Not sure when or where I picked up this little scrap of knowledge, but somewhere along the line someone told me that the word orange doesn't rhyme with anything. I guess the writer Gilbert Sorrentino viewed that as a bit of a challenge because he wrote an entire book about it:
Who
was that who saw
his father
in
his shorts, mother laughing?
Who decided on the pattern? Of oranges? On white.
Who was that? Who
saw his father? In his shorts! Mother laughing. Who?
Who decided? On the pattern of oranges
on
white.
(G. Sorrentino, from The Orangery, 1978)
Yeah, and this might go some way towards explaining why orange sneakers are usually the first ones to be discounted. But I would never wear a pair of orange and white shorts. Never.
