Six years ago on AWV

This entry was originally posted on Friday, February 9, 2007.



   It's weekend assignment time again.

Weekend Assignment #151: Is Valentine's Day a genuinely romantic day? Or just a big commercial money pit into which romantic people fall? Go on, share how you really feel about the day -- whether you enjoy it, or feel like it's forced on you by greeting card companies, or fall somewhere in between those two poles.


Extra credit: Suggest a nice romantic movie.

   In order to address this weekend's assignment, I did some some research on St. Valentine, and Valentine's Day.

   I was amused.

   Traditionally called St. Valentine's Day, February 14th hasn't actually been the Catholic feast day of St. Valentine for almost thirty-eight years. Today, February 14th is the liturgical feast day only of St. Cyril and St. Methodius. Why is Valentine's Day no longer St. Valentine's Day? Well, it seems that the current opinion of the church is that the most popular figures referred to as being the origin of the holy day are 'legendary' saints. That means they did not, in actuality, ever really exist.
   In addition, it seems that the association of Valentine's Day with love and romance is almost entirely the work of Geoffrey Chaucer, in the fourteenth century. In his Parlement of Foules, he relates the tale (couched as if it were, indeed, an old tradition) that St. Valentine's Day was the day that birds met and chose their mates. There are no earlier references to St. Valentine's Day being connected with romantic love known. But why, you ask, would birds be mating in the middle of February, in Englande of Olde?
   Well, I don't know if you really asked that, or not, but two points to you if you did. Them's some pretty good critical thinking skills at work. It seems that Chaucer wrote that poem to commemorate the first anniversary of the engagement of Richard II to Anne of Bohemia, which event occurred on May 2, 1381. And May 2nd, as it happens, is the Catholic liturgical feast day of another saint named Valentine, of Genoa, from the early fourth century.
  So all those hearts and chocolates being thrown around every February 14th are, in fact, being received on completely the wrong day. Those who read Chaucer's poem at the time naturally assumed he was talking about the St. Valentine they were most familiar with. You know, the one who never really existed. Christians are funny that way.
   There you are gentlemen, from me to you: an excuse you can try out the next time you forget Valentine's Day. "But honey, I was saving your gift for the real St. Valentine's Day." I don't really expect that would work, and I certainly would never try to pull it off myself, but you, when you're desperate, you'll try anything. Just remember to get her something on May 2nd, or your ass is grass, man.

   So. Valentine's Day. Day of romance, or commercial blackmail? Well, both, really. I mean, when the tradition of St. Valentine's day was brought over to North America in the nineteenth century during the huge wave of British immigration that happened at that time, it took little or no time for it to catch on with enterprising merchants as a "let's make a quick buck at the expense of those poor schmucks being ruled by their testicles" opportunity. And, in fact, Hallmark Cards admits that they sell more product for Valentine's Day than any other holiday other than Christmas (you know, the liturgical feast day of another one of Catholicism's legendary figures). There is no question that the day has become little more than an occasion for retailers to hold a hammer over the heads of us poor, hormone controlled fellows. Buy flowers or sleep on the couch!

   Still, as they say...um...somewhere, "might as well roll with with it." Being that it is impossible to avoid, why not embrace it? You know your wife/girlfriend/illicit adulterous mistress is expecting something romantic. So go with it. Give it a little thought. Get her something that'll really set a sparkle in her eyes.
   Forget about the chocolate, the flowers, the stuffed bears holding little stuffed hearts. For the love of Woden, forget about the slutty little piece of barely there lingerie you had your eye on. Think about it, damn it! Because, you know, at the end of it all, that's all they really want: to know that you're thinking about them.
   Remember, life's what you make it.

Life's what you make it - Talk Talk



Baby, life's what you make it

Can't escape it

Baby, yesterday's favorite

Don't you hate it

Baby, life's what you make it

Don't backdate it

Baby, don't try to shake it

Beauty is naked

Baby, life's what you make it

Celebrate it

Anticipate it

Yesterday's faded

Nothing can change it

Baby, life's what you make it

Everything's all right





Extra Credit:  "The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return." -- Moulin Rouge.



Tags: Memes, Weekend assignment, Saint Valentine, Valentine's Day, Chaucer, YouTube, Talk Talk, Life's what you make it

A Friday Random Ten

Please ignore the fact that it is the early hours of Saturday...

1) Distant Early Warning, by Rush
2) Silver and Gold, by U2
3) Trinco Dog, by Bedouin Soundclash
4) Big Egos, by Dr. Dre
5) 5 Days in May, by Blue Rodeo
6) Stick To Your Guns, by Bon Jovi
7) Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring, by Josh Groban and Lili Haydn
8) Heartland, by U2
9) Sleepless, by King Crimson
10) Quando, Quando, Quando, by Michael Bublé

Happy Weekend!

Some of my favourite song lyrics...

It's two a.m.,
The fear has gone
I'm sittin' here waitin',
The gun still warm
   -Golden Earring

Cast out from the jungle
With no rations or canteen
For selling faulty rifles
To the thieves in Tanzania
   -Red Rider

Outside the street's on fire in a real death waltz
Between what's flesh and what's fantasy
And the poets down here don't write nothing at all
They just stand back and let it all be
   -Bruce Springsteen

And who can forget...

Wango, wango,
Tango, tango,
Wango, wango, wango, wango
Tango, tango, tango, tango
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!
   -Ted Nugent


What are some of your favourite song lyrics?

Is it still June 28th?

Because if it is, it's still the eighth anniversary of the creation of Aurora Walking Vacation, back in the heady days of  AOL Journals. That blog still exists in archived form at http://awvarchive.blogspot.ca/. You could go there, and read, and stuff. Or not. It's no biggie.

Friday Random Ten

Been a while since I did one of these: here are the first ten songs selected at random by iTunes when I pressed 'play.'

1) Bruce Cockburn - Vagabondage
2) Genesis - Squonk
3) Bobby Day - Rockin' Robin
4) Triumph - Fingertalking
5) The Devil Wears Prada - Swords, Dragons, and Diet Coke
6) Sting - Desert Rose
7) Sloan - Underwhelmed
8) Our Lady Peace - Under Zenith
9) Led Zeppelin - Dazed and Confused
10) Colin James - Train Kept a Rollin'

Zoom, zoom

I got a new lens for my camera (yay!). At Christmas, my lovely wife bought me a new camera, a Canon Rebel T3i with an 18-55mm wide angle zoom lens. For my birthday, I got some cold hard cash towards a telephoto zoom. Yesterday, I picked up a 70-300mm zoom lens.

My original lens went from here:




to here:



My new lens goes from here:



to here:



Cool!

Ask an Atheist anything...

Apparently, today is "National Ask an Atheist Day." Who knew? Now, most people I know are not under any illusions about my beliefs, and for the most part, they play no part in my day to day life. But, if you happen to have a question about atheists or atheism that you'd like answered, hey, now's the time. Ask away, and I will do my best to provide reasonable, considered answers.

In fact, I don't even care if the question is about or relating to atheism at all. Let's make this one of those "Ask Me Anything" memes that Jaquandor likes to do over at Byzantium's Shores.

I can not has Internet now?

As a quick follow-up to my previous - non-photographic - Internet cat post; my wife came home from work to find out she could not access the World Wide Web from her laptop for some unknown reason. After a significant amount of generally ineffectual troubleshooting, we discovered the laptop's internal wi-fi card had been turned off. Apparently, in getting comfortable on the keyboard earlier in the day, Kitteh had managed to simultaneously press the shift key, and the F-whatever key that has the little picture of an antenna on it.

Do you think she's trying to tell us something?

I am a bad Internet user

Yeah. So. It's March 7th, and the top article on my blog is still something Christmas themed. I am a bad Internet user.

As an example, I offer you today's event. I am walking through the dining room, and I see the kitten sleeping on the keyboard of my wife's laptop.

Do I:

A) Run and get a camera to take a picture of the kitten on the keyboard, and post it online for all to say, "awwww?"

 or

B) Shoo the cat off the freakin' computer, blow on the keyboard to get any hair and/or dander out of it, and close the laptop?

As there is no graphical component to this entry, you, do doubt, can guess the answer.

I'm sorry.

Trimming the tree

Tonight we set up the Christmas tree, and discovered that the lighted snowflake we've had as a topper for the last several years doesn't light up any more. Pat commented that trying to figure out which little mini light bulb was burned out was more trouble than it was worth, and we should just buy a new tree topper. Which statement immediately brought to mind this post from the original AWV, originally published in December of 2007:

We put up the Christmas tree today. As the wife was trimming it, she mentioned that we needed to get a new angel to put on top. As I recall, the conversation went something like this...

Paul: Can we get one that shoots lasers out of her eyes?
Paul's wife: Lasers? That wouldn't be very angelic.
Paul: Can we get one riding a shark?
Paul's wife: Get serious.
Paul: I am serious. I think an angel riding a shark with lasers shooting out of her eyes would be all kinds of awesome.

Banana Mocha French Toast

Chop one banana into a blender. Add four eggs, and a dollop of milk. Season to taste with salt, sugar and vanilla. Blend until smooth. Heat your pan, and melt some butter in it. Soak bread in the banana/egg mixture and fry. I used a plain white bread for Matt, and a multi-grain bread for me. The white bread was far more successful for this recipe. I'll have to try it again with a light egg-bread, or maybe a croissant - I think that would work well.

When you've plated the french toast, dust it lightly with Starbucks Mocha Powder, and drizzle with pure maple syrup. Garnish with fresh chopped banana and stawberry, or perhaps fried banana slices and mint. Experiment.

Makes 4-6 slices.

Let me know how it came out for you. I had seconds.

Welcome to the Internet, Dr. Burzynski

All the cool kids in the skeptical blogosphere are talking about Stanislaw Burzynski, and I didn't want to be left out. Never heard of him? I hadn't either, until yesterday, when the Internet, as we know it, exploded on Dr. Burzynski's head.

Here are the salient facts, as I understand them:

Dr. Burzynski owns and runs The Burzynski Clinic, in Texas. The Burzynski clinic specializes in "Alternative Cancer Treatments." According to its website, the clinic also offers conventional, FDA approved cancer treatment, but that's not what they are currently in the spotlight for. One of the modalities they offer is something called "Antineoplaston" therapy. It is this treatment that everyone seems to be talking about right now.

Antineoplastons were "discovered" by Dr. Burzynski, himself. Dr. Burzynski has published the results of several clinical trials of this therapy which appear to show effecacy. These studies were published in fringe journals with questionable peer review policies and, often, questionable professional detachment from the subject (they are journals whose purpose is the publication of studies supporting alternative medicine). Other researchers have been unable to reliably replicate Dr. Burzynski's findings. In fact, 100% of properly blinded, randomized, placebo controlled, peer reviewed trials published in reputable journals have been negative - that is, they all fail to show any benefit at all of Antineoplaston therapy in the treatment of cancer. The FDA has not approved Antineoplastons for use in cancer treatment in the USA. That means that doing so is against the law.

It is not, however, against the law to administer Antineoplaston therapy if it is done as part of a registered clinical trial. Dr. Burzynski has been running "clinical trials" of Antineoplaston use in the treatment of cancer for over thirty years. People travel from all over the world to the Burzynski Clinic to receive treatment participate in a clinical trial, and pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to do so.

Recently, several prominent medical and skeptical bloggers have published articles critical of Dr. Burzynski and his Antineoplaston therapy, and calling into question Dr. Burzynski's research, and the ethics of his practice of charging patients exorbitant amounts of money to receive treatment participate in a clinical trial of a drug that has not been demonstrated to be effective at all. In most instances, when faced with criticism or questioning of their research, scientists respond by presenting the evidence which supports their work, but that doesn't seem to be what's happened here.

Instead, these bloggers were contacted by a gentleman by the name of Marc Stephens, claiming to "represent the Burzynski Clinic, Burzynski Research Institute, and Dr. Stanislaw Burzynski," and threatening legal action if the "libelous and defamatory information" was not removed from their websites. It turns out Mr. Stephens is not a lawyer, but an employee of The Burzynski Clinic who may or may not have overreached in his zeal to defend his employer. In what has become known as "The Streisand Effect," an attempt to suppress criticism on the Internet has resulted in that criticism becoming far more widespread than it ever would have. Virtually every skeptical blog I read has posted an article about Burzynski over the past two days. Well done, Marc.

Word is Mr. Stephens is no longer employed by Burzynski. He appears to have been thrown under the bus by his former employer in a desperate attempt at damage control as this story spirals out of control across the World Wide Web. And Dr. Burzynski is learning a valuable lesson. If your particular form of pseudoscience has been the subject of criticism on the Internet, either bring the evidence, or, if you don't actually have any evidence, lay low and hope it all blows over. Making lame and empty threats is only going to turn you into a deer in the headlights of the monster truck that is the web.

Splat.


To read more about this topic, I recommend you start here, here, and here, and then go on from that.