[HN Gopher] Flowers Make a Nice Gift
___________________________________________________________________
Flowers Make a Nice Gift
Author : ivanech
Score : 175 points
Date : 2021-09-04 19:09 UTC (3 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.echevarria.io)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.echevarria.io)
| DonHopkins wrote:
| Plus, flowers make really great RMS repellent!
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26541280
|
| >compiler-guy 5 months ago | on: Richard Stallman is coming back
| to the board of th...
|
| >His inappropriate behavior toward women is well documented. One
| example where women traded advice on how to keep him away.
|
| https://mobile.twitter.com/starsandrobots/status/99426727746...
|
| >DonHopkins 5 months ago [-]
|
| >>Star Simpson @starsandrobots Replying to @corbett
|
| >>I remember being walked around campus by an upperclassman
| getting advice during my freshman year at MIT. "Look at all the
| plants in her office," referring to a professor. "All the women
| CSAIL professors keep massive amounts of foliage" s/he said.
| "Stallman really hates plants."
|
| >Star is correct: RMS really hates plants, and is afraid of
| trees.
| [deleted]
| CameronNemo wrote:
| Do you have a source for this other than a freshman on a tour
| with an upperclassman observing a professor's office? Wouldn't
| the professors with the plants have mentioned the reason for
| their plant keeping once RMS was already canceled, fired, and
| resigned?
|
| This sounds like an instantiated rumor. In fact it appears to
| have been added and then deleted to Stallman's Wikipedia page,
| specifically being removed due to lack of a source.
| DonHopkins wrote:
| Sure, since you asked, I kept the receipts:
|
| I've known RMS since the early 80's, crashed in his house
| when visiting the MIT AI Lab, had him crash in my hotel room
| at science fiction conventions, and I'm friends with numerous
| people who have worked and lived with him, one of whom he let
| stay in the largest bedroom of his house because it had a
| menacing tree outside the window that he was afraid of.
|
| And I know Star Simpson personally (the freshman who quoted
| the MIT upperclassman who said female CSAIL professors kept
| plants in their offices to repel RMS), and we have discussed
| RMS's antics.
|
| And RMS has personally asked me to hold the branches of
| bushes that were leaning into a sidewalk out of the way so
| that he could pass by.
|
| So yes, I'm pretty sure first hand that RMS is afraid of
| trees and bushes and foliage, among other quirks, and it's
| pretty widely knows around the people who have lived and
| worked and hung out with him.
|
| Here's a photo I took of RMS holding a gerbil wrapped in duct
| tape, just before he asked, "I don't know, why do you wrap a
| gerbil in duct tape?" (Google it!)
|
| https://www.donhopkins.com/home/catalog/images/jsol-rms-
| gerb...
|
| And here are a couple photo of my brave friend Devon, who was
| his housemate for many years, fearlessly climbing up to the
| roof of his house on the evil tree that RMS was afraid of, so
| you can judge for yourself how menacing it was:
|
| https://www.donhopkins.com/home/catalog/images/devon-
| climbin...
|
| https://www.donhopkins.com/home/catalog/images/devon-
| landing...
|
| And here's a true story about a funny joke that RMS made
| about my other friend Mike and I burning down his house, the
| one in that photo:
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26113192
|
| >I worked at UniPress on the Emacs display driver for the
| NeWS window system (the PostScript based window system that
| James Gosling also wrote), with Mike "Emacs Hacker Boss"
| Gallaher, who was charge of Emacs development at UniPress.
| One day during the 80's Mike and I were wandering around an
| East coast science fiction convention, and ran into RMS,
| who's a regular fixture at such events.
|
| >Mike said: "Hello, Richard. I heard a rumor that your house
| burned down. That's terrible! Is it true?"
|
| >RMS replied right back: "Yes, it did. But where you work,
| you probably heard about it in advance."
|
| >Everybody laughed. It was a joke! Nobody's feelings were
| hurt. He's a funny guy, quick on his feet!
|
| Yes, his house actually did burn down, but we didn't set it
| on fire, hire someone else to do it, or even know about it in
| advance.
|
| And here's an excerpt from a September 1986 email from my
| eloquent friend who he let stay in the biggest room of the
| house with a menacing tree outside the window:
|
| >RMS as God (or, why isn't the world made out of decayed
| slugs?)
|
| >What can I say? All three of us moved out of [address
| redacted] because there was no way in hell to get him to
| move. This is a man who has created an operating system
| people worship slavishly as a "perfect environment", but who
| claims he must continue to use everyone else's towel because
| he doesn't know where to buy one himself. This is a man who
| talks about immorality and considerate-ness, and claimed it
| was a "special favor" to take his boots off at the top of the
| stairs like the rest of us and not track mud through the
| living room where we all roamed barefoot. This is a man who
| let me have the best bedroom in the house because there were
| trees outside the window and he was afraid of them. He has
| mentioned to a few people that he thinks it would be neat to
| have a daughter by some willing female and raise her up so
| that he could have sex with her when she was old enough. This
| man says he will never be happy until there is no more
| purchased software, until copyright laws are totally trashed.
| He will accept no lesser events as conditionals, and
| disqualifies any other good things/feelings that happen to
| him as "false happiness" or simply things that don't count.
|
| >Yet I still hear people I love and respect talk about him as
| if he were some kind of deity, as if his Free Software
| Foundation were the noblest effort in the world. It is
| admirable, yes. But to glorify the thoroughly sick human
| being behind it into some sort of whole-life messianic figure
| is unconscionable. Meeting RMS groupies was yet another
| contributing factor to my punting of the computer world for
| the time being. So many of the "hackers" out there (
| _hackers_ , not crackers/urchins/destructoids) seem to have
| their external values totally fukt. Sure, we're all entitled
| to different values. Fine. But it grieves me to see good
| people withering away behind a self-imposed wall of lonely
| techno-perfection, their frantic efforts to acquire friends
| and lovers made all the more poignant by the desperation in
| their eyes, voice, manner. Most of them know that they are
| lacking something important, but don't know what it is, or
| how to get it, or who to ask for it. Many can see themselves
| alienating people or spurning offers of friendship and
| affection, but don't know how or why they're doing so. They
| just look impassive and bored and in control, and damn
| themselves silently in their minds, self-inflicting the
| rejection and pain that they feared from the outside.
|
| [She goes on, but I'll stop quoting here... And you can
| decide for yourself if what she wrote about RMS in September
| 1986 is accurate and authentic, and aligns with other stories
| you've heard about him in the intervening 35 years.]
|
| And here's a transcript of a bunch of people telling RMS to
| fuck off because they didn't appreciate his pointed joke
| about the Evils Natalism, which I then fed to Doctor in Emacs
| to psychoanalyze him:
|
| https://www.donhopkins.com/home/catalog/text/rms-vs-
| doctor.h...
| CameronNemo wrote:
| Thanks for the details. Peculiar (as usual with RMS).
| fortran77 wrote:
| I agree, but my cats just eat them and then throw them up.
| a3n wrote:
| That's how you know they love you.
| markus_zhang wrote:
| This may be controversial but I think money is the best gift.
| With money one can purchase whatever one wants. From my
| experience I rarely got what I want when I received a gift.
| robotresearcher wrote:
| One of my favorite gifts was a picture painted by my son aged 3
| of him riding on my shoulders. Our faces are yellow and we have
| sun-rays coming out of our heads instead of hair. It's
| glorious.
|
| No amount of money in the world could have caused that picture
| to exist.
| IggleSniggle wrote:
| The best gifts operate at a sort of conversational / semantic
| level, where the item itself is a beautiful reminder of a
| person that you love. The very best gift deeply acknowledges
| both you and your likes/dislikes as a person, while also
| finding a special deep connection to the gift-giver. Much like
| "a picture is worth a thousand words," the perfect gift is a
| reminder of a thousand conversations and intimate moments.
|
| If you are not searching for the semantics of the gift you
| received, then you may be missing out on the most important
| part of the gift.
|
| ...that said, I think the best gifts are still consumable so
| that they do not burden the gift receiver, and/or are handmade
| or cleverly devised by the giver.
| Majestic121 wrote:
| One of the main point of gift giving to me is the curation :
| trying to find something that you think the other one would
| like, showing that you know and understand the other person.
|
| Giving money is basically completely giving up on the curation
| part, which makes the gift extremely impersonal. It's
| marginally better than a very bad gift, but to me it would not
| qualify as a good gift in any case
| aaron695 wrote:
| > From my experience I rarely got what I want when I received a
| gift.
|
| Within gift giving what the receiver wants is the smaller part.
| So already you are off track on what gift giving is. Look at
| ideas like reciprocal altruism. Kim Stanley Robinson also
| explores gifting culture as a system in the Mars series, see if
| you can find excerpts.
|
| > This may be controversial but I think money is the best gift.
|
| This is not controversial. It's done in most cultures
| (Including the West) in many circumstances. Like weddings, the
| gift is very much a transaction, you gave me food, alcohol and
| entertainment, I pay for it. Any extra thought is diluted by
| the many other gifts, so money is often fine or a proxy through
| a gift register.
|
| But as a general rule it's wrong.
|
| Literally making up small tasks to ask people to help with
| (Forcing them to give) is a well know 'winning friends and
| influencing people' trick. Borrowing money not so much.
|
| As a base do what cultural tells you. Then if you want to be
| better than default, really think about it or read up for
| advice. It's good to have a few weird things about you. But if
| you get too many you will be just weird.
| allannienhuis wrote:
| it's the thought that counts. Money often comes across as a
| thoughtless (easy) gift, and often comes with strings attached,
| which is why it's not often used in western culture. Money is a
| great gift for someone who really needs it.
| yread wrote:
| unless you're married. Then it's an admission you've fucked up
|
| /s
| dylan604 wrote:
| If the only time you bring flowers is when you "fucked up",
| you've already lost.
|
| Get in the habit of buying flowers regularly (weekly). You can
| rack up enough points to stay in the bonus round with your SO.
| a3n wrote:
| As a truck driver, just about every day is just about the same,
| so I lose track.
|
| But I am sometimes reminded that it's Mother's day (the actual
| Sunday), when I'm in a Walmart on a Sunday morning (maybe I
| parked there the night before) and see a few men that need a
| shave, looking over the flowers, often with a kid or two
| tagging along.
| quesera wrote:
| Someone sent flowers to a good friend of mine.
|
| Her cat chewed on a few of the flowers, and died of renal failure
| a few days later. Don't send flowers that might
| include lilys to anyone who might have a cat!
|
| Since I made it to age 30 without knowing about the toxicity of
| lilys to cats, I feel obligated to mention this anecdote every
| time someone talks about sending flowers.
|
| I also consider it completely unforgivable that florists don't
| mention this to every customer who is purchasing lilys (often in
| arrangements where the customer doesn't even know the contents).
| sealeck wrote:
| Note that there are also "flower languages" which are really
| interesting, and I would strongly recommend paying attention to
| when sending flowers.
|
| See for example Victorian flower language, etc.
| intro-b wrote:
| It's fun to learn about the different origins of flower
| meanings, and how they differ from culture to culture. Ikebana,
| Japanese flower arrangement, also has an interesting history
| for those who enjoy learning about the different aesthetic
| sensibilities, and maybe even try for themselves.
| infogulch wrote:
| I didn't like getting cut flowers because they always died after
| just 3-4 days and it seemed like a waste. So I bought a big pack
| of 'cut flower food' packets, and now after changing out the
| water and adding a 9C/ packet every 5 days I can get a $6 bunch
| of flowers to last 2-3 weeks!
|
| Crystal is a common brand; I doubt the brand matters. My pack was
| so big I wouldn't use it up for years so I split it up and gave
| most of it away. I haven't tried but presumably you can mix up a
| batch of sugar and bleach powder yourself, be careful handling
| chemicals etc.
| snarfy wrote:
| About a week before valentines and mother's day, go behind the
| flower store and do some dumpster diving. You will find hundreds
| of roses, arrangements, baskets, etc all thrown out. The dumpers
| will be nearly full. Grab big handfuls and pick through them for
| all the good stuff and you'll be able to make some pretty
| fantastic arrangements, all for free.
| dmje wrote:
| Romantic.
| dylan604 wrote:
| what about the the other 363 days of the year?
| CTOSian wrote:
| Local cemetery ? ;-}
| [deleted]
| leander78 wrote:
| I disagree. If someone gifted me flowers, I would say, stop
| killing plants for my pleasure.
| arglebarglegar wrote:
| maybe you need to get more flowers because you don't seem to
| understand what they are
| tsian2 wrote:
| I would think twice before getting flowers for anybody who
| likes gardening. Chances are they would prefer to receive a
| plant.
| infogulch wrote:
| If you're not familiar with their specific garden and the
| plants they like, cut flowers might be safer. Also it can be
| nice to have them inside and off-season as well. As the
| article says, "Flowers come without any obligations." That's
| what's so nice about them.
| _n_b_ wrote:
| I am an avid gardner. I have a house full of plants, plus a
| front and back garden, plus a patch of veg. I enjoy gardening
| immensely. Although I do like getting plants as gifts, I very
| much still like enjoy cut flowers, and you know why?
|
| > Flowers don't take any effort on your part to be enjoyed.
| [...] Flowers come without any obligations.
|
| Just like the article says.
| dylan604 wrote:
| If cutting the flowers from the plant is killing the plant,
| then there are going to be a lot of upset vegetarian and
| vegans.
|
| Yes, the flowers that are cut are going to wither and die, but
| they would do this anyways if left attached to the plant. The
| mere cutting of the flower is not going to kill the plant.
| DonHopkins wrote:
| Actually, vegetarian and vegans APPROVE of killing and eating
| plants. It's ANIMALS that they don't want to kill and eat.
|
| Or does PETA stand for People for the Ethical Treatment of
| Asparagus?
| dylan604 wrote:
| Harvesting fruits and vegetables does not mean killing the
| plant. The only plants that are really killed are the tuber
| types and other plants where the root is the food, but
| again, they are going to die anyways once the season
| changes.
|
| You're trying really hard at something, just not sure what
| it is
| lucb1e wrote:
| I actually felt the same about it as GP (if perhaps not as
| strongly; I still buy flowers for my mom even if I wouldn't
| be thrilled to receive them regularly myself), but didn't yet
| consider it like this.
|
| Thanks for that comment, this makes sense. They're still
| being grown for this purpose so it's still resources being
| used, but yeah it's not necessarily just ripping plants out
| of the ground which is how I (without thinking it through,
| stupidly) pictured it. I should check how it compares to
| other gift-type items, perhaps they're not a bad generic gift
| at all. (Of course a gift that someone wished for and will
| use for years is always better, but that's far from always
| possible.)
| zemnmez wrote:
| the flowers literally die off seasonally, the only difference
| here is that they die looking beautiful in the home of someone
| you love
| a3n wrote:
| So do cows, eventually. :)
| soheil wrote:
| He may be underestimating the effort required to find a vase to
| put them in; make sure you place them somewhere they don't
| parish; if someone handed them to you now you have to go home and
| put them in a vase or they'll die; after a few days if you don't
| throw them out your entire home will be filled with unpleasant
| oder. The list just keeps going.
| joezydeco wrote:
| Plenty of florists will deliver flowers with a vase included.
| They can even decorate the vase with a ribbon.
|
| It's a solved problem and a courteous touch.
| allturtles wrote:
| Yeah, like when someone buys you a Lego set and you have to cut
| the tape sealing the box shut, and put it in the recycling bin,
| and open all those little plastic bags. What jerks to put you
| to all that trouble.
| michaelt wrote:
| If you don't have a vase, a drinking glass will do. I think
| most of us could manage to fill a glass with water.
| soheil wrote:
| Not if it's a bouquet.
| mrtweetyhack wrote:
| BS. might as well be money
| hamburglar wrote:
| Was this some kind of HN ranking hack or are we really this
| lacking in news today? Or perhaps so socially stunted as a group
| that we need this sort of thing pointed out? Wait, maybe don't
| answer that.
| kaycebasques wrote:
| farmgirlflowers.com does very pretty arrangements. I've bought
| flowers from them for my partner and my mom on a few occasions.
| Anybody else got leads on good shops?
|
| Re: the article I too have learned to appreciate flowers. They
| bring beauty. Not everything has to be useful. After spending
| years walking through smelly cities it really is a blessing to
| stop and smell a rose or jasmine or, my personal favorite,
| lavender.
| sneak wrote:
| ...for people without allergies or sensory processing issues
| related to powerful scents.
|
| I personally can't think of something OTOH I'd less want in my
| home. (I am a notorious weirdo, however.)
| lucb1e wrote:
| Do you tell people when they give you well-intended flowers? I
| can imagine that's awkward so I wonder if I might inadvertently
| be giving people products they don't at all want. Maybe I
| should be asking them because it's awkward to bring it up from
| the recipient's side, hence my question.
| novok wrote:
| It depends on the person's personality. Some will tell you,
| and then you know, some will just say thank you and throw it
| out when you leave or put it outside, which I think is an OK
| compromise. Other's love flowers too. Usually the best way to
| find out is to ask them their opinion of them.
| etothepii wrote:
| I am told that giving flowers on mother's day is rather gauche
| since it highlights the fact you don't think of your mother the
| other 364(5) days a year. I found a service that let me pay once
| and schedule a delivery a month for a year solved this particular
| problem.
| a3n wrote:
| Which (may) highlight the fact that now one never has to think
| of her.
| rendall wrote:
| It's gauche to send one's mom flowers once a year, because this
| implies one only thinks of her once a year. The answer is, of
| course, to pay for a service that sends her flowers once a
| month.
| abeppu wrote:
| But ... it's crazy that we created giant international supply
| chains to rush around flowers so they can be gifted with no
| awareness of season or region. Flowers are flown thousands of
| miles, and refrigerated in transit.
|
| At some point, flowers were something we appreciated in nature.
| (It is interesting that we appreciate part of another life form's
| reproductive cycle in a relatively non-utilitarian way). Then
| flowers were something you could enjoy seasonally, and with a
| connection to the land and seasons around you.
|
| But at some point, we decided that it made sense for jets to move
| flowers sometimes between continents, so you could buy roses any
| month of the year. And that's a little amazing and a little
| ridiculous.
|
| Flowers make no demands on the recipient to enjoy other than that
| perhaps, they shouldn't think too much about where they came
| from.
| dylan604 wrote:
| Those jets were already being used, the flowers are just using
| what capacity was there. It's not like FedEx/UPS/etc said we
| need to increase capacity for flowers. Growers took advantage
| of a service that was there to increase their sales while also
| making them available to people that would ordinarly not be
| able to have them.
|
| Do you like fresh fruit in the winter? Do you like bananas? All
| of these things are not normal for most people in northern
| latitudes, yet we all now get to enjoy them.
| perfunctory wrote:
| Oh, free capacity. How nice.
| dylan604 wrote:
| Nobody said it was free. Just available.
| justinpowers wrote:
| It sounds like you are saying that air-shipped flowers ONLY
| use excess capacity on already scheduled flights. And then it
| sounds like you are implying the same about fruits, in
| particular bananas in the winter.
|
| This is probably not what you meant. But, if you did, I would
| absolutely love to read the data you gathered this from.
| dylan604 wrote:
| No, I'm just saying that shipping things globaly became a
| thing, and people started taking advantage of those
| abilities.
|
| A service was created, and it got customers. Only they
| didn't have to pay a bot farm to create fake users to hype
| up their service, so that may be confusing to this crowd of
| readers.
| jdavis703 wrote:
| > It is interesting that we appreciate part of another life
| form's reproductive cycle in a relatively non-utilitarian way
|
| Flowers evolved to attract insects to aid in reproduction.
| Accidentally it also turned out that humans would also be
| attracted by them and aid in their reproduction by farming
| them.
| bobm_kite9 wrote:
| Is it just accidentally?
| robotresearcher wrote:
| Yes. There's no look-ahead in evolution.
| 13of40 wrote:
| In recent centuries, flowers have evolved to be more
| attractive to humans because we've intentionally
| manipulated the evolutionary pressure on them. So it's
| not accidental, but it's our volition driving it, not the
| flowers'.
| Smaug123 wrote:
| Well, I think one could plausibly argue that the early
| small mammals which liked to be around flowers were more
| likely to survive because they could eat the abundance of
| insects attracted to the flowers. That effect compounds,
| and in general, places with lots of flowers (in the
| ancestral environment) tend to be pretty busy ecosystems
| full of things to eat.
|
| Which is not to say that this is in fact how it came
| about, but it's plausible enough that I wouldn't be
| comfortable asserting "it's pure coincidence".
|
| (By the way, David Deutsch asserts that flowers are, in
| some sense, _objectively_ beautiful. I think he 's wrong,
| but The Beginning of Infinity contains quite a bit on
| this subject.)
| SergeAx wrote:
| Flowers are relatively easy to grow in a greenhouse. Is really
| it economically feasible to fly them from other continent?
| PeterisP wrote:
| We ship in lots of perishable agricultural products that in
| terms of value per weight or value per container are much
| cheaper than flowers, they are in the same ballpark as fruit
| and berries.
|
| I recall some UK study claiming that even purely in terms of
| carbon footprint it's more effective to fly in greens from
| south rather than heat up greenhouses to grow them locally
| during winter.
| s5300 wrote:
| Yup - economies of scale + cheap labor.
|
| We ship a lot of animal products (I think medium sized fish
| and chicken were some of the examples) to entirely different
| countries to have them processed and then sent back to us.
|
| I've been completely amazed at seeing assembly lines in
| things as simple as sardine canning factories. Dozens upon
| dozens of workers literally just shoving sardines in cans,
| and they aren't sold for much. The tins actually cost more
| than the sardines going in them. Absolute dirt cheap wages,
| quite depressing to think about as somebody from the US
|
| That said though, the domestic US flower industry could be
| potentially ripe for disruption if somebody wanted to front
| the money to do so.
| SergeAx wrote:
| Chicken is dirt cheap, like $2/kg wholesale. Price of air
| freight is about the same on large long contracts and twice
| of that over the counter. Hauling chicken two ways will
| increase a final product price at least threefold. Sorry, I
| can't believe it.
|
| BTW, fish are mostly canned right in the sea on board of
| fishing vessel or on a bigger factory ship nearby.
| kzrdude wrote:
| My memory from the flight hiatus in europe 2010 (The
| icelandic vocano) was that roses were out of stock - couldn't
| be flown from east africa due to the situation.
|
| Random link to establish some basis facts for kenyan rose
| industry: https://aishaflowers.com/blog/30-why-roses-from-
| kenya-stands...
| bumby wrote:
| _" He digs through his Book of Dougs and notices a discrepancy:
| One Doug gave his grandmother flowers and earned 145 Good Place
| points, while another Doug did the same thing and actually lost
| four points. It's all about unintended consequences: The second
| Doug used a smartphone made by a kid in China, bought roses
| raised with pesticides... Michael realizes that "every day, the
| world gets a little more complicated, and being a good person
| gets a little harder."_
|
| - _The Good Place_ Season 3, Episode 11
|
| [1] https://tvline.com/2019/01/10/the-good-place-recap-
| season-3-...
| dylan604 wrote:
| My mom was a florist, and I had to spend a lot of my time helping
| her when I was a kid growing up. I naturally learned a lot about
| plants/flowers because of this. I also learned a lot of things
| that are just nice little tidbits to use later in life (now).
|
| For the guys, always have a vase on hand at home. It doesn't
| matter much the quality/price. Whenever inviting a friend over,
| throw some flowers in it. Even if its a bundle from the grocery
| store. The impression it makes is well worth it. If you really
| don't like having the flower, give them away at the end of your
| get together. 2nd good impression from the same source.
|
| As someone else pointed out, the type of flower and the color of
| the flowers have meanings that you might be unaware. FYI
|
| Some flowers are more fragrant than others, and some have longer
| "shelf" life. Roses tend to wilt quickly, and aren't the most
| fragant (to fill a room). Lillies (stargazers, etc) will last a
| lot longer, and their fragrance can fill a room. ProTip: Once the
| lilly blooms, pinch off the stamen which is covered in pollen.
| They will drop off naturally even if you don't, but when the do
| the pollen dust gets on everything.
|
| Keeping flowers cool prevents them from opening, so if you are
| buying something in advance you can clear out space in the fridge
| to help prolong them.
|
| If you need flowers to bloom faster because you forgot and bought
| last second, you can try using a hair dryer to encourage them to
| bloom. There's a method to this, so you can read up on it. Bright
| light is your friend as well. A sunny window is perfect. Avoid
| the cold.
|
| If the flowers came with a bag of powder as flower food, use only
| half of it or less. Use more when you change out the water. You
| should change the water out every couple of days at the longest
| if not daily for best results.
| giardini wrote:
| Some Chinese associate flowers with death (funeral, etc.). So
| maybe be careful with a new Chinese girlfriend.
| xenocratus wrote:
| Also, in some cultures (Eastern Europe, I assume; Romania for
| sure) it's considered appropriate to gift an odd number of
| flowers (I never knew if it was about the actual flowers or how
| many stems?), as even numbers are associated with death and
| funerals, as you've mentioned.
| Andrew_nenakhov wrote:
| One flourist (russian one) told me that even number of
| flowers are for funerals, because the word "chiotnyi" - even
| number - has the same root as "sochteny" (dni) - days are
| counted.
|
| Probably it's similar in other Slavic languages.
| datameta wrote:
| Also avoid gifting someone white slippers, for the same
| reason.
| amelius wrote:
| Sounds more like obsessive compulsive behavior to me.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arithmomania
| moelf wrote:
| >a new Chinese girlfriend
|
| why does this sound, off... maybe it's just me
| glanard_frugner wrote:
| relatable descriptions of people and things are now
| problematic
| dylan604 wrote:
| I think the original post had no malintent, and you just
| might be trying too hard.
| IncRnd wrote:
| Not the GP, but once I gave flowers to a new Chinese
| girlfriend in college. She kindly explained how the meaning
| differed between cultures.
|
| Mentioning races is not racism.
| moelf wrote:
| not so much about mentioning race/cultural difference. the
| new X _girl_ friend part I guess.
| blacktulip wrote:
| Specifically chrysanthemum. Other flowers are OK.
| thaumasiotes wrote:
| The chrysanthemum is also a symbol of anal sex; not
| recommended as a gift.
| Kluny wrote:
| what
| Andrew_nenakhov wrote:
| Looks to be true, just searched it up: https://www.urband
| ictionary.com/define.php?term=chrysanthemu...
| pcurve wrote:
| It applies to Chinese, Korean, and Japanese.
|
| Avoid Chrysanthemums, white lilies, and white flowers in
| general.
| forinti wrote:
| I think the best gifts overall are edible: wine, chocolate, a
| nice mustard, etc.
|
| You eat it, enjoy it, and it's over. There's nothing to occupy
| space in your house.
|
| If you don't like it, just pass it on.
| DonHopkins wrote:
| Smokable flowers make a great gift for people who like them.
|
| And as you say, if you don't like them, then pass them on!
| atatatat wrote:
| Vaporizable! (Not "vape"able)
| fragmede wrote:
| Spoken as someone that doesn't have a ton on extra space in
| their house, and maybe moves around semi-frequently? nothing
| wrong with that, but let's not pretend that _either_ extremes
| are universal.
| ngokevin wrote:
| OP did say "I think". When it comes to liking chocolate or
| flowers, let's assume it's just an opinion.
| scotty79 wrote:
| Flowers are a strategic gift. They cost something so they
| communicate that a person is willing to spend money (and/or
| effort) on the good will of someone else. But once given, they
| are worthless, so there's no incentive for the recipient to fake
| good will in order to recive more of them just for material gain.
| GEBBL wrote:
| Guys, I have a girlfriend.
|
| If I buy her flowers, she seems to really appreciate it.
|
| Other suggestions, such as dumpster diving for flowers may not be
| appreciated as much.
|
| Make of that what you will.
| nodejs_rulez_1 wrote:
| Yeah, we get it: you have a girlfriend. Congrats.
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