Puce eXtended (TPX)" color list, color #19-1518 TPX—Puce. Puce Puce is a dark red or purple brown color, a brownish purple or a "dark reddish brown." "Puce" is the French word for "flea". The color is said to be the color of bloodstains on linen or bedsheets, even after being laundered, from a flea's droppings, or after a flea has been crushed. The "Oxford English Dictionary" ("OED") dates the first English use of "puce" as a color to 1778. The name comes from the French word "puce", or flea, which comes from the Latin words for flea, "pulicem" or "pulex". According
The Tale of Cross-eyed Lefty from Tula and the Steel Flea The Tale of Cross-eyed Lefty from Tula and the Steel Flea "The Tale of Cross-eyed Lefty from Tula and the Steel Flea" (, Skaz o Tulskom kosom Levshe i o stalnoy Blokhe), "The Tale of the Crosseyed Lefthander from Tula and the Steel Flea" or simply "Levsha" (, "left-handed"), sometimes called "The Lefthander", "Lefty", "The Steel Flea" or "The Left-handed Craftsman" is a well-known 1881 skaz (story) by Nikolai Leskov. Styled as a folk tale, it tells a story of a left-handed arms craftsman from Tula (traditionally a center of the Russian armaments industry) who outperformed his English colleagues by