Oh! Calacatta!

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​​OH! CALACATTA!

  ...Continued from last time: 
     Anyway, I finally chose a slab from the stone supply warehouse to replace my kitchen countertops, which I don't want replaced, but alas, now have no choice unless I want to live with this: 

       (See previous  post, https://www.ailantha.com/blog/it-gets-worse).
​        Here's what I chose:

      It's called Calacatta Brazil quartzite.  In truth I was not in love with this piece of stone. But I was less not in love with it than I was not in love with every other piece of stone in the warehouse. 
So I decided on the Calacutta Brazil quartzite.
       "Calacatta?" I said when I saw the name printed on the side of the slab. "Did they misspell that?" I pointed out the odd orthography to the staffer who had brought me back to the warehouse and was more or less following me around as I moved from slab to slab.
       "They just spell it so many different ways,"  the diplomatic (and probably somewhat weary of trailing me) staffer replied.
       Then it occurred to me: Ah, Calacatta Brazil quartzite must be from Brazil, where Portuguese is the language. Hence the non-English spelling.
         Still, I wondered what it was about this quartzite that caused it to be named after a city in India.
      Mayhaps the flowing movement of the pale brownish-goldish veins through the illusive light stone evoked for some early South American stone-cutter exotic images of the Ganges moving  through a mysterious alluring landscape? Or something like that? Now I found myself wanting to know from where my future kitchen accoutrement derived its intriguing name. I googled it.
      Turns out that whoever christened Calacatta Brazil quartzite wasn't thinking of Calcutta. They were thinking of Calacatta, a rare, uber-pricey luxury marble quarried in Carrara, Italy, the veining  of which apparently resembles the veining in a particular kind of quartzite mined in Brazil. 
​
     Calacatta Marble:​

      Calacatta Brazil quartzite:

       The google article I read also specifically pointed out - probably for the benefit of people like me - that Calacatta has nothing to do with Calcutta, the city in India. (I also looked up the Portuguese spelling of "Calcutta." It's "Calcutá").
​        Oh. Calacatta. Okay. Calacatta Brazil quartzite it will be. Once it's in my kitchen maybe I'll look at it and think of Italy. Or Calcutta. Either of which place I wouldn't mind being right now.