I wonder how many of them "get lucky" that night.

*faint buzzing noise*

Did you see it yourself on CNN?

I'm asking because the thing is taking on some degree of legend status. First I searched Google, and only found mentions of the story on secondhand sources such as Adam Savage's blog. Then I searched CNN.com for "flowers + women" and then for "Valentine," "roses," and "Valentine's Day," and didn't find the story. Then I searched Google News and found these few stories about the U.S. Census reporting that 15% of women send flowers to themselves on Valentine's Day.

So beyond the reported census data, it's hard to tell where this 50% figure is coming from. 50% is high for any kind of purchase, and Mother's Day still out-flowers Valentine's Day by a long shot. Still, I don't even hear it as that weird a thing. Sending flowers to yourself is a pretty standard trope in magazine articles about how to give yourself a boost, and the like. I'll happily admit that I'd go ahead and send myself flowers if I wanted to, on Valentine's Day or whenever. I like flowers and have occasionally bought them for the house when I wanted to look at them, and I am quite happy on my birthday when my parents send yellow roses. But in general, if I'm going to drop a fifty on myself, roses aren't the way I'd do it. Still, I'm completely down with the idea of giving yourself a big wonderful present when you want to, especially if you want to make sure your hopes for a special day are fulfilled.

...(more)

I'm now wondering whether even this census data is Bogus. Here's the U.S. Census press release for 2007 on Valentine's Day facts and figures. They've done this in the past for a few years running, , it seems. No mention of women sending flowers to themselves.

It would be fun to call up the reporters who are citing the Census statistic and ask where they found it.

I just wrote the reporter and reader rep at the L.A. Times, the original publisher of the "I'm With Cupid" op-ed containing the 15% statistic, to ask where they got the data point.

I really need to do some actual work now.

I'll report back if I hear anything.

Howdy, miko; enjoyed & found edifying your remarks in that dating thread.

Not sure where "50%" originates. I'm fairly sure I heard 22% at the end of some little throwaway-type story about V-Day on CNN Headline News on Wednesday. (I was trapped working at home, so had TV on low for company & was half trying to listen, mainly for local weather stories, while trying to parse source code. I'm not sure I was doing well at either endeavor.) I was so surprised that I waited awhile for the stories to "loop" around, but frustratingly if it came up again, I missed it.

Searching CNN.com for "valentine's day florist" was fruitless. I E'd CNN Headline News myself to see if somebody can clue me in.

The notion of it seemed so outrageous that it made me think of the old quip "47% of all statistics are made up out of whole cloth on the spot."

OK, gotta get head-down my own se'f....

"FLOWER FACTS

Men do most of the flower giving on Valentine’s Day. Men buy 65% of these flowers. If you just look at roses, that jumps to 75%.

The majority of women who buy Valentine’s Day flowers give them to their mother (32%), husband/significant other (24%), self (22%), daughter (16%), or friend 14%).

Florists are expecting to sell close to 200 million roses this Valentine's Day.

Society of American Florists"

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17116132/

I send flowers to myself at work at least four times a year (I'm a girl--it used to be embarrassing to admit I sent them myself, but I'm over that now); my guy sends them to me about four times a year, too. (I send them to him maybe once a year). I never send flowers to myself on "special" occasions though.

I buy them for the house 4-5x a month. Flowers are pretty.