Color commentary

When I was a kid I remember it being really important to know what my favorite color was. Why exactly this consumed me as it did is somewhat puzzling, looking back. I guess it was the 6-year-old version of "how's the weather", the icebreaker one uses before hitting the swing set.

Anyway, I remember going through several phases:

• Red. Probably because of fire trucks.
• Orange. I'm not sure I ever really liked orange that much, but red was soooo 1981.
  
• Blue. This was my brother's favorite for a long time, so it couldn't be mine until he switched.
• White. I made that one up just to annoy people who asked. Then they'd say, "white's not a color." And I'd said, "is so." And they'd say, "is not." And I'd say, "Black's not a color, but white is all colors." Those were the days.
  
• Mauve. Because very few people, in my limited sampling group, had the faintest idea what that was. And if they did, all the better. (Only in adult life did I learn that mauve had historical homosexual overtones.)
  

So now what's my favorite color? I really haven't given it sufficient thought recently. I wouldn't want to commit to just one -- I feel some empathy for the Monty Python knight who was cast into the chasm. I wonder what that part of my brain that, as a child, was responsible for always knowing what my favorite color was, is being used for now (assuming it hasn't been killed off or atrophied, which is equally likely).

While I'm on the colour topic -- there aren't really that many songs about rainbows. That's always bothered me, from a logical standpoint.