Garnering Insight: There’s something about brown

By Phil Cobb | October 20, 2023 |

While elected federal officials on both sides of the aisle are losing their ever-loving minds in the nation’s capital, I was pondering early the other morning while having a cup of coffee like I do every morning about all of the nonsense going on in the world. While looking out over the back 40, sipping my java as the leaves start to change colors to brown, orange and yellow I was struck by the fact how much I love the color brown and it set my mind to wander.

According to many studies, the color brown can make us feel warm, comfortable and safe. Not sure if any of that actually applies to me because it’s not so much the color brown that I am fond of, but it is the many, many things that are brown in color that I absolutely love and they generally aren’t that healthy for me.

Let me count the things that I absolutely love that are brown. Well for starters let’s talk about that wonderfully distilled brown nectar — bourbon. Boy, oh boy do I enjoy me a glass of that devil’s water. Then there’s coffee, can’t do without that either. How about brown’s amber cousin the fermented hoppy cold beverage known as beer.

Don’t even get me started on bacon and sausage. There is also peanut butter, pretzels, and pretzels with peanut butter, chocolate, steaks, honey, pecans, bagels, soda, tea, brown sugar and much, much more. Cooked food, if you watch any cooking shows, the tagline “golden, brown and delicious” is often used – just think tasty fried chicken or a fish fry.

What more proof do you need? Well, here’s one Charlie Brown. Honestly, who doesn’t love the adorable loser of Peanuts?

The look of stained woodwork. The dirt on your hands after a day’s work in the garden. Dress shoes, boots and belts are often brown.

I even like the songs Bad, Bad Leroy Brown by Jim Croce, Brown Sugar by the Rolling Stones and the classic Charlie Brown by The Coasters.

The list of things associated with brown that are great goes on and on.

So you may be wondering what is the point of this diatribe? I guess nothing really. So as all of our fearless leaders try to come up with another reason to battle each other and pretend to make the country a better place I’ll just have another glass of bourbon or another cup of coffee and contemplate the serious issues of the world like the color brown.

Ken Garner is the owner and publisher of The Maryville Forum and The Post.