← “Looking in shades of green through shades of blue…”
“Now mister, the day my number comes in…” →

“He’s making friends in places high above…”

And so the sun shines on another St. Valentine’s Day—as well as “Valentimes,” which as far as I can tell is a parallel holiday observed by supermodels and the illiterate. Henceforth, forthwith, and thusly, I offer some links to help you make the most of this rosy-fingered day.

First, educate thyself: read up on the story of St. Valentine from the Legenda Aurea, watch an earnest mini-documentary on the saint, and check out this weirdly South-Park-like hagiographic cartoon. (You will respect the Emperor Claudius’s authori-tay.)

When in Rome, stop by Santa Prassede to see (or, if you’re so inclined, venerate) the relics of St. Valentine—or, for a limited time, buy a third-class relic of the saint on EBay. (Dubliners take note: thanks to the Carmelites, you also have access to relics of St. Valentine at Whitefriar Street Church.)

Speaking of the Urbs Æterna: these days, Roman lovers attach locks to the Milvian Bridge and then fling the keys in the Tiber. (Imagine how history might have turned out if Constantine and Maxentius had settled their differences thus.) If you can’t get to Rome, never fear: just visit the Ponte Milvio in Second Life.

Thanks to Google Books, literary types can read up on Chaucer and the cult of St. Valentine or rediscover a long-forgotten St. Valentine’s poem.

If Valentine’s Day makes you cynical, then commiserate with the great Tom Lehrer: here’s “I Got it From Agnes,” “The Masochism Tango,” and, er, “Oedipus Rex.”

Finally, if the roses wilt, the chocolate is rancid, or the restaurant turns you away and even St. Valentine fails to intercede, remember that American pop music always has the answers. What do women want? Endicott. What do men want? Caldonia!

Thursday, February 14, 2008, 6:53 am in miscellaneous | 2 Comments »

2 responses to “He’s making friends in places high above…”

  1. # 1 - Jonathan Jarrett wrote:
    Thursday, February 14, 2008, at 7:04 am

    Valentine? Valentine? What has any medievalist to do with this Valentine fellow! Everyone knows that 14th February is the feast of SS Cyril & Methodius, the Carolingians’ least favourite Eastern missionaries!

  2. # 2 - What Do Women Want? « The Opinion Mill wrote:
    Thursday, February 14, 2008, at 3:26 pm

    […] want Endicott, of course. This and other Valentine’s Day insights are available from Jeff Sypeck.  Posted by stevenhart Filed in […]

Leave a comment:

(Comments with links may be held briefly for moderation.)

  • Quid plura?

    "Quid plura?" is the blog of Jeff Sypeck, a writer in the Maryland woods.

  • Becoming Charlemagne is available as a Harper Perennial paperback. Order a copy here.

  • cover
  • Looking Up: Poems from the National Cathedral Gargoyles is now available! Order a copy from Amazon or learn more here.

  • cover
  • Folklore! Chivalry! Mad alliteration! The Tale of Charlemagne and Ralph the Collier: A Translation is available in paperback and as a Kindle e-book.

  • cover
  • The Beallsville Calendar is a yearlong alliterative poem about moving from the city to the country. Learn more about it or order a copy here.

  • cover
  • Search ten years of “Quid Plura?” here:

  • Categories

    • academic ax-grinding (9)
    • Appalachian Trail (3)
    • applied paleobromatology (8)
    • Arthuriana (15)
    • Balkans (7)
    • Beallsville Calendar (15)
    • Benton MacKaye (1)
    • Beowulf (11)
    • Best of 2007 (1)
    • Best of 2008 (1)
    • Best of 2009 (1)
    • Best of 2010 (1)
    • Best of 2011 (1)
    • Best of 2012 (1)
    • Best of 2013 (1)
    • Best of 2014 (1)
    • Best of 2015 (1)
    • Best of 2016 (1)
    • Best of 2017 (1)
    • Best of the First Five Years (1)
    • Best of the First Ten Years (1)
    • bookstores (4)
    • Bulgaria (1)
    • Byzantium (2)
    • California (1)
    • Caucasus (4)
    • Celticism (1)
    • Charlemagne (52)
    • Chaucer (12)
    • Civil War (3)
    • Colorado (2)
    • Dante (5)
    • Delaware (5)
    • England (11)
    • epic poems (23)
    • Flannery O'Connor (2)
    • France (5)
    • galangal (2)
    • gardening (8)
    • gardens (1)
    • gargoyles/grotesques (74)
    • George Alfred Townsend (1)
    • Georgia (6)
    • Germany (6)
    • Iceland (22)
    • Iowa (3)
    • Ireland (4)
    • Joan of Arc (6)
    • John Pendleton Kennedy (2)
    • Kansas (1)
    • literature (108)
    • Lloyd Alexander (31)
    • Longfellow (2)
    • looking up (61)
    • Louisiana (19)
    • Madeleine Vinton Dahlgren (1)
    • Mark Twain (2)
    • Maryland (31)
    • medieval shark week (1)
    • medievalism (173)
    • Merovingians (1)
    • Minnesota (3)
    • miscellaneous (118)
    • Missouri (1)
    • National Cathedral (75)
    • New Jersey (20)
    • New York (10)
    • Old English (18)
    • Pennsylvania (2)
    • philanthropy (3)
    • philology (7)
    • Poland (1)
    • Polaroid Land Camera (4)
    • politics (22)
    • Rome (1)
    • Russia (2)
    • Scandinavia (2)
    • Scotland (3)
    • SF/fantasy (23)
    • Shakespeare (3)
    • Sir Gawain (5)
    • statues (22)
    • tapestries (2)
    • teaching (21)
    • Tennyson (2)
    • Theodulf (10)
    • Tolkien (7)
    • translations (23)
    • travel (11)
    • Turkey (1)
    • videos (4)
    • Virginia (7)
    • visual arts (12)
    • Walafrid Strabo (10)
    • Washington (50)
    • Washington Irving (3)
    • writing (37)
  • Contact

    • jeffsypeck -at- gmail.com


Quid plura? © 2007 All Rights Reserved. Hosted by ThatHostingPlace.com.
Entries (RSS) and Comments (RSS).

This blog uses a modified version of the ShinyRoad 2.1 WordPress theme by Nurudin Jauhari.