STALK OF THE CELERY MONSTER

Stalk of the Celery Monster is a 1979 short animated film written, directed and animated entirely by Tim Burton during his time as a student with Cal Arts. The film caused such a stir among his class, which included future Pixar director John Lasseter, that it attracted the attention of Disney, who offered the young Burton a position as animator for their studio.

NEW YORK TIMES CROSSWORD PUZZLE of Monday, April 9, 2007 -- COMMENTS FROM AN OUTPOST:

DONALD: "Forest fires", "pine sap" and "avocado pits" are not green, nor are "pea soups" (how about fog or black-eyed) or "olive branches" (gold laurels) necessarily. Celery stalks are, but "celery" is not a shade of green. So, "It's not easy being green!" My vote for the GREEN OSCAR award goes to -- who else, green Oscar on Sesame Street!

ANONYMOUS: Donald, celery is a shade of green

As are pine green, forest green, pea green, avocado green, and olive green. Many themes hinge, as this one does, on the first or last word in each theme entry rather than the entire phrase.

DONALD: I know all that -- however, you may also wish to enlighten Wikipedia about "celery" green, which is obviously a rather new commercial tag for an already-named green -- just has a better ring to it! Officially, however, I can find no reference in any dictionary or the like to a shade of green called "celery". I read "the starts" notation, of course, but one must admit it is rather odd that none of answers including "start" is a green thing except CELERY STALKS and "celery" is not in any dictionary I have consulted including my own gargantuan Websters Third New International Dictionary Unabridged. One does find references on Google to pillow cases, sheets and home furnishings on E-Bay and other commercial sites, but no official reference in the English language with which I have conferred lists "celery" as an official shade of green. Do quote me an official reference, as I am happy to be wrong when the other guy is right! Oh, don't you just love all the references to orangeness over the past week -- flaming, flame, flame war, now forest fire! Things are getting hot! I have not prfoeaord this comment.

ANONYMOUS : Seems to me CELERY is just as much a color as are BISCUIT and ALMOND. Gosh, its almost lunchtime here, and I am salivating like Pavlov's dog. How dull would our lives be if we could only see and speak in primary colors and their qualifiers . As a language lover, I'd rather someone describe them to me as sage, celadon, chartreuse, absinthe, jade, moss, mint, serpentine, or yes, even olive or avocado!

ANONYMOUS: Celery doesn't need to be in the dictionary to be considered a color—hell, just leaf (leaf green!) through a few clothing catalogs and you'll probably run across it. The New Yorker recently had an article about the maven of commercial color trends, and wasabi green (and all related bright, light green shades) were the last big trend. The NYT does cover fashion in the style section, so clothing and paint colors that aren't in the dictionary ought to be fair game for the crossword.

DONALD: Oh, like the emperor's new clothes or the Pope's infallibility. What a wonderful world is the crossword world, rules for no rules and no rules for rules, a veritable Charles Lutwidge Dodgson a priori!

ANONYMOUS: Every leaf of every stalk of celery I have ever eaten was green, and every piece of celery I have ever eaten has been a nice, light shade of green on the ribs (except, of course, at the wide end where it fades to a very bleached, almost translucent, shade).

ANONYMOUS: What color is your celery?

ANONYMOUS: Maybe it is a list of things that simply are green: A forest are green, A pine is green, A pea is green, An avacodo is green, An olive is green (unless it is black), A celery stalk is green.

ANONYMOUS: A forest is partly green. A pine is partly green. Peas are many colors. An avacodo is green and its pit brown. Olives, yes, both black and green. A celery stalk is green. A forest fire is many colors. Pine sap is transparent amber. Pea soup (like fog) is what -- pea soup depends on the color of the pea used. An avacodo pit is brown. A celery stalk is green. No one is debating the color of a celery stalk. It's undebatable that it's debatable that the use of celery as a "color" is in the same category. Perhaps the confusion arises from the definition of "celadon" which is defined as a delicate green (or a tender lover) and as a pale grayish green, whereas "celery" is defined as a biennial plant of the parsley family whose long, crisp leaf-like stalks are eaten as a vegetable.

ANONYMOUS: A tisket, a tasket A celery-colored basket, I left a comment on this blog, And someone lost a gasket!

ANONYMOUS: I don't see any problem with the theme. The starts of the theme answers are all types of green.

ANONYMOUS: HTML Color NamesThe following is a list of the color names that are supported by all major browsers:Alice Blue, Antique White, Aqua, Aquamarine, Azure, Beige, Bisque, Black, Blanched Almond, Blue, Blue Violet, Brown, Burly Wood, Cadet Blue, Chartreuse, Chocolate, Coral, CornflowerBlue, Cornsilk, Crimson, Cyan, DarkBlue, DarkCyan, DarkGoldenRod, DarkGray, DarkGrey, DarkGreen, DarkKhaki, DarkMagenta, DarkOliverGreen, DarkOrange, DarkOrchid, Dark Red, DarkSalmon, DarkSeaGreen, DarkSlateBlue, DarkSlateGray, DarkSlateGrey, DarkTurquoise, DarkViolet, DeepPink, DeepSkyBlue, DimGray, DimGrey, DodgerBlue, FireBrick, FloralWhite, ForestGreen, Fuchsia, Gainsborg, GhostWhite, Gold, GoldenRod, Gray, Grey, Green, GreenYellow, HoneyDew, HotPink, IndianRed, Indigo, Ivory, Khaki, Lavender, LavenderBlush, LawnGreen, LemonChiffon, LightBlue, LightCoral, LightCyan, LightGoldenRodYellow, Light Gray, LightGrey, LightGreen, LightPink, LightSalmon, LightSeaGreen, LightSkyBlue, LightSlatGray, LightSlateGrey, LightSteelBlue, LightYellow, Lime, LimeGreen, Linen, Magenta, Maroon, MediumAquaMarine, MediumBlue, MediumOrchid, MediumPurple, MediumSeaGreen, MediumSlateBlue, MediumSpringGreen, MediumTurquoise, MediumVioletRed, MidnightBlue, MintCream, MistyRose, Moccasin, NavajoWhite, Navy, OldLace, Olive, OliveDrab, Orange, OrangeRed, Orchid, PaleGoldenRod, PaleGreen, PaleTurquoise, PaleVioletRed, PapayaWhip, PeachPuff, Peru, Pink, Plum, PowerBlue, Purple, Red, RosyBrown, RoyalBlue, SaddleBrown, Salmon, SandyBrown, SeaGreen, SeaShell, Sienna, Silver, SkyBlue, SlateBlue, SlateGray, SlatGrey, Snow, SpringGreen, SteelBlue, Tan, Teal, Thistle, Tomato, Turquoise, Vilet, Wheat, White, WhiteSmoke, Yellow, YellowGreen

ANONYMOUS: http://www-swiss.ai.mit.edu/~jaffer/Color/M.htm

ANONYMOUS: Who would have thought that GREEN would inspire such output in the photosphere

ANONYMOUS: To those who have posted lists of colors:There is no data incumbent or intrinsic in your posts to suggest that these lists are either consistent or complete. And if you thought there were, you may wish to consult the work of Kurt Godel. Follows a comment provided by Frank J. Welte, University of Massachusetts Medical School:It is now believed that humans can perceive on the order of millions of colors. Most estimates are around 10 million. This makes sense when we consider, for example, computer monitors: We notice a difference when we switch from "thousands" to "millions" of colors. Millions in this case corresponds to 2 to the 24th power —or 16,777,216—colors for a 24-bit display. Of course, this simple test only tells us that we can see more than "thousands" of colors, but it doesn't give us an upper limit. According to Kandel et al, "The superiority of color perception over brightness perception is evident in the fact that we can discriminate only 500 gradations of brightness but we can discriminate more than 7 million gradations of color."Or, as my daddy always said, "Just 'cuz you can't find it, don't mean it don't exist."

DONALD: Stalk of the Celery Monster is a 1979 short animated film written, directed and animated entirely in pencil by Tim Burton during his time as a student with Cal Arts. The film caused such a stir among his class, which included future Pixar director John Lasseter, that it attracted the attention of Disney, who offered the young Burton a position as animator for their studio.

ANONYMOUS: And according to imdb, if you enjoyed Stalk of the Celery Monster, they also recommend Doctor of Doom, The World of Stainboy and Frankenweenie. Ho-kay!

ANONYMOUS; I guess all those years of being green really took their toll on Kermit. Poor little feller.(Note: Don't click that link if you're offended by Muppet debauchery.)