It's Valentine's Day

Readers will certainly be disappointed if I don't acknowledge the holiday dedicated to St. Valentine (won't you?). So let me of course begin by wishing my very special valentine, Mrs. Brave Astronaut, a very Happy Valentine's Day. I love you very much.

Here's some random Valentine's Day items:

• My father used to say that they didn't celebrate Valentine's Day in France, so it was OK if he forgot to get something for my mother. However, since he left France when he was, um, 7, that didn't usually fly with my mother.


• This was the first year for LBA to issue valentines. He is in a daycare class with three other boys and nine girls. Occasionally, the teachers need to have discussions about "friends kisses" and "family kisses." When I first heard this, I explained to Mrs. BA that I may have been known as the "kissing bug" in the first grade.


• Valentine's Day traditions are all his fault, as during the High Middle Ages, the age of courtly love flourished.


• Second only to Christmas, it is the second-largest card-sending holiday.


• I saw a news report a few years ago that reported that Valentine's Day is a very busy day for private investigators. Stop and think about it for a minute and you'll get it.


• You will likely not get an argument that John Maynard Keynes was a brilliant individual. Evidently, it also seems that the sexual exploits of the Bohemian lifestyle he favored was documented by him. (Yes, it borders on the crude, but it "touches" on love, and in a way, significantly archival!)


• Certainly no love here - Valentine's Day was a bad day if you were not part of Al Capone's Chicago.