LOOKING FOR HOLIDAY GIFTS THEY'LL ENJOY?
and the sequel, "Hail Mary" https://www.amzn.com/1684334888
Available on Amazon.
OH! CALACATTA!
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:
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:
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.