Last Minute Article

Well, it shouldn’t have been last minute, but it ended up being that way since I’d almost entirely forgotten about it. For some reason, some one from the local magazine Female wrote in and asked me if I’d be interested in doing an article for them based on my take on Valentine’s Day. I said sure, and they said they needed it by December 11, which is a Sunday, and that seems darn strange, but hey, maybe they like starting the work week early…

So I promptly forgot about it until a few hours ago and when I realized it was due manically pumped it out. The irony of it is, the article isn’t even true. Well not for me, anyway. I figure they wanted something about the insensitivity of men and how confused they are by Valentine’s Day and what a frightful experience it is. To be honest, Valentine’s Day for me isn’t even really that big a deal, but then I think that’s because the Wife is one of those girls that actually doesn’t buy into the scam that the day is.

I did however learn some interesting things about the day itself, like the fact that the exact origins of the day are unclear. It would seem that there are at least THREE Saint Valentines in Christian history, and all of them died martyrs. Some myths and legends persist that one of these Valentines actually did stuff like help arrange marriages with Romans when marriage was temporarily banned, but there is no clear root for why Valentine’s Day is celebrated as and when it is. This makes me feel immensely better about world building in Science Fiction and Fantasy novels, because usually when you introduce some tradition or ritual, most people will insist there be some logical origin to explain it. Now I can always say, “Explain Valentine’s Day” and whoever I’m talking to will suddenly realize that he or she has no explanation at all for it.

Man, what a crazy world…