Happy St. Valentine’s Day
A candy heart from Candy Slice. (Idea shamelessly stolen from Michelle Malkin.)
Here’s some info on St. Valentine’s Day; yes, I like to keep the Saint in St. Valentine’s day; sometime just to peeve my kids’ teachers.
The popular customs associated with Saint Valentine’s Day undoubtedly had their origin in a conventional belief generally received in England and France during the Middle Ages, that on 14 February, i.e. half way through the second month of the year, the birds began to pair. Thus in Chaucer’s Parliament of Foules we read:
For this was sent on Seynt Valentyne’s day
Whan every foul cometh ther to choose his mate.For this reason the day was looked upon as specially consecrated to lovers and as a proper occasion for writing love letters and sending lovers’ tokens. Both the French and English literatures of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries contain allusions to the practice. Perhaps the earliest to be found is in the 34th and 35th Ballades of the bilingual poet, John Gower, written in French; but Lydgate and Clauvowe supply other examples. Those who chose each other under these circumstances seem to have been called by each other their Valentines. In the Paston Letters, Dame Elizabeth Brews writes thus about a match she hopes to make for her daughter (we modernize the spelling), addressing the favoured suitor:
And, cousin mine, upon Monday is Saint Valentine’s Day and every bird chooses himself a mate, and if it like you to come on Thursday night, and make provision that you may abide till then, I trust to God that ye shall speak to my husband and I shall pray that we may bring the matter to a conclusion.
Shortly after the young lady herself wrote a letter to the same man addressing it “Unto my rightwell beloved Valentine, John Paston Esquire”. The custom of choosing and sending valentines has of late years fallen into comparative desuetude.
Barbara Curtis at Mommy Life talks about the real St. Valentine’s day and the evolution of the holiday.
Ice Storm cancels Global Warming meeting!
Filed under: Are you kidding me?, Enviromentalism, News
Fresh off the Drudge Report this morning:
HOUSE HEARING ON ‘WARMING OF THE PLANET’ CANCELED AFTER ICE STORM
HEARING NOTICE
Tue Feb 13 2007 19:31:25 ETThe Subcommittee on Energy and Air Quality hearing scheduled for Wednesday, February 14, 2007, at 10:00 a.m. in room 2123 Rayburn House Office Building has been postponed due to inclement weather. The hearing is entitled “Climate Change: Are Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Human Activities Contributing to a Warming of the Planet?”
The hearing will be rescheduled to a date and time to be announced later.
DC WEATHER REPORT:
Wednesday: Freezing rain in the morning. Total ice accumulation between one half to three quarters of an inch. Brisk with highs in the mid 30s. North winds 10 to 15 mph…increasing to northwest 20 to 25 mph in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation near 100 percent.
Wednesday Night: Partly cloudy. Lows around 18. Northwest winds around 20 mph.
And Al Gore reaches out to kids and explains Global Warming in terms they can understand:
[youtube FN8y5zuQTRU Global Warming Will Destroy Us ALL!]
Conservative UAW Guy has a few things to say too.
Sister Toldjah reminds us of Al Gore’s bad day.
And more from – Pirate’s Cove
And HotAir
Oh – and did you know that St. Valentine’s Day contributes to global warming?
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