Re: Re: ''The Language of Flowers"

[RonButters at AOL.COM]

In a message dated 1/9/05 7:47:53 AM, slangman at PACBELL.NET writes:


> Without knowing the context, is it possible that Scully was simply
> referring to the Victorian "language of flowers," in which each flower
> represented a certain sentiment or emotion?  There were any number of
> books and postcards in the era depicting the "language."  An article
> from the Collier's Cyclopedia of Commerial and Social Information (1882)
> on the language of flowers is reproduced at
> http://www.apocalypse.org/pub/u/hilda/flang.html.
> 
> Tom Dalzell
> 

 Yes, but these "girls" don't seem to be too much into Victorian 
literature--and less so would have been the Irish policemen and sailors they are trying to 
signal their sexual availability. The idea was to somehow let the guys know 
that the gay guys were looking for "straight" guys they could take to bars, buy 
a few drinks, and then go off and have sex for which the straight guys would 
get paid a few dollars. They refer to the guys they are trying to attract in 
this way as "trade." Of course, maybe Fay is making an ironic, sardonic 
reference to Victorian etiquette books, but if so it is far from clear that that is 
what she is doing.