What's a "Bleurose"?

I have had a few private inquiries from people who aren't familiar with the playa or Burning Man asking me "why do you sign your posts Bleurose/Jon"?  Bleurose is my "playa name" which I started using in 2009 (yeah, I know, playa names are supposed to be bestowed by others, but I took this one myself and it stuck so sue me LOL!)  

What is a "bleurose"?  Well, the story goes back to 1984 when I formed a consulting company with my good friend Don Bloom.  We wanted a name that would reflect both of our names, Bloom and Rosen and we decided on "Bluerose Systems".   The company didn't last long :-). 

Jump to 2001 and I had just gotten divorced (first time) and was starting to date again.  I needed a handle for a dating site and decided I liked "bluerose" but when I tried that name, it was already taken (although I never found out who had taken it). So being somewhat of a francophile, I tried flipping the letters in bleu (as in bleu cheese) and voila.  I have used it as a handle on dating sites and other places where I choose to remain semi-anonymous ever since.  It was natural when in 2009 someone asked me my playa name, to respond "bleurose".  

A "bleurose" gifted to me

Is there a real "blue rose"?  Technically, no.  Blue pigmentation can't be synthesized by the rose family of plants (although many other flowers do indeed come in real blue colors).  So, there are red roses, pink roses, white roses and even black roses but no blue roses in the wild.

However, some devilish geneticists have managed to mangle the rose's genes and come up with artificially created "blue roses" although they look a bit more purple than actually blue.

And of course, if it doesn't have to be "real", you CAN indeed have a "bleu" rose and one of the nicest sweetest gifts every given to me on the playa came from the niece of a couple (Queen Calvert and Doctor Phil) who met me on Tuesday when I cruised by their camp at 2:15 and B looking for a friend (who was actually on C and didn't realize it!) The niece and I had a nice conversation (it was her first burn) and I gave them all free tickets to the Default World. 

A few days later, when I came back, the neice popped out of her tent and said she had something for me.  

It was a "bleu rose". Fabric to be sure, but beautiful, too.

Sweet!

Bleurose/Jon