" 6 Thursday, February] 3, 1,99.7 ihtdmpaliy.Gatle
A day for love
On
Target
by Joe Riehards
from the
Kingdom of Nye
Whether you
hate him or love
him, he won't let
you ignore him!
but the young
order, and secretly married young couples to propagate
growing Christian faith.
Another version has it that the other Valen-
tine, also an early Christian, publicly refused
to worship the Roman gods. Their actions,
whichever you choose to believe, angered the
emperor who imprisoned the rebellious Val-
entines. However, the Valentines had made
many friends among the clans of Christian
converts who smuggled loving notes into the
dungeon. This is one of the theories on the origin
of exchanging cards on Valentine's Day.
Both Valentines were beheaded on February 14,
by Emperor Claudius on A.D. 269. A couple
hundred years later, they were beatified by the
Church, and Pope Gelasius I named February
14 as Saint Valentine's Day.
The way that Saint Valentine became asso-
ciated with a day for lovers is not entirely clear,
and there is no commonly accepted belief. One
No contest. Valentine's Day is the most romantic day of the year
- that very special day for friends and sweethearts to exchange
cards, candy, flowers and gifts to show their affection toward each
other.
With the Red Letter day of love rapidly approaching, my curios-
ity got the best of me. So I decided to do some research on just how
the celebration came to be. Here's what I learned:
The Valentine story actually began more than a millennium ago
back in ancient Rome with the historical presence of at least two
Saint Valentines. And they want to bury the hot nuke waste under
Yucca Mountain for ten times that long before it becomes safe to be
around any living matter. But back to my story, at this point in time
history becomes a little cloudy and it becomes difficult to separate
fact from legend. One of the saints of
the same name is said to have been
a priest in Rome, while the other
was a bishop. Actually, because of
the poor quality of their records,
the two Valentines could have
been one in the same because of
the strange parallels between
them. No one really knows.
In any event, legend has it
that Emperor Claudius II is-
sued a decree - Roman emper-
ors, it seems, were very big on
issuing decrees to their subjects, like
the one that compelled Joseph to take
Mary with child to Bethlehem to register
for the census. But we all know that
story. This time the Emperor's decree
forbade young men to marry. Probably
an early attempt at population control,
priest named Valentine disagreed with the
the
theory is that the name became associated with the ancient Euro-
pean belief that birds began their mating season on February 14.
English history contains many references to this popular belief. In
the words of Chaucer," "For this was Seynt Valentyne's Day when
every foul commeth to choose a mate."
Another suggestion is that the connection came through the
sound-alike similarity of the saint's name with the Norman word
"gelantin, which when translated means"a lover of women." At one
time, gelantin was both written mad pronounced as velantin, which
perhaps led to confusion in some people's minds.
Other historians trace the custom of sending cards and poems on
Valentine's Day to a Frenchman named Charles Duke of Orleans.
According to that story, when Charles was imprisoned in England,
he wrote his wife a love poem on Saint Valentine's Day, one of many
customs that developed during this time.
By the 1700's. the custom of exchanging valentines had caught on.
At first, they were simple, homemade items, however, it was during
the next century that they became commercial and elaborate. These
were the first known valentines to use Cupid with his bow and quiver
of arrows to pierce the hearts of the objects of amour.
Sign of the [
times- my gift to
I
Payrump
Highway travelers ap-
" proaching the
junction
. ,, of U.S.95
a n d
S.R.160 will
be greeted by a fresh di-
rectional invitation, courtesy
of the Kingdom, replacing
the weather-beaten old one
warning motorists to beware
of lost Aliens escaped from
Area 51 on the Test Site.
Every two years we send our elected representatives €o Carson City
to wrestle with the state's most vital and pressing issues.
Any idea what they did on the very first day of the 69th session in
their newly remodeled, but still unfinished, muItl.mfll|oh legislative I
building in Carson City with their new $4,000 laptop computers and
plush $800 executive chairs?
Wonder no longer, my capitol sources tell me there were 32 bills on
their agenda to be introduced on that first day. In addition to getting
organized and passing a legislative operating budget for the next six
months, among the vital issues introduced in the Assembly were:
* AB32, pushed by Speaker Joe Dini, D-Yerrington, and John
Marvel, R-Battle Mountain, "provides for the issuance of special
personalized license plates indicating the bearers affiliation with the
Masonic fraternity."
Nowdon't
Astro trash trucks,
qJ
However, I the boys and gals who have taken up tempor
• " " " " r
residence up north will adopt legislation, which I conside more
important Se of Nevada:
To bel, R-lats Vegas, that would
