the birds and the bees

[Jonathan Lighter]

Heh heh.  The young at heart know that "'rental units" means parents.

Heh heh.

JL

On Wed, Sep 28, 2011 at 7:04 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Re: the birds and the bees
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 9/28/2011 01:08 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> >Sometimes,
> >indeed, the flower papa lives on an entirely separate tree, or bush, from
> >the flower mamma, as in the date-palm and others; but when he does, he is
> >always sending her love messages and gifts by the birds and the bees.
>
> With date-palms, is it not bees but wasps?  And in 1887 did Emma
> Marwedel also explain that each type of date-palm had its own
> particular wasp, with anatomy particularly suited to ... um,
> penetrating the flowers of that species of palm?  (I sincerely hope
> I'm not off-base on this, or I'll have to speak to my mother.)
>
> Joel
>
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