It’s a mystery to me why this happens, but the parallels between different conversations which start with this question are simply amazing. First, I don’t get asked this question unless talking to a teenager . . . and then, nearly every time this happens, the rest of the conversation follows the same pattern.

First, I answer the question honestly, with a single word, by simply naming my favorite color.

After telling this one-word, five-letter truth, I then get a response which has become utterly predictable: “Black’s not a color!”

Even stranger: such inquisitions only seem to come from teenagers who are dressed in such a way as to let the following response work: “What color is your t-shirt?”

Sometimes they even look down at that point, presumably to check, which lets them see the answer to my question for themselves:

After that one question from me, for some reason, they tend not to say much more.