JimH wrote:
I am not a big fan of special days the Greeting Card Company's made up,
including Valentines Day and Sweetest Day,

Here's a bit of trivia you might particularly enjoy. The greeting card
companies did not "make up" Valentines Day, and the original Valentinus
was a Christian priest who was later declared a saint by the church.

Back in the waning days of the Roman empire, one of the emperors
actually forbid young men and women to marry. The young men were
expected to serve in the army, travelling north to do battle with the
Germanic tribes. The unmarried (and therefore at least "officially"
virgin) young girls were awarded as prizes to soldiers who had served
with particular valor.

Each year in mid-February, the emperor would decree that all the names
of the unmarried young virgins should be wruitten on slips of paper and
put into a box. Soldiers returning from the front were allowed to draw
a name at random from the box, and would then be awarded the
companionship and sexual services of the young virgin for the following
year. While there was always the risk of some poor guy drawing the ugly
fat chick who talked too much, in a male dominated society like Rome
the young women probably got the worst of the bargain. The soldier
could simply walk away from a bad match, but the young woman had no
such option.

The Christian priest Valentinus openly defied the edict that forbid
young people to marry.
Valentinus would marry any young couple that asked him to do so- and
this of course diminished the supply of unmarried young women who could
be passed out to his legionaires.

Valentinus was arrested, and as a show of authority the emperor ordered
him executed on the day the names of virgins were drawn from the box-
February 14.

The "love notes" that get passed around on February 14 are St
Valentine's revenge.
Instead of men and women being forcibly coupled by the state with notes
drawn at random on February 14, they now send each other notes and
voluntarily pledge to love one another other for the following year, or
beyond.

By the way, I got my wife about 15 pounds of pot for Valentine's Day
.................


It's extremely ornate, covered with mosaic tiles, and I'm sure she'll
plant something in it within the next few weeks. :-)