GRGR 5: Hey, Wait Up for Me!

[John Burgess]

The Rose-bud episode of M-D is full of references to excrement and toilets:
the Rose-bud's surgeon has sequestered himself in the Captain's privy because 
he prefers its stench of shit to the malodor of putrescent whales; Stubb 
refers to the Rose-bud's crew as "Crappoes of Frenchmen"...prefiguring not 
just the "Kenosha Kid" toilet-sequence, but also the magnificent Toiletship!
Yes, foax, everything *is* connected!

And not to forget a few episodes from now (p. 104) where Blicero recalls for 
Gottfried "Your little rosebud bloomed."

Gore Vidal takes credit from introducing this usage to the reading public.
Anyway, I think that's what he meant.

Gore Vidal, among other things, is a great (well, "fun") writer. One of the 
other things he is, however, is full of bull-hockey.  That particular 
metaphore has been around in English for at least 300 years.  I'd bet it's 
existed for as long as people started noticing rosebuds.