Catching up on a year’s worth of National Geographic magazines is one of my usual holiday activities. Here are some interesting color facts from the July 1999 issue.

• To satisfy German preference, egg producers in that country feed chickens marigold petals and paprika to darken the yolks.
• Men in the U.S. respond most strongly to reds with yellow mixed in. Women prefer blue-based reds. (Remember this next time you’re picking a lipstick. Hmm I keep buying blue-based nail polishes. Maybe that’s my problem.)
• In 1985 the courts allowed Owens Corning to trademark pink for their Fiberglas insulation. However, Nutrasweet was denied the right to trademark pastel blue for their Equal packets (so, what if they had colored the Equal itself blue?).