four-lab4.Berkeley.EDU (James C. Liu)

>>
>> |>	That's why I drink Midori!  Midori, for this who don't know is a
>> |>very tasty melon liqueur (sp?), in an astounding nuclear bright-GREEN color

Just to clarify, Cerenkov (spelling?) radiation due to streaming of
relativistic electrons from radioactive decay in water radiates in the
BLUE spectrum.  Perhaps the addition of alcohol changes the frequency of
emission. :-)

Jaa, James
=======================================================================
James C. Liu |    nuclear engineering KARAOKE Addict!                 |
=======================================================================



>>>>>>>>>>>Makoto Shimojima lets us know that midori does not mean
"violinist"


From: mako@uihepa.hep.uiuc.edu ("Makoto Shimojima, Univ of Tsukuba/CDF")

>                                                           the liqueur
> called Midori (which means "violinist" in Japanese) is...

The word "Midori" has nothing to do with the word "violinist" except
that there is a young, and quite famous, Japanese violinist named
Midori Gotou, or just "Midori".

Midori in general means green, of course. Violinist is baiorinist,
baiorin-sousha, or baiorin-hiki.
						mako
....................................................................


>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Henry Robertson spreads some folklore about why
some Japanese don't have seperate words for blue and green.



From: robohen@ocf.berkeley.edu (Henry Robertson)

Midori is a color that is recognized only in postwar Japan.  Before that,
the poor diet of Japanese caused mass color blindness between blue and
green :).  This is why they still insist that their signals are red,
yellow, and blue.  As for the case of the violin prodigy, is that her
real name, or for the green bow in her hair that brings out the hazel
flecks in her half-ish eyes so well?

She performed here the other day, actually.  I have known several other
lesser violin-dwarves in my time, but the problem is that stage presence
has an inverse proportionality to age, an increasing factor.

...............................................................


>>>>>>>>>>>>Yoichi II doesn't buy Henry's explanation for
Japanese vocabulary peculiarities.


From: yoichi@carson.u.washington.edu (Yoichi Ii)

I don't know about the "poor diet" bit but it is true that older people
don't seem to distinguish ao(blue) and midori(green).  To them both are
ao.  It's not to say that they are incapable of distinguishing the colors.
My grandfather knows "green" but he doesn't bother to give two colors
different names.  Phrase like "ao ao to shita kusaki" (verdant greenery)
seems to indicate that this ao-midori thing goes deeper.  Also there's
(at least) two kanjis for ao.

>This is why they still insist that their signals are red, yellow, and blue.

If you look at it closely, the "green" light in Jp traffic light is indeed
blue.  Also the lights are always aligned in horizontal fashion.

>As for the case of the violin prodigy, is that her real name, or for
>the green bow in her hair that brings out the hazel flecks in her
>half-ish eyes so well?

Well, you know, a beautiful, long, flowing black hair is sometimes
described as "Midori no kuro-kami" ("The green, black hair").  Honest!
I'm not making this up!

>She performed here the other day, actually.  I have known several other
>lesser violin-dwarves in my time, but the problem is that stage presence
>has an inverse proportionality to age, an increasing factor.

She looks young, but how old is she exactly? 20?
....................................................................


>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Greg manages to find that his article has been
stolen and posted to s.c.japan, and objects to my
characterization of his vocabulary knowledge



From: f67700241@violet.ccit.arizona.edu (Greg Franklin)


How dare Jonathan call me uninformed!  All for lack of a :-).  Furrfu.

I posted the original article on alt.folklore.urban as newbie bait,
because the denizens there are very tolerant of such practices.  It
was a joke, of course .... I know the meaning of "midori," and I
never would have attempted to post the same stuff here.

All the same, Japan does have some strange beverages, many more than
in the U.S.  Why does Japan's beverage industry have so many brands?
Do they really have that much money?
--
................................................................


So we have two or three UL's floating around above:

1) Nuclear green is a misnomer, or James can't tell green from
blue.

2) Older Japanese don't use "midori" but stick to "ao" for both
blue and green, perhaps due to poor diet-colorblindness.

3) Japanese do drink weird beverages, but would rather not talk
about it.

4) Greg Franklin has a very esoteric idea of "newbie bait".

ObUL: Japanese has at least one word for snow, "yuki."

ObUL2: Cerenkov radiation hitting the atmosphere causes
it to be blue

Jon "R O Y B B I V" Papai