Tara, don't interpret for me please. I have never spoken to Tabitha's mentors, although I assume you mean Gary and Margot? Well, that's not true. Gary did a chat on CnQ once, but I never spoke to him or even asked a question. I haven't talked to many west coast folks because I never get to see them face to face. I was referring to people I had actually met and talked to.
My apologies on the MCBA rules, but really, that wouldn't apply to you would it? (And technically, they lump EVERYTHING under beige, I just checked the site.) I know most west coasters (even transplanted ones!) don't seem to pay much attention to MCBA and are hard line, strict ECBC kinda folks. So, is it in the Empress show terms? MCBA would make sense, since they are "mutation" folks, but how about Empress? I notice quite a few folk seem to feel that Empress are the end all and be all when it comes to chins. Do they acknowledge chocolates and upside down, backwards, split, somewhat funky whites? I've only been to one empress show and I don't remember seeing them acknowledged there.
The comment about tons was not directed at you, BTW. The poster above you seemed to be stating that she's seen so many different chocolates that she could judge them 1 to 1.5 shades different (and I'm still waiting to see what this means). I'm wondering where she's seen this huge hoard of chocolates, especially since she's never been to a show which is where you would generally expect to see the different mutations.
I still stand by my statement that people throw these terms out to try and coin a phrase and line their pockets because it's "new" and "interesting." I call a mosaic a mosaic. I may say a heavily marked mosaic if someone asks (because they always do), but I don't give it any more exciting name than that. I will also say a white/violet, or eb/white but that's usually to let people know what their genetics is, not to make a fun term. When someone asks if I have chocolates, no matter how dark they are, I say I have dark tans. <shrugs>