Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Valentine's Day Origins and Desperate, Desperate Men

Happy Valentine’s Day to all of you lovers out there.

I have this thing about Valentine’s Day. First I want to know where the holiday came from and how did it get co-opted into an annual spending spree?

The consensus opinion is that Valentine was an early Christian priest who defied Emperor Claudius II and secretly married men and women. Claudius banned marriage because he was having trouble filling the ranks of his armies because men didn’t want to leave their families.

Don't tell Dubya. It might give him some ideas on how he can "surge" more troops to Iraq.

So Valentine was arrested. Here is where the story gets quaint, and is probably contrived. It is said that Valentine became acquainted with the daughter of one of the prison guards. On the day of his death, 14 February, 269 CE, he left a note for the guard’s daughter and signed it “Love from your Valentine”.

The first valentine cards were sent by a woman, naturally, an American, naturally, named Miss Esther Howland.

And the rest is . . .corporate profits.

In honor of Valentine’s Day, here is a You Tube video of assorted men sitting down to record a video for what is most probably a dating service.

Think any of them got hooked up as a direct result of their performance? You decide.

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