*Sniff sniff.* What is that smell? Oh, wait, I got it! Crayons! According to a study by Yale, crayon smell is the 18th most recognizable smell for adults. Colourlovers.com put together a whole exposé on crayons and gosh dang if it doesn’t take me back to Mrs. Branum’s second-grade class.

(Yes, I’m seriously writing about crayons. Join me in childhood.)

Crayola crayons have come a long way from their 1903, eight-colors-per-box beginnings. Today there are 120 colors, the best of which is undoubtedly Macaroni and Cheese. (I almost said Tickle Me Pink, but apparently boys didn’t think that was especially awesome.) It’s always the one that gets worn down first, which is odd, because I don’t see much mac and cheese in drawings these days.

While we’re talking colors, I have some issues I’d like to bring up. COLOURlovers has a list of all colors and their names. Check those. Banana Mania sounds to me like it should be an insane mixture of yellows with bit of bright green stirred in. But, no, Banana Mania is a grayed shadow of a disgusting imitation yellow. Disappointing. Also, Scarlet is not a deep, sexy red like the game Clue suggested and Screamin Green is quite quiet. Who’s on these color-naming committees? Don’t tell me it’s a bunch of men. Come on, Crayola. Everybody knows boys can’t even tell red from orange.

Things aren’t looking good in the color-renaming department, though. Only two color names have been changed. Prussian Blue was changed to Midnight Blue in 1958 because a teacher said kids couldn’t relate to Prussian history anymore. (Agreed). In 1962, right around the time of the Civil Rights Movement, the Flesh color was changed to Peach because not everyone’s flesh is the same color. But Peach? Really? Does any white kid’s skin look like a peach?

Just in case you don’t like coloring, there are lots of other fun things to do with crayons … like this and this.