Classic Poem

MR. PARKER. ...If we accept the principle of acceptable risk in radiation exposure, and there is no alternative today, instead of black and white, we have only infinite gradation of gray from perhaps a black relating to significant over-exposure, grading down but never reaching white. It is beyond our wits to quantify such a scale. Yet the attempt has to be made at least to define bands of gray. The three ranges as used by the Federal Radiation Council, I think, are precisely such an attempt which I have translated into fashionable color terminology with range I being Arcadian gray, range II being Achillean gray, and range III being Augean gray.

REPRESENTATIVE HOSMER. Do you have a color chart with you?

MR. PARKER. I am not able to put precise numbers on these shades of gray but I classify Arcadian gray as pure and clean for the relevant purpose, and Augean gray containing a reference to the well-known stables of history, and the middle range, if I may clarify that, as I recall Achilles, he was pretty sound but he had a couple of weak spots, one on each heel.