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Gray is a color too.

Today it rained which may surprise anyone who expected it to snow. And because it rained, the sky was gray. Or grey depending on how you look at it. It certainly seems like there should be room on the color palate for both. You know, white, gray, grey, black, sort of like blue, blue-green, green-blue, green. Think of all the words there are for blue. Navy, Azure, Ultramarine, Cobalt, Sapphire. And what other words do we get for gray? (You're not allowed to google it, and you're not allowed to follow it by the word "gray", eg. "pearl gray" because people also say "pearl white" whereas no one says "Sapphire yellow" even though it's possible for sapphires to be yellow. ) All I'm saying is give gray-grey a chance.

Anyway, the second thing that resulted from the rain is that I didn't go to visit any estate agents about apartments. I did however meet a number of women in my new office who offered to drive me to visit apartments and who made me promise not to commit to anything until I had discussed it with them and they had approved the neighborhood.

Take Slough for instance. Slough is off limits. Being the setting for the UK version of The Office does not redeem it from its industrialized appearance and largely immigrant population. But the prejudice is hardly new. John Betjeman wrote the following in 1937 about the industrialization of Slough:

Come friendly bombs and fall on Slough!
It isn't fit for humans now,
There isn't grass to graze a cow.
Swarm over, Death!
And of course, the name always makes me think of Pilgrim's Progress : "It is the low ground where the scum and filth of a guilty conscience, caused by conviction of sin, continually gather, and for this reason it is called the Slough of Despond."

However, Betjeman later regretted having written the poem and according to BBC News:
Slough council points out that - contrary to its grey image - the town has 42 parks and open spaces plus an ice skating arena where Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean once trained.
And if open space and an ice arena can't bump you from grey to gray, I don't know what can!

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