This week is the week of Valentine’s Day… I often don’t pander to the holiday, but today is one of the pandering days. So, strap on some pander monkeys and let’s jump into the saucy sea of Valentine glitz.
Thanks this week go to the wife, Chris Corrigan, Steev, Maj McArmypants and some other guy.. Onto the questions:
1. ummm….We both forgot the anniversary of our engagement. should we just pretend that we got engaged on valentine’s day like everyone else and go out to dinner?
Dinner is always appropriate. Last week was crazy sauce.
2. I love the name Valentine. Someone should have a kid and name her that. thoughts?
I think that is perfectly fine, but I would feel that you know more people who might be able to make that happen.
3. What should be the kissing game at Zane’s(Little Man, our oldest kid) Valentine’s Day party at school? An email was just sent out asking for ideas. I don’t have any, but it has to involve kissing, right?
What the what?!?! There is a “kissing game?!?!” What the hell does that mean?
4. You and your beloved have the most amazing relationship…you talk all the time about how lucky you both feel that the other one would pick you, but if you could put it down to one thing, what fuels the love at the Ryan-Hart household?
It is a one/two punch of communication and putting your partner first.
5. Tell me the story of why you changed your name when you got married.
The wife was not willing to take my last name, and I felt that it was important for my family to have the same last name. Therefore we combined last names to a hyphenated last name. Simple really…
6. Once I had kids I discovered there was another kind of love I’d never experienced before. How would you talk about that love?
That love is really unable to be expressed by mere words. It is an amazing and instant love.
7. And here’s one for you…what are the parts of yourself that your beloved saw in you that no one had ever seen before? (I believe that just naming those qualities would be a lovely Valentine’s gift!)
I have sweet side that most people haven’t seen…. and never will.
8. Why do you think love gets short shrift?
Because love is very intimate and personal. It is not something that can easily be jumped on by a group of people. Hate and jealousy and pettier things are easily glommed on by a community of people.
9. In 1929 there was a gangland shooting known as the Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre. There was also a record album released in 1981 bearing the same name and featuring the metal band Motörhead. The lead singer of Motörhead’s name is Ian Fraser Kilmister but goes by the nickname Lemmy. Do you know why they call him Lemmy?
He gained the nickname by constantly asking, when poor and young, “Len’me a quid?” and his brilliant cadre of friends started saying, as Frasier would approach, “Oi, ere comesat Lemmy.” aaaaand scene.
10. Valentine’s Day is the name of a romantic comedy film that was released in 2010. The film features Ashton Kutcher who was married to Demi Moore (which is kind of a romantic comedy in itself, but I digress.). Moore was also a founding investor in the Planet Hollywood restaurant chain. There is a Planet Hollywood in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; do you think they can show her movie Striptease there?
I think it is illegal to even show that movie in Louisiana.
11. Valentine’s Day is also known as the Feast of Saint Valentine. St. Valentine or Saint Valentinus, died in prison in 629 AD. What do you think his last meal was and would you consider it a “feast”?
Gonna say that his last meal was not a good meal. My bet is some crusty stale bread rind, a bit of moldy cheese, and small ort of some dried salted fish. The Roman’s weren’t known for their polite treatment of prisoners.
12. The day was first associated with romantic love in the circle of Geoffrey Chaucer in the High Middle Ages, when the tradition of courtly love flourished. Although being a great poet, Chaucer was a less than great soldier. He was captured during the siege of Rheims in the Hundred Year’s War. Many of the largest champagne-producing houses, known as les grandes marques, have their headquarters in Reims. Do you think Chaucer was drunk when they captured him?
Drunk and in a compromising position with a local lady.
13. In India, in the antiquity, there was a tradition of adoring Kamadeva, the lord of love. This tradition was lost around the Middle Ages, when Kamadeva was no longer celebrated, and public displays of sexual affections became frowned upon. (Total bummer.) Before people stopped getting freaky in the streets, Kamadeva was known to fly around on the back of a bird shooting “love arrows” with his sugarcane bow with honey bee strings. This sounds suspiciously like Cupid, the Roman god of erotic love. The Pope lives in Rome now and has renounced erotic love. Do you think this is why he quit?
Nope, he quit because he is of advanced age and did not realize how much of his tenure would be associated with sex scandals. That is a tiring work life.
14. Don’t you think this would be more fun if this was formalled-up a bit? Let’s call it St. Valentine’s Day and correct anyone who uses the “old” non-religious version.
I think it is time to start putting the reason back in the season. Let’s martyr some clergy!
15. I think we can safely say that love for St. Valentine’s Day is a spectrum. 1. People who see it as a lame Hallmark Holiday. 2. People who recognize it is a lame Hallmark Holiday, but would happily support it if it came with time off bestowed through Federal Holiday status. On a scale of 1 to 2, where do you stand?
More 2-ish than 1-ish.
16. Do you ever think that St. Valentine’s Day might be proof of the existence of a mainly apathetic mad scientist with a mind control ray? I mean one day the US started buying romance cards that somehow honors an Italian martyr and let’s throw in the mass consumption of chalk in little tiny heart shapes? Personally, I would have added in large red hats and insisted that love be spelled “wuv”, but otherwise if I had the technical know how for mind control this just about where I would have left it.
I don’t think there is enough of a subliminal message about how awesome the mind control scientist is. If I were to create a holiday, there would be something in it to revere me as an icon of some kind.
17. While never really NOT lame, don’t you think that this holiday’s day is done? I mean in a time where courting was a “process” this might have provided an opportunity to express an interest. Now that appears to be done causally with the standard: “Can I git with U?” text.
I like the idea of changing the meaning of Valentine’s Day (the colloquial meaning) from the romantic holiday, or Single’s Awareness Day as some call it to more of a Booty Call Day.
18. Do you like those little chalk hearts?
Nope. Cannot stand them. My dad, however, could eat a bag of them.
19. You doing anything for Valentine’s day?
Parent teacher’s conference followed by dinner with my wife, it seems.
20. Valentine’s Day? More like Valentine’s Gaaaaaay…. am I right?
No… No you aren’t right at all.
To recap:
Who would want to be Pope
Man, I am rather tired
Sleep has been elusive
Mainly because I am not going to bed early enough
I should prolly go to bed tonight
Early-ish
I have 2 interviews in the works
Both are teh awesome
One is on question 9
And the other is sitting on question 14
I have one person willing to do a 20 Questions
But that person is on a cruise right now
I have had a couple other people say they were willing and then never email me back
If anyone wants to do one of these lemme know
Happy Valentine’s Day
Have a great weekend everyone