Paul Is Dead Clue

I don’t for a moment think that Paul really is dead although I do derive a good bit of amusement reading about the whole episode and the clues. I love how someone you know nothing about can say that “the walrus is a (fill in the blank) symbol of death” a lot of people simply assume that it is accurate. There is one point in all the clues that for me doesn’t have a satisfactory answer. That is Paul’s wearing of a black carnation for the “Your Mother Should Know” portion of Magical Mystery Tour. Paul’s explanation: that they had run out of red ones, isn’t unlikely on it’s face. It’s just the sort of thing that does happen. However, if a florist runs out of red carnations, is he likely to throw in a black one instead? My experience is that there would be a pink one or just possibly a white put in to make up the numbers — or in the US, in March, possibly one dyed green.

Yesterday I had occasion to visit the oldest, best and most experienced florist shop in my small town and spoke to the owner, whose connection with this particular shop began at least 4 years before Magical Mystery Tour was filmed. When I asked him about black carnations he replied that there was no such thing as a natural black flower. There were a few species, roses, peonies and orchids primarily, that had been bred to very dark shades of blue, purple, red or brown but not black. To provide a black carnation the florist must have dyed, spray-painted or otherwise transformed a carnation of ordinary color — or the black carnation must have been artificial. (Remember, this was well before the general availability of silk flowers.) In other words, no florist would have thrown in a black carnation (even should he (or she) have such on hand,) for the same price as the red ones.

Since the majority of the other “clues” that Paul is dead are far from convincing when examined, we’re left with the question “Why on earth did Paul (or someone connected with the movie) decide that Paul, or one of the four, should wear a black flower? At this point, we’re probably going to be left with the same answer given for all the strange references in Glass Onion: they did it just for fun.