“Possum Philosophy: Getting to the heart of it (The Bland County Messenger)” plus 1 more

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Possum Philosophy: Getting to the heart of it (The Bland County Messenger) Posted: 12 Feb 2010 02:03 PM PST Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it. By ROBERT CAHILL/Columnist As almost everyone is aware, Feb. 14 (Sunday this year) is the annual celebration of Saint Valentine's Day, or as it's commonly called, simply Valentine's Day. It is the holiday of lovers the world over. Although some men consider it a manufactured holiday created through a cooperative effort between women and retail merchandisers to sell flowers, candy and jewelry, it originally was a holiday proclaimed by the early church to honor a martyred saint, Valentine. It naturally did not hurt that the church also used it to replace one of the pagan holidays without upsetting recent pagan converts. Most sources agree the holiday it replaced was Lupercalia (I'm not sure of the exact spelling, but then neither apparently are the experts.). There also seems to be a vastly differing opinion as to what exactly this holiday honored or how this honoring was done. One explanation was that in early Rome, adolescent boys celebrated their passage to adulthood on this holiday, which took place in mid-February. The names of adolescent girls were written on slips of paper and placed in a box. These names were drawn by the young men and the girl whose name they drew became their "partner" for a year. (This included sex as you may have already figured.) Naturally, this didn't sit well with the church. Another festival apparently pre-dating even the Roman one was a festival of spring and celebrated cleansing and purification. Yet another celebration was one thought to promote fertility. Another was connected to a celebration in honor of Lupus, the wolf. As if that were not enough, one such celebration honored the god Lupercus, the god of shepherds, who was portrayed as naked except for a goatskin tied around his waist. This one evidently involved pagan priests running naked except for a similar goatskin. Regardless of whether only one or all these pagan rites were the primary basis, none of them suited the tenets of the church. In 496 AD, Pope Gelasius I established the holiday in honor of an early martyr named Valentine, thus it became Saint Valentine's Day, a day to celebrate love and friendship, as condoned by the church. But here we run into another problem. In the early days of establishing the church and converting the pagans, there were at least three martyrs, all named Valentine. I think the pope just picked the most convenient one and called it a day. According to Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, "Legenda Aurea still providing no connections whatsoever with sentimental love, appropriate lore has been embroidered in modern times to portray Valentine as a priest who refused an unattested law attributed to Roman Emperor Claudius II, allegedly ordering that young men remain single. The emperor supposedly did this to grow his army, believing that married men did not make for good soldiers. The priest Valentine, however, secretly performed marriage ceremonies for young men. When Claudius found out about this, he had Valentine arrested and thrown in jail." Claudius apparently had Valentine beaten and finally executed by beheading. Later legends claimed that Valentine either simply befriended a young woman or fell in love with her. Who knows which or if such a person actually existed. The woman has been described as his "beloved," as the jailer's daughter or possibly one and the same. She was either deathly ill or blind, according to the version you prefer, and Valentine managed to heal her through prayer. Supposedly on the evening before his execution he wrote a note to her and (according to American Greetings Inc. in information provided to History.com for an article on St Valentine) signed it, "From your Valentine." In doing so (if in fact any of this is true), he established a tradition still existing today. Although it may seem like the holiday of young school children and lovers, it is a big enough holiday that the U S Census Bureau has a Web page (http://www.census.gov/Press-Releases) with Valentine's Day facts and figures. Among these are the fact that about 180,000,000 cards (and this doesn't count the packaged cards sold for school children to pass out to their classmates) are exchanged making the holiday second only to Christmas for number of cards sent. Also according to the site, here in the U S. folks began exchanging handmade cards in the early 1700s. In the 1840s, Esther Howland, who was a native of Massachusetts, began mass producing and selling Valentine cards. Apparently, we prefer waiting until the last minute to make up our minds since 50 percent of cards are sold less than a week before the holiday. In many countries the holiday is considered as strictly one for lovers. However, in others, such as the United States and Canada, it is also celebrated by friends (such as school children) as well as lovers. Another Web site (http://www.annieshomepage.com/valhistory.html) also offers numerous facts about the holiday. It mentions that history scholars have found Valentine notes dating back to the 1400s and that the British poet Chaucer wrote in his work titled "The Parliament of Fowls" written in the 1300s, "For this was on St. Valentine's Day. When every fowl comethe there to choose his mate." And should any of you modern women want to know who your future husband will be, try the preferred method of 18th-century women in England. They wrote various men's names on slips of paper and rolled each slip in a tiny piece of clay. They then dropped the clay-wrapped names into water. The first slip of paper to float to the surface would contain the name of the woman's true love. Yeah, sure it did. Regardless of the version of Valentine's Day, I find it hard to think of it as a spring holiday, although that fact is mentioned in practically every accounting of the holiday I read. To me it's just a pleasant way to divert my attention from the almost always miserable winter weather that comes with the date. It is, however, at least a diversion from the winter doldrums, a chance to show the one you love how you feel about them (a good idea at any time of year.) And most importantly, a chance to eat chocolate candy (which was, by the way, one of the earliest gifts exchanged for the holiday) without anyone scolding you and reminding you that all that candy is not good for you. I hope each of you enjoys a pleasant day with your loved ones, be they your romantic soul mate or just a dear friend. And treat yourself to some candy too. It'll help chase away the winter-time blues, which if you are like me, you have in a big way by now. Happy Valentine's Day to all. A freelance journalist, Robert "Rocky" Cahill writes regularly for the News & Messenger. His Possum Philosophy column appears in each Saturday edition.  Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Jamie Samuelsen's blog: It' an odd off-season, but Tigers might as well get Johnny Damon (Detroit Free Press) Posted: 12 Feb 2010 07:49 PM PST Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it. Jamie Samuelsen, the sports director for the morning show on WCSX-FM (94.7), blogs for freep.com. His opinions do not necessarily reflect those of the Detroit Free Press nor its writers. You can reach him at jamsam22@gmail.com, follow him on Twitter @jamiesamuelsen and read more of his opinions at freep.com/jamie. Have your feelings about the Curtis Granderson trade changed at all now that the Detroit Tigers have signed Jose Valverde and made a multiyear offer to Johnny Damon? In these trying economic times, we've all had to "tighten the belt" a little bit. It sometimes goes like this … • The wife says, "We need to get our finances in order." • The husband says, "OK, honey. If you say so." (Always a good answer.) • Wife proceeds to a sale at Loehmann's (had to look up the spelling) and returns with a new outfit that she had to have. I think you see where I'm going here. Mike Ilitch is the wife. Dave Dombrowski is the husband. Johnny Damon is the new outfit. And I believe 100% that this is exactly how the Tigers' off-season played out. Otherwise, I just can't figure out the philosophy. After a rough year in the books and a frustrating year on the field, the Tiger brain trust probably figured that it was time to get things in order. There were certain players who had underperformed (Granderson). There were certain players whose best years were behind them (Placido Polanco). There were certain players who would be getting a hefty payday on the open market (Fernando Rodney). And there were certain players who were due a hefty payday whom the Tigers wanted to keep (Justin Verlander). Logically, I understood the plan, even though I didn't agree with it. Emotionally, I hated it. And financially, I thought they were better served keeping Granderson as an investment. Maybe not an investment in the future but more of an investment in the fans. But there was significant backlash from the fans. It wasn't unanimous, but there was a lot of unrest in the fact that the Tigers finished a game outside the playoffs, then decided to make the team cheaper, not better. That rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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