A "daisy chain" of links can be seen at InstaPundit, where Glenn Reynolds offers non-judgmental coverage of a real puzzle: Senator Kerry and the mysterious dangling daisy which has appeared in a number of places and blogs.
While there is some controversy over the genuineness of at least one of the pictures, this one (the one which drew the Secret Service agent's "'WTF?' sort of expression") seems authentic, and the picture appears just below an account of a Kerry hug:
"I even got a hug. That was nice," said Idaho Rep. Wendy Jaquet, D-Ketchum. "He said thank you very much. Theresa (Heinz Kerry) definitely said thank you." (The picture follows.)
(I am curious about the use of the word "definitely" but that's getting off-topic....) There's another genuine daisy photo here too.
Bill Hobbs has more, and one of his commenters even asks whether Kerry is a "heretic" and mentions the "sign of the beast"!
The daisy is a late (15th century) symbol of the innocence of the Christ Child. The daisy, less exotic and pretentious than the lily, was thought by some to be a more fitting symbol for the baby Jesus.
I searched far and wide for references to the daisy as a heretic symbol, but came up dry.
Well, there is this poem (but I think it's a stretch):
A Daisy Chain 4 Satan (acid and flowers mix)
Here where I sit alone lost
Here I will dream, why
Give me a drink, I need a think now
I have to rip my stinking brain
Black boots, highway broads
Dope forever, forever loaded
Black boots
(Flowers and Acid... I love flowers)
Call me a flaming liberal, but I just don't think it is reasonable to imagine that Senator Kerry had the above in mind.
Daisy (April) is pink with golden yellow hair. Her symbol is a yellow daisy symbol with a green stem. Her eyes are blue. Her Danish name is Marguerite. Thanks to Whirly for use of this photo.
But Kerry is a Sagittarius, so the birth flower is out.
The daisy as an Italian charm? (Kerry did sell his house in Italy, you know. But I think it's a tad conspiratorial to suspect an Italian plot.)
I think most fair-minded people would be willing to consider the implications of the daisy as a dream symbol, though:
Dream symbol: daisy, daisy, daisies
Interpretation:
Plucking petals from a daisy may indicate being undecided or unsure of something
Needing to lighten up
Slang for a homosexual
Slang for something that is excellent
Something that is dead and buried, past or needing to be released, pushing up daisies
See also: death, flower, homosexual
Hmmmmm......
I really don't feel like pushing any of the above daisy references.
But let's not break the chain!
Not yet!
The daisy is a multi-faceted symbol, and I want to be as thorough as possible, because Kerry hasn't been forthcoming so far, and research is what blogging's all about.
"It's Latin name may come from bellis, meaning beautiful, so Bellis Perennis can be translated to perennial beauty, as the daisy flowers for so long. Or bellis may come from bellum, Latin for war, because it grew in fields of battle, and can staunch bleeding and reduce bruising and shock. One of the daisy's old names is bruisewort.
The cheerful little daisy is a symbol of innocence because of its association with children, and of survival.
Daisies adapt to almost any landscape and soil type, and will survive being trodden underfoot and all the indignities of the hoe and the lawnmower."
-Anne McIntyre, Flower Power
And, considering my blog, it would be irresponsible in the extreme if I overlooked the ancients. A lovely website associates the flower with the Greek goddess Aphrodite, and more:
The actual name comes from Days eye, because the flower opens at sunrise & closes at sunset. Its Latin name may come from the Latin Bellis meaning beautiful so Bellis Perennis can be translated as perennial beauty. Then again it Bellis may come from Bellum, Latin for war because it grew in fields of battle & can stop bleeding & reduce bruising & shock. One of the daisies old names is bruisewort.
In fairness to Senator Kerry, I thought it only fair to point out the ancients' military use of the daisy:
The Roman daisy is a classic bronzed medal decoration used in Ancient Rome to enhance the gladiator's armour, soldier's leather belts, leather wrist bands.
And you can order your own daisy leather wrist band right there at the above site! After all the controversy, shouldn't Senator Kerry at least be allowed to be daring and dashing, to show a little flair, some panache, and butch it up just like a Roman soldier?
Notwithstanding this blog's interest in classical mythology, I think I'd also be remiss if I did not at least consider the symbol's modern political meaning as it relates to the important issues in the campaign.
How about, specifically, the war in Iraq?
Fortunately, the work has been done for me by AlterNet!
A Daisy For Peace
Posted by Lakshmi on January 16, 2003 @ 3:24PM
A powerul new ad put out by the Internet advocacy group MoveOn.org will hit televisions in Washington, D.C., New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston and eight other U.S. cities. The 30-second spot (Real Media Required), titled Daisy 2, reworks former Democratic President Lyndon Johnson's controversial election ad.
It shows a young girl picking petals off a daisy and culminates in a mushroom cloud. As the ad rolls through footage of burning oil wells and crowds of angry Arabs, the narrators voice says, "War with Iraq. Maybe it will end quickly. Maybe not. Maybe it will spread. Maybe extremists will take over countries with nuclear weapons." The final message: Let the Inspections Work.
The ad evokes not merely memories of the Cold War era but also the acrimonious election campaign of 1964, which pitted Lyndon Johnson against Barry Goldwater. Johnson's campaign withdrew the spot after a single airing due to Republican protests that it portrayed Goldwater as an extremist who could lead the way to global destruction.
Or how about a teddy bear? (If the daisy's really linked to the campaign, they'd go great with the JFK hat!)
This list is not intended as exhaustive, but as a humble contribution in the hope that the blogosphere can patiently discover the truth about the Kerry daisy.
As Glenn Reynolds says, "America really does want to know!"
Perhaps the truth here is like a daisy: delicate, symbolic, and composed of many different petals.
UPDATE: Now I see that the New York Times is removing the daisy (via Glenn Reynolds). I didn't know that when I wrote the above post, and now I'm wondering whether I should reconsider any of my thoughts....
UPDATE: My thanks to Glenn Reynolds for his generous link to this post! Welcome all InstaPundit readers; hope you enjoy. I am of course open to more ideas, because as I said, this daisy chain does not claim to be exhaustive (although I wish I could say that I left no petal unturned).
Meanwhile Justin Case suggests that I take look at Logan's Run. Something about daisy-like flowers embedded in the hand -- a sort of biological alarm clock which turns black when your life is supposed to end. Unfortunately, I never read the book, which seems to spoof the so-called "Flower Power" generation. I'd hate to think that Kerry might be thinking along such lines....
On a more serious note, I am troubled by the allegations of airbrushing at the New York Times. Airbrushing simply cannot be done unintentionally, so I am wondering whether the Times did it on their own, or whether they were told to do it.
Either way, it looks bad. (Do they think we're still living in the days of unquestioning Pravda-like acceptance of whatever we are told is The Truth?)
UPDATE: In his own update, Boi from Troy no longer thinks the daisy was eaten by the Times, but they found a different photo of Kerry, with a more biker-like ski jacket. What a relief that they're not covering up daisies! I wouldn't have wanted that -- not on April Fools Day.
UPDATE: Justin supplied this URL showing the daisy -- next to a caption, "The Youth Rebellion Had Triumphed..." (Had is hard in Massachusettsian.)
[T]he demonstrators know what to do. There was a well-known poster that showed the technique. You walk up with a smile to the nearest soldier and stick a flower in the barrel of his gun. The symbolism cannot be missed by even the most dense. Who could shoot someone who had just given them a flower?
One thing I have always wondered about the Kent State shooting: when the first teenaged Guardsman aimed his rifle at the chest of a chanting girl and squeezed the trigger to blow a red hole through a tie-dyed shirt and through an ideal, did he sight the shot over the petals of a daisy?
You know, maybe I should rethink my whole position. If only we could outfit U.S. soldiers with daisies instead of guns! As the writer says, who could shoot someone who had just given them a flower? All atrocities and terrorism would stop, and people would finally get along!
Why, I can easily see a brand-new Mideast peace plan coming out of this!
(A secret plan for ending the war, perhaps?)
FINAL UPDATE: According to Glenn Reynolds, the daisy puzzle has now been solved! It turns out that Kerry was wearing this adorable plastic key ring. The ad states they're "available in fire orange, hot pink, signal green, saturn yellow, snow white and glow-in-the-dark." (I'm sure for an extra fee, the presidential seal could be embossed in the middle.)
UNFINAL, UNINTENDED, UN-UPDATE: I realize that this is getting speculative, but others have now speculated that the daisy keyring/zipper puller/whatever-it-is has something to do with rheumatoid arthritis.
Sorry, but I am not buying! Arthritis in no way forces a macho guy like Kerry to use a plastic daisy to help him find his zipper!
Hasn't anyone ever heard of Harley Davidson keyrings? They're available everywhere, and besides, Kerry is said to ride a Harley.
And, well, not to plug the online test which is going around (and which I recently blogged about) but just above the Harley Davidson keyring there's this Devil Duckie keyring. It'd be simply DIVINE!
Plus he could give it a squeeze every time he has to "duck" an issue -- and say the devil made him do it.
posted by Eric on 03.31.04 at 04:24 PM
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