BEST EVER: Browser-Safe Color Palette

Not so much nowadays, but years ago web designers generally tried to stick to the 216 so-called "browser-safe" colors. The idea was to get color constancy across all computer/browser platforms.

Naming these "safe" colors involved a limited set of hexadecimal digits -- 3, 6, 9, C and F -- paired together to represent increasing intensities of Red, Green, and Blue on the monitor. For instance, to get pure red you could specify "#FF0000" in hex, or "RGB(255,0,0)" or even "Red" in English. However, for red with a touch more purple, there was no commonly agreed-upon color name, so you'd have to say, e.g., "#FF0033."

Many folks came up with more or less "logical" arrangements of these 216 browser- or "web safe" colors. Most of them annoying. What you wanted to see were all the related colors together in progression of hues, values and chromas. Light to dark, and from ROY G. to BIV, rainbow-wise, right?

I have no idea why, but to the best of my knowledge, nobody else has ever come up with the arrangement you see above. I created it for my own benefit a long time ago and over the years it's served me well. Mia culpa for not publishing it sooner, I suppose.

In any case, to create it, I began with the "hex" data values for all the colors. And -- go figure -- they all fell nicely into place on a hexagonal grid -- with a few exceptions. The finesse comes in dealing those few that don't. The outliers are clearly related to colors inside the "nice" area, and would also arrange nicely if only they could float into the third dimension. What soon becomes evident is that you're trying to present as a flat chart something that is actually a color ball. (Yes, yes, CIE and Munsell solids, blah, etc. blah.)

I've fiddled with it a lot, and it can't be easily done. Hence all those objectionable alternatives out there. However, the result above is -- IMHO -- the least annoying and most useful arrangement possible.

I suppose if enough requests come in, I could put up my Adobe Illustrator-based interactive version that lets you turn labels, grid-lines, and color groups, etc. on and off. I also have a pure CSS version that works fine in Firefox and Safari. But, since most of the world is under the standards-busting thumb of a certain Evil Empire, I didn't want to be bothered with complaints from the hopelessly benighted.

BEST EVER: Pizza Crust

This recipe is based on one passed along by friends Gail Irene Sutherland and Richard Woodland. Note that the specification of 3/4 cup of olive oil is not a misprint! Trust me. It is really, really good. I mean, why would you ever bother making pizza completely from scratch? Answer: because it's worth it!

Ingredients:

CRUST:

[ ] White flour, 3-1/2 cups

[ ] Warm water, 1-1/4 cups

[ ] "Rapid Rise" yeast, 2 packets

[ ] Sugar, 1/4 teaspoon

[ ] Salt, 1 teaspoon

[ ] Olive oil, 3/4 cup

TOPPINGS:

[ ] Whatever you like; see suggestions, below

Directions:

• Preheat oven to WARM or lowest setting.
• To the warm water, add sugar and stir in yeast. Let it stand a few minutes to ensure it's working (i.e., it foams as yeast grows. If yeast is inactive, pizza will be a dud. Old yeast, water too hot or too cold will cause problems -- if it's a dud, start over).
• In a large mixing bowl, add yeast mixture to flour, stir together gently.
• Add salt and olive oil, stir together and then knead into dough. No need to over-knead!
• Soak a dishtowel and wring it out, leaving it moist, and stretch towel to cover the opening of the bowl containing the dough.
• Turn OFF oven. Put covered bowl into warm (not hot) oven for 1/2 hour.
• Take bowl out of oven. Turn oven ON again to low heat.
• Uncover bowl, punch down dough to remove all air. Fold a few times, punch down as necessary. Again soak dishtowel, wring, and cover bowl.
• Again turn OFF oven. Put covered bowl into warm (not hot) oven for 1/2 hour.
• Take bowl out of oven. Turn oven ON -- pre-heat to 400 deg. F.
• Lightly coat a pizza pan or cookie sheet with olive oil.
• In bowl, punch down dough, then stretch out in thin layer (approx. 1/8-1/4 inch) on pizza pan or cookie sheet.
• Bake dough by itself for 15 min. @ 400 deg. F. (This prevents soggy middles if you load up your pizza with lots of yummy, juicy stuff.)
• Take partially cooked dough out of oven, top with (e.g.,) commercial spaghetti sauce, sliced pre-cooked mushrooms, cheese, etc., etc. -- whatever turns you on.
• Bake for approx 15 min. more, until edge of crust is golden brown. (Ovens vary -- Don't let crust, cheese or toppings burn.)
• Remove from oven, let cool for a minute, slice, enjoy!

* * *

TIPS: You can use regular (slow) yeast if you want; it just takes twice as long (one hour versus half an hour) to rise. Also, once you've mastered the basics, a zillion variations are possible! E.g.,

PIZZA MEXICALI

...(as above, but also...)

• Before adding yeast mixture to flour, stir into flour 1/2 cup chili powder! (Yee-ee Haw!)
• Top pizza with your favorite tomato sauce, more chili powder, "Bullseye" brand Bar-B-Q sauce, sliced green beans, baby corn, fresh tomato slices, black olives, shredded mozzarella + cheddar + monterey jack cheeses. (YUM! YUM! YUM!)