Turd Blossoms in Texas?

[Bapopik at AOL.COM]

If anyone (HDAS?) has turd blossoms, please send them over here. Is this a  
Texas term?
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_http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/texas/entry/turd_blossom/_ 
(http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/texas/entry/turd_blossom/) 
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Entry from August 13, 2007 
Turd Blossom
 
"Turd Blossom” was a nickname for George W. Bush’s adviser, Karl Rove. The  
term was popularized in 2002. 

A “turd blossom” is supposedly a Texas  term for a flower that grows from 
manure, but historical citations for this  alleged regional definition are 
lacking. 


_Wikipedia: Turd Blossom_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turd_Blossom)   
Turd Blossom, according to partisans of Karl Rove and George W. Bush,  is a 
Texan term for a flower which grows from a pile of cow dung. The term has  
gained notoriety in the United States, as reportedly this is one of President  
George W. Bush’s terms of endearment for his chief political advisor, Karl Rove.  
Bush is also reported to call Rove by the nickname ”Boy Genius.“ 

Few, if  any, native Texans would recognize this definition of ‘turd blossom.’
 ‘Turd  blossom’ was used in 1960s Texas high school slang to describe the 
spreading  smell of a fart, or the spreading stain of a loose bowel movement. 
Neither Rove  nor George W. Bush attended high school in Texas, and they may 
have been  unfamiliar with the original use of the word. ‘Fart blossom’ was a 
common  variant. 

_Google  Groups: alt.usage.english_ 
(http://groups.google.com/group/alt.usage.english/browse_thread/thread/45d3bd0fb799e27/d34b040d6e48705a?lnk=st&q=&rnum=5
0&hl=en#d34b040d6e48705a)  
Newsgroups: alt.usage.english 
From: Ben  Zimmer 
Date: Thu, 28 Jun 2001 15:31:40 -0500  
Local: Thurs, Jun 28 2001 4:31 pm 
Subject: Re: Rove’s nickname?  

Turd Blossom. 

Time Magazine had no qualms printing it: 
_http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,107219,00.html_ 
(http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php?URL=http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1072
19,00.html)   

An explanation is given in “First Son: George W. Bush and the Bush  Family 
Dynasty”, by Bill Minutaglio: 

“Everybody must have a nickname,  and the spin doctor has a quality nickname, 
Turd Blossom — as in  wherever-he-goes-something-is-sure-to-pop-up.” 

_Google  Books_ 
(http://books.google.com/books?id=ChXd7GeqlToC&pg=RA1-PA138&ots=zywGyJpcLW&dq="turd+blossom"&ei=tO6_RoWCFofI6wKtzY3qAg&ie=ISO-8859-1&sig=Fnj
BXRNDa-D14GvFIy3YJCpeISk)  
Boy Genius: Karl Rove, the Brains Behind the Remarkable  Political Triumph of 
George W. Bush 
by Carl M. Canoon, Lou Debose and  Jan Reid 
Public Affairs 
2003 
Pg. 138: 
Somewhere along the line,  after they moved to Washington together, Bush 
began alternating Rove’s “Boy  Genius” nickname with another, less flattering 
moniker: “Turd Blossom.” It seems  fitting enough, given Rove’s modest 
background (a turd blossom is a Texas  expression for a flower that grows out of a 
cowpie), but Rove shrugs in some  embarrassment when asked how Bush came up with 
this. 




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