Reader, I'm going to let you look that word up in the dictionary. I'm not going to tell you why I know it and why it sprang to my English major mind when I walked down the street today and noticed that this -- uh -- flower had appeared seemingly overnight, released in some sort of ecstasy from a spiny plant below.
Holy moley.
Catholic school and lots of reading taught me Onanism is the best sin of all and a good one to keep handy when someone brings up all the ways females can sin with their bodies.
ReplyDeleteOh, if only!
ReplyDeletei know the word. Is that the plant that sends out a shoot like that once every century? Could it be?
ReplyDeleteHa Ha ha. I must say as a gardener that word did not ump into my mind when I saw this. what a hoot you are.
ReplyDeleteYep, had to google it. But does that surprise you?
ReplyDeleteAdding a new word to my vocabulary today. Just not sure when I will be using it. I 'll let you know. Well, maybe that didn't come out right.
Never mind.
You do crack me up though. Seriously do.
I want to walk in your neighborhood! Thanks for the smile.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first moved to California in 1975, these plants FREAKED me out. Hey, I'm totally chill about them now.
ReplyDeleteI wondered what on earth you'd be writing about when I saw the title of your post. I must say that flower is quite, um, IMPRESSIVE.
ReplyDeleteOh, let me pull out my olde Baltimore Catechism...must be there somewhere. I'm sure Sister taught us about Onan...no?
ReplyDeleteOh my!! I looked up the word...now I have to clear my history and act contrite.
ReplyDeleteBwah hahahah. My new favorite word, and I will use it often!
ReplyDeleteKind of related: last summer while shopping at the farmer's market, I found one fingerling potato that looked a phallus and another that looked like testicles. I had to buy them - had to! When I bought them (along with more potatoes and some other stuff), the farmer who grew them snickered a little and then I started laughing. I was meeting my friend Ryan for coffee, so I placed the sexy potatoes on the chair I had reserved for him. Hilarity ensued.
I know the yuccas and agaves around here in the Southwest live for about 20 years and then send up one amazing flower stalk, and then the plant dies. Onanism can be deadly ...
ReplyDeleteLove the colors and shapes in this cluster of plants - the blues in front, the pale green/acid yellow, the shine and glow of the ph_ _ _, er umm, spire (they do have a tendency to just spring up, don't they...) x0 N2
ReplyDeleteHa!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.cumminsonan.com/
(It's not a link to anything bad, I promise. It's a site for Cummins brand Onan power generators.)