Cecil, what about the song that had the chorus, “The birds do it, the bees, do it, even educated fleas do it,”?
LINK TO COLUMN: What’s the origin of the phrase, “the birds and the bees”? - The Straight Dope
Of course if human reproduction really were anything like bee reproduction, then the world would be a rather different place.
That’s based on the saying, not the other way round. Besides, its about falling in love, and has very little biological accuracy.
It’s only technically about falling in love. It’s really about falling in bed. Listen to Ella Fitzgerald’s version on The Cole Porter Songbook - her performance there is as sexy as Ella gets.
Welcome to the Straight Dope Message Boards, Bubbaclaw, we’re glad to have you with us. For future ref, when you start a thread, it’s helpful to other readers to provide a link to the column in question (I’ve edited it into a footnote on your post.) Yes, it’s on the front page now, but soon will sink into the depth of the Archives. So, the link saves searching time and helps keep us on the same page.
The song was written by Cole Porter (“Let’s Do It”) in 1928. Cecil notes that the phrase probably originates with S.T. Coleridge who died in 1834, thus pre-dating the song by a century.
Has it occurred to anyone that the phrase comes from the way flowers reproduce? Birds and bees spreading the pollen?
It seemed to me that this poor soul was looking for some rather serious information about sex which was not at all addressed. I feel sorry for him. If he’s not going to get the information he seeks here, that’s cool, at least give him a reference, general direction to go to get what he needs. A book title, a movie, anything!
That may be, but he’s in his fifties now and I’m sure that the birds & bees are a lesser issue now. Besides, we have the internet now. If you’re unable to find something about the mechanics of sex today then you shouldn’t be breeding.
You never know.