Orange
<
I used to spend far too much time playing the game of
Acrophobia on irc (Internet Relay Chat). If you enjoy practicing your verbal, creative side and
you either have heaps of free time or you're a complete masochist like myself 
,
then I highly recommend it as the best game the irc has to offer.
On #acro, I went by the nick O`Range (not O'Range, because such a nickname is impossible on irc. The use of a real apostrophe in a nick is forbidden, for some technical reason).
Before that, I used to be Orange, but some infernal pest used the same nick when I needed it the most. Rather than harass an innocent irc dweller I decided to improve on what I already had, and went Irish. It is still pronounced Orange, however.
Why Orange, you ask? Well, it was all very subconscious... when I chose the nick in April 1995,
I believed at first that I chose it at random. Well, partially at random, but partially inspired
by Anthony Burgess' novel, A Clockwork Orange. Actually I initially wanted
a nick like Frodo or Gandalf, but these were not only being used at the time, but they are
very common irc nicknames.
Later, I realized that the nick carried more significance than I originally thought. For one thing,
I was born in East Orange, New Jersey. Secondly, there was a time in my life
when Orange was my favorite color, for some reason.
Furthermore, and most importantly, the word Orange carries the honorable distinction
of having no other single word in the English language that rhymes.
No? You don't believe me? Well, okay, "porridge" comes close, but no cigar. I do not
mean close rhymes, like in modern pop songs that try to rhyme "The Terminator" with
"Arnold Swarzenegger." If you can think of a single, non-proper-noun word that rhymes with Orange (perfectly)
then please
let me know
.
Here are some efforts that have been made to find rhymes for Orange. Sadly, but yet still entertaining,
they all resorted to multiple words and proper nouns.
The fóur eng-
Ineers
Wear órange
Brassieres.
--Willard R. Espy
Local Note In Sparkill buried lies that man of mark
Who brought the Obelisk to Central Park,
Redoubtable Commander H. H. Gorringe,
Whose name supplies the long-sought rhyme
for 'orange'.
--Arthur Guiterman, in Gaily the Troubador
I gave my darling child a lemon,
That lately grew its fragrant stem on;
And next, to give her pleasure more range
I offered her a juicy orange,
And nuts--she cracked them in the door-hinge.
--Author unknown.
If anyone asks you what the three words "purple", "silver", and "orange" have in common besides being colors, remember to answer that they are all words with which no other word in the English dictionary rhymes. Another rhyme-less word is "month."
