Kristy's Blog

Saint Valentine

The origins of Valentine’s Day can be traced back to the ancient Roman celebration of Lupercalia. This Roman festival was held on February 15th. Lupercalia, honored the gods Lupercus and Faunus, as well as the legendary founders of Rome , Romulus and Remus.

Lupercalia festivities included a bountiful feast and the pairing of young women and men. Men would draw women’s names from a box, and each couple would be paired until next year’s celebration.

While the pairing of couples set the tone for today’s holiday, it wasn’t called “Valentine’s Day” until a priest named Valentine came along. Valentine, a romantic at heart, disobeyed Emperor Claudius II’s decree that soldiers remain bachelors. Claudius handed down a decree believing that soldiers would be distracted and unable to concentrate on fighting if they were married. Valentine defied the emperor and secretly performed marriage ceremonies. As a result of his defiance, Valentine was put to death on February 14th.

After Valentine’s death, the priest was named a saint. As Christianity spread throughout Rome , the celebration of Lupercalia was moved from February 15th to February 14th and renamed St. Valentine’s Day to honor the saint.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=100510986

Red-eye. Him window. Me aisle. Love.
– Joanne Flynn Black

If I get Chlamydia, blame MySpace.
– Hanorah Slocum

Will government ever let us marry?
– Viki Marsh

Silently suffered his facial hair experiments.
– Elizabeth Minkel

Three marriages. Two divorces. BA .333.
– Ron Carmean

What do you want for dinner?
– Drew Magary

If only he wasn’t a Republican.
– Holly Fitzpatrick

Tried men. Tried women. Like cats.
– Dona Bumgarner

Leap of faith. Shit, no parachute.
– Katherine Yunker

Inevitably, his obituary didn’t mention me.
– R. Sue Dodea

We “I do” -ed. Then he didn’t.
– Lisa Parrack

Palindromantically: Eros saw I was sore.
– Aaron Fagan

Two marriages. The wrong one died.
– Anne Hamilton

Best family ever. Thank you, Match.com!
– Alexa Young

Marriage, children, empty nest: Now what?
– Oliver House

Excerpted from Six-Word Memoirs On Love And Heartbreak from Smith magazine, edited by Rachel Fershleiser and Larry Smith. Copyright 2009. Reproduced with permission of the publisher, Harper Perennial.

Well, I could give the lame excuse that I’ve been busy, but really it’s true.

I’m back with a winning article:

Christians and Atheists Battle in London Bus Wars
Beginning Feb. 9, three separate Christian groups will launch advertisements on more than 200 of London’s buses to convince pedestrians of God’s existence. The move follows a month-long campaign by atheists, agnostics and other non-believers that saw 800 London buses plastered with: “There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.”

MOSCOW — For a decade, Russian academic Igor Panarin has been predicting the U.S. will fall apart in 2010. For most of that time, he admits, few took his argument — that an economic and moral collapse will trigger a civil war and the eventual breakup of the U.S. — very seriously. Now he’s found an eager audience: Russian state media.

In recent weeks, he’s been interviewed as much as twice a day about his predictions. “It’s a record,” says Prof. Panarin. “But I think the attention is going to grow even stronger.”

Wall Street Journal

Is he right? At this point, anything is possible. But this?

Between 21% and 42% of U.S. jobs are potentially offshorable, according to research conducted by students at Harvard Business School.

The study aimed to replicate a finding by Princeton economist and former Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Alan Blinder, reported last year in the Journal. The students largely agreed with Blinder’s low-end estimate of 22%, but the high end of the range surpassed Blinder’s 29%.

Nearly 900 members of the MBA Class of 2009 participated in the study, which had students assess the potential offshorability of 800 occupations.

Read More.

Check out all the fun!

http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2008/12/04/live-blogging-the-big-threes-bid-for-a-bailout/

Kathy and Maureen Do Their Best Sarah Palin imitation.

“Good done anywhere eventually leads to good done everywhere”. – Maya Angelou

This guy (and MSNBC) has a lot of guts.

Great insightful, sensitive, intelligent, forward-thinking comments overheard about the results of the election….

“I wonder if they’re going to start calling it the Black House”

“I bet they turn the Rose Garden into the Watermelon Patch”.

I mean please, people!