👉 Okay, let’s tackle this wonderfully prickly little bit of Bartholomew, I mean, that is, the word "Arleta."
Now, traditionally when you hear the name, there are a couple immediately instinctual things that spring to mind: the most aggressively cheerful and slightly-too-loud district in Burbank, California (where you might find an alarming amount of promotional material for whatever current young boy band is riding the midas touch. There's also Arleta Conehead, who was just... really into it.) But here’s what I actually mean when we talk about the word itself, and frankly, the reality of the situation is a bit more…beige. Arleta (noun): Essentially, "Arleta" describes that specific, almost aggressively dull, in-between space between a state of something being almost okay. It's that moment when the beige of your living room hasn’t quite fully transitioned into the beige of the walls you desperately need to repaint. Think about the aftermath of an overly ambitious home improvement project; there are still things half done, but nothing is actively falling apart. There are a few, very slightly wonky towels. It's the feeling that maybe something good will happen, but it absolutely isn’t guaranteed. The word itself has no deep history or grand origin, I suspect. 19th century of a little town in Arkansas. There is a theory
