the birds and the bees

[Jonathan Lighter]

Until I read that, I didn't know that flowers could be so thoughtfully
affectionate.

I just thought they were horny.

JL

On Thu, Sep 29, 2011 at 1:19 AM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: the birds and the bees
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Wed, Sep 28, 2011 at 1:33 PM, Jonathan Lighter
> <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> quoted:
> > 1887 Emma Marwedel _Conscious Motherhood_ (Chicago: Interstate) 283:
> > Another resemblance to the human family I will mention. All little
> children
> > have papas and mammas, you know, and so have all flower babies. It is
> true,
> > these vegetable parents usually resemble each other more exactly than
> human
> > papas and mammas do, but sometimes they are even more different from each
> > other in appearance than are your own dear papa and mamma. 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_.
>
> Thank you, Jon. Heretofore, the allusion was a complete mystery to me.
> Now, I can die knowing more than I knew, before.
>
> --
> -Wilson
> -----
> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
> to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> -Mark Twain
>
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