You wait ages for a good skeuomorph to arrive, and two come along at once.
I blogged about this a bit yesterday. See
Help me invent a career-making shoddy little neologism! Something with skeuomorphs
The crucial quote, from Jay Owens’ book Dust, is here
“For two centuries, London’s buildings were black. Blanketed in sulphurous soot from coal fires – the famous London “pea souper” fogs – a thin layer of carbon coated every surface in the city. London was so dirty that there was no memory that it might ever have been any other way. During the restoration of 10 Downing Street in 1954, it was discovered that the familiar dark facade was not actually black at all, but originally yellow brick. The shock was considered too much for the country to take and the newly clean building was painted black to maintain its previous, familiar appearance.”
Okay, well, today my aged mother (how can I be so young?) asked who owned the Financial Times. I was pretty sure it had been Pearson and was now Nikkei (yes). But looking at the Wikipedia page, this leapt out.
“On 2 January 1893 the FT began printing on light pink paper to distinguish it from the similarly named Financial News: at the time, it was also cheaper to print on unbleached paper (several other more general newspapers, such as The Sporting Times, had the same policy), but nowadays it is more expensive as the paper has to be dyed specially.”
It’s really the same story, isn’t? Technology advances, but if it is going to change the appearance of something that has long been accepted as a certain way, then regardless of ‘authenticity’ (original building colour) or ‘naturalness’ (unbleached paper), very purposive action will be taken to restore a symbolic order. We need to feel, well, combobulated. What an inventive invincible species!!
marchudson.net 
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