There are so many ways to celebrate Valentines Day… and we thought it would be great to share a few of the less conventional ones with you, because if you haven’t made the reservations for dinner or bought that someone special something special you are either a clueless clown… (nice people don’t eat out on Valentines Day, so why were you thinking about making ressies?)… or still looking for that perfect idea… (you’re screwed)
Freedom to Marry Day is a national event in which LGBT couples express their love and commitment for one another even when they are met with a bold fist of rejection from the courts. Gay activists and their supporters spent this morning at the County Administration Building asking that their relationships be recognized with the same constitutional rights granted to non-LGBT couples.
Today marks the 20th anniversary of a wonderful little program called Rolling Readers. Over the past two decades they’ve given away over a half million books to school aged children in the San Diego area. Working with volunteers, they’ve donated 12.5 years of reading out loud to kids. H/T to Annie over at Poway Patch.
If the romantic side of Valentines Day doesn’t ring your bells, you can always embrace you deepest political longings (you have them, right?) and join with OccupySD in planning at Children’s Park for Break Up With Your Bank Day (Feb 15th) starting at 3pm.
Tell the San Diego City Council to heart our neighborhoods… so sayeth the folks over at the Center for Policy Initiatives. They’d like for you to take just a moment out of your busy day of watching Carl DeMaio shamelessly mug to local news anchors by asking the City Council to pledge to take action that will hold banks accountable for local foreclosures. After all, now that two States with GOP Governors have hijacked Federal monies designed to provide foreclosure relief to balance their own budgets, somebody’s gotta do something.
A couple of non-political, non-dogooder events for those of you who got dumped off on this page while futilely searching on Altavista for ‘Valentines Day in San Diego”: Winstons nightclub down in the heartland of our beloved Ocean Beach is keeping it acoustic tonight with C. Money, Mike Pinto and Josh Fishell (of Bargin Music fame). And if you’re just planning on keeping the festivities down to a little Barry White aerobics, you might want to consider reading up on shopping for condoms over at City Beat.
Valentines Day is a $17.6 Billion economic event, according to this most excellent article over at the Nation on the Romantic Industrial Complex. Money quote: There is a romantic-industrial complex that nets billions of dollars from Valentine’s Day and weddings, and it needs you to “buy into” outdated ideas of love and marriage. The more you express your love through candies, chocolates, diamonds, rentals and registries, the more the RIC makes! Valentine’s Day is only one manifestation of the RIC: Americans spend $70–80 billion on weddings each year. With the average American wedding costing $27,000, marriage itself has become a luxury item. This is more than a struggle between old and new traditions—this is about money.
Finally, just because it merited attention over the SDUT OP-Ed Department…. They ran a shameful—for its misrepresentations—rebuttal by former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson of an article that most of their readers never saw. Therefore, I’m pointing out Andrew Sullivan’s cover story over at the Newsweek/Daily Beast infomedia complex on how the whole hubbub over contraception –y’know, how a few old guys over at the Catholic Church and a few almost as old GOP presidential candidates got all hot and bothered over that muslin Obama stealing their freedom of religion…
Happy Valentines Day to all you sweethearts! Tomorrow: Take your medicine, it’s pension reform time.
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Sorry everyone for posting this Valentine ode so late. By time Doug got it to our in-box, our current lay-out artist was up in Vista. And upon return, had to have food and read the newspapers.
Is that what editordude does? Have food and read newspapers? Such a life! Next thing we know, you’ll be taking a nap too. :)
PS. Will you be my valentine?
Anna: Your reply is so cute!
Lois- will you be my Valentine???? ;)