He stood in front of the mirror admiring his new jacket.
It was a beautiful midnight blue with silver buttons at the front and one on the cuff of each sleeve. He had looked at it in the shop window every time he passed, all the time he was saving up for it. Now, he was ready to go out and catch up with half a dozen of his friends in town. He was sure this would create quite an impression. They met up at the coffee shop, as usual, and in no time at all the conversation focussed on his latest purchase.
“It’s a great jacket,” said one, “I’ll give you that, but I wouldn’t call it blue exactly.”
“You wouldn’t?
“No. Not really. I see a great deal of green in it, myself.”
“Green? Surely not.”
“Green is what I see, sorry.”
He looked around at the others, expectantly.
Another said, “There is a touch of purple in it, but personally I don’t see the green.”
A third person said, “Well, what I see is turquoise. I agree there’s green there, but it’s in equal proportions to the blue.”
“Yes, I agree,” said another. “Although I would describe it as more of a cyan than turquoise.”
Now exasperated, he looked at his friends and asked, “Anyone else think this jacket is anything other than blue?”
“Well, since you ask,” Said another, “I can see that it’s blue…”
“At last!” he said. “Someone can see that it’s blue.”
“No. That’s not what I was going to say.”
The jacket owner frowned.
“What I was going to say was, I can see that it’s blue, but it gives the general appearance of being… well, magenta, I think.”
“Magenta? What’s that?”
“It’s blue, but with a light hint of red.”
“Red! You have to be kidding!”
They all began sniggering.
“Yes, I am, actually. We all are.”
The owner of the new jacket looked perplexed.
They all broke into friendly laughter.
“We knew you were going to get it; knew you were saving for it. We’ve all seen it in the shop window. It’s really great.”
He looked around with raised eyebrows. They were all nodding.
“You’ll be pleased to know that we think it’s a very nice shade of midnight blue!”