# Sealing wax? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 8, 2012, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sealing-wax/634142 "2012-09-08T23:51:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2012, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sealing-wax/634142/41 "2012-09-12T21:15:11Z")
> [@SpeedwayRyan](#): > > Well, perhaps YOU think it’s absurd, but Paul has been pretty open about it for years now: that’s EXACTLY what the song is about. He smokes pot for the first time and writes an ode to it, claiming that he’s “got to get it into his life.” Kinda explains the “other kind of mind” that Paul finds in the song as well. > > Could the lyrics also be about a woman? Sure, and that’s exactly why he wrote it that way, instead of calling the song “Pot: I Love to Smoke It.” > > Why do the lyrics need to be surreal or the music “stonerish” for a song to be about drugs? It’s an ode. > > This connection is very well accepted as fact in the world of Beatledom, BTW. > > From the Paul bio “Many Years From Now”: Well, if it is _really_ meant to be an “I like dope” song, it is a lousy one. The mood and feeling is all wrong - dope doesn’t gee you up like that music, with its upbeat rhythm and blaring brass, it makes you mellow - and who the hell resolves to themselves that they really ought to smoke more dope? As a love song, about someone resolving to try to make a burgeoning relationship more serious, it makes far more sense. (And there are plenty of songs, including Beatles songs, that work _much_ better as songs about dope.) ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2012, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sealing-wax/634142/42 "2012-09-12T21:36:53Z")
I find it amusing that ever single song from the 1960’s has people insisting it’s about drugs. On topic: I use sealing wax from time to time, with wicks and without. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2012, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sealing-wax/634142/43 "2012-09-12T21:41:35Z")
> [@BMalion](#): > > I find it amusing that ever single song from the 1960’s has people insisting it’s about drugs. But _they are,_ Man. ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2012, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sealing-wax/634142/44 "2012-09-12T23:41:13Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > But _they are,_ Man. Suuure. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2012, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sealing-wax/634142/45 "2012-09-13T00:35:09Z")
> [@BMalion](#): > > I find it amusing that ever single song from the 1960’s has people insisting it’s about drugs. if you belonged to the official fan club for the group you would know this to be true. annotated lyrics were given in secret code in their news letters. take the Beatles, their name starts with the second letter of the alphabet, so you would take the first letter of every 2nd word as the secret message. the Rolling Stones, their name starts with the 18th letter of the alphabet, so you would take the first letter of every 18th word as the secret message. this resulted in shorter messages or longer newsletters. having two words in their name also had the first letter of the 19th word yield a message about sex. ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2012, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sealing-wax/634142/46 "2012-09-13T00:42:15Z")
It’s all so obvious now! ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2012, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sealing-wax/634142/47 "2012-09-13T02:32:43Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > I have a very nice [Aladine](http://www.letterseals.com/aladine-initial-wax-seal.html#.UEv5pkKQnBE) sealing wax stamp that I use to seal very special letters. It lends a touch of old-fashioned class that one doesn’t see every day. It looks pretty sweet. ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2012, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sealing-wax/634142/48 "2012-09-13T02:37:27Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > It looks pretty sweet. I have one of those as well! ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2012, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sealing-wax/634142/49 "2012-09-13T02:59:14Z")
> [@Princhester](#): > > Lax. Lacks. Cracks. Axe. Hacks. Backs. > > Plenty. “Your father’s still perfecting ways of Mom fondling his sacks…” He was teaching her how to be under his thumb. Duh. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2012, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sealing-wax/634142/50 "2012-09-13T03:02:39Z")
> [@BMalion](#): > > I have one of those as well! Now we just need two more. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2012, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sealing-wax/634142/51 "2012-09-13T03:56:02Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > I have a very nice [Aladine](http://www.letterseals.com/aladine-initial-wax-seal.html#.UEv5pkKQnBE) sealing wax stamp that I use to seal very special letters. It lends a touch of old-fashioned class that one doesn’t see every day. I have one of those (they mention they’re imported from France). Had it for…hmm..20 years or so…Someday I might actually use it, providing I find some reason to do so. The stamp is a bit cheesy, though, but I tend to be a sucker for medievalish stuff. So, yet another bit of clutter in my drawers. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2012, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sealing-wax/634142/52 "2012-09-13T04:12:41Z")
johnpost writes: \> take the Beatles, their name starts with the second letter of the alphabet, so \> you would take the first letter of every 2nd word as the secret message. The first letter of every second word? Now you tell me. Ever since the 1960’s, when I started getting the newsletter of the Beatles fan club, I’ve assumed that it was the last letter of every second word. This means that I’ve got to go back and reinterpret all those newsletters. Hey, remember how I told everyone back in 1969 about Paul had died three years before? It turns out it wasn’t true. In fact, as far as I can discover, he’s still alive. ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2012, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sealing-wax/634142/53 "2012-09-13T05:42:10Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > I have a very nice [Aladine](http://www.letterseals.com/aladine-initial-wax-seal.html#.UEv5pkKQnBE) sealing wax stamp that I use to seal very special letters. It lends a touch of old-fashioned class that one doesn’t see every day. I don’t have one of those, but I do have a Chinese stamp (made in San Francisco) with my Chinese name engraved on it (or rather, the name my Chinese language teachers gave me to give me one less excuse to say anything in a language other than Chinese while in class. The name, as with the best names, fits me pretty well and I use it as a sort of pseudonym when I’m feeling informal, mostly for written correspondence. Anyhow, the main use the stamp gets with me is when I write Christmas cards. I use the stamp with some red ink along with my signature, and then I use sealing wax with the stamp to seal the envelope. Gives it an extra bit of snazz, and makes for a good conversation starter. Incidentally, the use of seals as signatures is pretty well-founded in East Asian cultures. From what I understand, they are still used in Japan. A more modern take on this would be applying a unique digital signature to an electronic document or email to verify the signer’s identity (sometimes I suspect this is the only way we know how to sign anything in the Air Force anymore). Lose your ID card with the signing certificates, and it is possible for someone to start applying your name to stuff without your consent (if they know your pin number, anyways). I still see official documents (such as Powers of Attorney) get stamps applied to them to make them more official. Usually when this happens, it will either a rubber stamp unique to the office, stamped next to someone’s signature, For Powers of Attorney, I usually see them use one of those metal embossing stamps to leave an imprint on the page. At my last base, they would then take a pencil and color in the imprint to make it stand out. At my current base, they take a rubber stamp identical to the imprint one and stamp on top of it. I’m not sure why. I’m pretty sure they don’t know why they do that at this point either.:rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2012, 7:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sealing-wax/634142/54 "2012-09-13T07:24:04Z")
**Wendell Wagner** : You just got it backwards: The message is “Dead is Paul”. Paul is the Grateful Dead. All of them. The reason you saw all of them in the same room at the same time was that Grateful Dead concerts had the _best_ drugs. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sealing-wax/634142.md?page=2)