Friends — Margaret moved that we open with the Umbria postcards. We opened with the Umbria postcards. Janusz cried a little, which he says he is fine about. Tonight's history block is brought to us by Edgar. — R.

Resolved, after some warm shouting, that the pigment IS named for Umbria — the Roman province, the hills above the Tiber — and not for Latin umbra (shade), though the two have been holding hands across centuries and we should let them. The earth there is iron-rich, manganese-rich; you bake it and get burnt umber, which is the brown of every Dutch interior you have ever loved.

I move we formally recognize BISTRE — soot of beechwood, boiled, strained, mixed with gum — as the brown that drew most of Rembrandt's quick sketches. Seconded by Hal. Carried 7–0, two abstentions on grounds of "personal preference for sepia." We will revisit sepia at the November convening as previously noted.

Old English had no single word for brown until roughly the 9th c. It had words for the brown of a hare, the brown of beer, the brown of a chestnut horse — each a separate noun. We lost eleven browns and gained one. The committee held thirty seconds of respectful quiet for the eleven.