the red menace

Kevin mentioned that he finds it ironic that the color red (which used to symbolize the so-called communist menace during the cold war) is now the color used for states whose electoral votes are in the GOP's column. I have to say that I agree, especially given how I used to keep the states straight in my own head. And now there's this fun story:

'Red state, blue state' catch phrase of year
Panel of linguists makes its decision for 2004
The Associated Press
OAKLAND, Calif. - A panel of linguists has deemed “red state, blue state, purple state” the phrase that most colored the nation’s lexicon in 2004.
Attendees at the annual convention of the Linguistic Society of America on Friday chose the word or phrase that dominated national discourse over the course of the last year.

Via MSNBC