Beauty, youth and a pure heart: "zeg het met bloemen".

Well, it is nice to presume that she did not throw them in your face, this time.

Does she like red roses?

Were the roses well received?

a carrot for a mother,red roses for a mother,keep giving to mothers !

According to some website:
"Red Roses symbolize sincere Love, Respect, Courage & Passion
Red (Dark) Rose reveals unconscious beauty."

Arnon

Only twenty? Scrooge! She deserves one for every year of her life and an additional one for every year you are in her life.

More than a few years back I gave someone 21 yellow roses for her 20th birthday.

I am not sure, but I don't think I have bought any flowers for any one since then.

Oscar

Yes.

Arnon

You asked me to behave, you asked me to stop writing nonsense. I promised I would try, but, honnest, I find that hard. I love to tease you, some of my comments are even ment to provoke, some are written to annoy you. Would it make a difference if I tell you that I regard the Mieke Dutoit who writes on this blog as a work of fiction? In real life I always behave, some consider me even a very distant person.

mieke

don't be too friendly now!
don't stop provoking cause you like to please him...

Mr. Arnon

Does this demand for no nonsense in the comments apply to all commenters? In other words, should I behave better?

20RR

The simplicity of this message moved me.
Why 20? Is 20 a boucquet and 19 not?
Or otherwise: one more rose and I will loose you.

behave

how boring it could get, if every single person here behaved...

Johan

Twenty is a decent amount of roses.
Thirty is a bit much.
When I visit my German publisher I always bring thirty or forty roses for his wife. Twenty seemed to be appropriate for my mother.

21

10, 20, you must stop somewhere., it does not matter.
And I should have written: one more rose and you will loose me,
to make the case clear, in case it should matter.

@Johan Schokker
You are on the right track, but insofar I dare to speak for Arnon’s mother:
-with 21 roses, she could have said:’21 ? I am no longer 3 times 7, you idiot!’
-with more, let us assume 30 or 40 roses, she could have replied: ‘So much? Do I look that old, you bodacious brat!’
-with less roses, she could have yelled: ‘Hey, is that all you can spare for your poor mother, I am not a teenager, you scum boy!’
So Arnon made the right choice: 20 roses. No more, no less.

Johan S

You must stop somewhere. I always stop at twenty. Twenty roses, twenty novels, no girls under the age of twenty, no more than twenty masseuses at the same time, no more than twenty houses, no more than twenty STD’s, no more than twenty nose jobs, no more than twenty days in prison, no more than twenty days in hospital, no more than twenty days in one place, no more than twenty parties a year, I never buy more than twenty pairs of underpants at the same time.
Exaggeration can be offensive.
Unless exaggeration is part of the ritual, in that case the gift is not only a gift but also irony.

No more than twenty macbooks.

Haha Hanny... funny!
Arnon will have no doubt more Mac's than I do, but I have a nice selection. I sold the oldest, a bitching screaming LC ii to a collector.

Arnon

You stop at 20. And why not? 20 is a great number. Of course 20 can be interpreted, but in all modesty I stop, and I leave you your jouissance. I prefer 11; 11 books, 11 holidays and 11 fools. So let us all worship our private numbers.
Concerning exaggeration: as there is a limit to love, the moment on which love turns into hate, there is on that precise moment exaggeration to make that very gift (of love, I mean) undone. The question is: can irony save the gift? It reminds me of Adorno, a famous saying everybody knows (in his Minima Moralia): “Nothing is true in psychoanalysis except its exaggerations.” A typical example of saying yes and no.
And my answer would be: no, irony cannot save the gift, in the end, but I am puzzled what could be a better answer.

Bernhard F.

I think that 20 roses was more about my personal obsessions as Arnons, and to be honest, who cares?
Let us proceed one step further...
Of course, this does not mean I do not appreciate, even praise, Arnons writing.