When's it Gonna get Spring?

I know, I know, what lousy use of the language, but hey, when is Spring Gonna Sprung? A lot of Canadians are here right now, as are the Spring Breakers, but it's still pretty chilly, and here these people are walking around in their shorts and t-shirts while I'm freezing my butt off. Even the dog balks at going outside. Until this weather gets warmer, the golf carts going to stay garaged.

I just posted a new blog entry on the IM blog. Check it out:
http://shagmiser.blogspot.com

Mom seems to be taking to her (now not so) new place. Lots more getting up and around, getting more social, and actually doing stuff she never considered doing while she lived on her own. It expensive, but between her EJ account, social security, and VA benefits, she's covering the bases. We just wish the EJ account hadn't tanked so bad (thanks to greedy Wall Street and dumb ass politicians).

Susan's back to work, Sally's at the Aquarium, I'm trying to learn more about mini sites and how to run them correctly (see the blog comment above), so all's right with the world. All things considered, we're better than OK - we're in the place we've always wanted (the beach), I can't be fired since I'm retired, and I'm doing what I really enjoy. So life really is a beach after all.

Our niece Rachael is still really suffering, and they still can't seem top figure it out. If you get a chance, send Rachael some serious get well thoughts and prayers. If you don't now how, check out her ongoing story at:
http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/rachelhale

TTFN, and we'll see you - @thebeach.

Sally and Susan's Birthday Video

Sally and Susan celebrate their birthday tomorrow by taking a trip down memory lane today. Watch the video and enjoy it with them. They are getting it on - Again!



Wow! Now that was fun!

Flight of Dick's Disco

This is from the Flight of the Conchords - It's not exactly like I remember "Randy's on a Friday Night."

History of Valentine's Day

Here's something a little unique for this blog. Martin Avis of Kickstart Daily just posted the History of Valentine's Day on his site, and it's a little unusual in the fact that every time you refresh his page, a reworded version comes up. According to Martin, "You can refresh the page as many times as you like, and each time a different version of the article will be displayed." See for yourself at his History of Valentine's page. In the meantime, here's the article, re-published with his permission.

Be My Valentine

Long before anybody had heard of Saint Valentine to spice things up and bring some passion into the cold winter, mid-February was looked forward to as a lusty occasion for lovers. From 400 years BC, the Romans conducted an annual sweep stake as an act of worship to their god of shepherds, Lupercus. Teenage women had their names written down and put inside a box and drawn blindly by adolescent men. The young people then found themselves legally paired for a year.

600 years later, the warlike emperor Claudius II banned young men from marrying -- because he thought that unattached males could fight harder in battle.

A Christian bishop, Valentine, didn't agree with Claudius and disobeyed the law and performed secret marriage ceremonies until Claudius learned of his disobedience and first imprisoned him, and finally had him brutally executed on February 24th, 270.

While he was imprisoned, Valentine fell in love with his guard's daughter and when he was finally taken to be killed, he sent her a letter which he ended with, 'From your Valentine.'

Valentine's story provided a good excuse, and so, the Church, in AD 496, took the opportunity to get rid of the hated partnership sweep stake held in honor of the god Lupercus and so made some changes of their own to the rules of the event:

From then on, either gender would select a name in the lottery, but now they wouldn't get the expected year of 'marriage' (and often lust), they would now receive the name of a Saint whose character they were obliged emulate over the coming twelve months.

What a crushing disappointment that must have been for the lusty youngsters in Roman days!
The day of the new-style lottery was named after Saint Valentine whose selection, more than two centuries after his death, was aimed at ridding Christian Rome of the old-religion god Lupercus than from any real intention to promote love.

As so often happens, the public's memory was harder to beat down than political will -- particularly when unpopular and Saint Valentine's name continued to be associated with passion and love. Young Roman men, deprived of their lottery, started instead handing paper notes to the girls they fancied on February 14th.

So it was that the modern habit of distributing and receiving Valentine cards was effectively begun over 1500 years ago!

The very first modern-day card that is still in existence is in the collection of the British Museum. It was sent by Charles, Duke of Orleans to his wife in 1415. The poor man was a 'guest' in the Tower of London at the time and so his feelings of love were probably quite heightened!
Five hundred years ago the Bishop of Geneva wanted to reinstate the yearly 'live like a saint' lottery, but his efforts were short-lived. February 14th was by then too firmly associated with lovers for the Church to successfully interfere.

In 1797 a British publisher, a man who would have done well in modern times, issued a guidebook called 'The Young Man's Valentine Writer' in which were pages of pre-written love poems for the creatively challenged.

Anonymous Valentines cards began with the Victorians. Those outwardly straight-laced folks privately adored anything sensual and passionate, but outwardly were obliged to maintain an aura of respectful purity. Amusingly for us the words in the cards became more and more obscene, but the authors were able to maintain their respectability from behind their self-imposed anonymity.

The first publisher of Valentine's cards in America, Esther Holland was able to charge up to $35 for a single card. That was a fortune in 1870!

In case you are wondering, we still write kisses with the letter 'x' because in the days before people could generally read and write, your signature was a cross. To make the mark an oath, people would draw their cross and kiss it -- much the same as they would kiss a Bible. Unsurprisingly the hand-drawn X and the kiss became one and the same.

Have a love-filled Valentine's day!

Dick

Again, our thanks to Martin Avis for providing this little ditty and allowing us to share it with you.

http://kickstartdaily.com/