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A Valentine’s Day love affair with The College Delly

Did anyone see all those awesome local commercials for Valentine’s Day? Jewelers, florists, candy stores — they all wanted a piece of the red and pink action. So, they dressed up the owner, the owner’s trophy wife and their most awkward employee in a suit, gave him some tried-and-true dialogue, and captured all the magic on a hand-held camera from 1984. Throw in a hand-drawn heart and some cupid graphics floating around the spokesperson’s head, and you’ll have a real champion in the commerce arena.

p. Weirdly enough, though, none of these commercials compelled me to go out and buy anything. Shoot, they hardly even made me think about Valentine’s Day. More than once, I stared groggily at the mélange of red and pink balloons behind our local Chevy dealer,and thought, “Oh my, that certainly clashes with his kelly green suit. Why on Earth would they do that?” only to realize later, when all of my housemates’ long-distance boyfriends started showing up that, hey, there was some kind of holiday going down. But I’m not here to talk about Valentine’s Day, mostly because I think holiday-themed columns are a bit of a cop-out.

p. It’s like admitting that you never think about what you’re going to write for the week until two hours before it’s due. Then, some manufactured holiday just happens to occur and everyone is talking about it, so you cobble together some pithy greeting card sayings and pass them off as your own. I have standards — when I do a half-assed last-minute job, I leave the good people at Hallmark out of it.

p. The real reason I paid so much attention to all those Valentine’s Day commercials was because they made me think, “Holy crap — it’s mid-February already!” And when I start thinking about all the time that has flown by this semester, I don’t think about the friends I’ve made or the lessons I’ve learned. I think about the Delis.

p. One particular musty, dank, grease-spatered, beer-serving nexus of Williamsburg nightlife truly stands out when you think about how far we’ve gotten into the spring semester: The College “We’re closing in December” Delly.

p. I used to love College Delly as much as the next person. How can you not adore a place that serves dollar beer and souvlaki and plays home improvement shows on the bar television — one time, I got caught up on my “House Hunters” at dollar beer night, and it was wonderful. I have many fond (though hazy) memories of sorority tabs and games of chandeliers. Even those chilly bathrooms have a little hold on my heart — at least they flush most of the time (take note, Paul’s).

p. I was heartbroken the first time I heard that The College Delly was going to close. By the fifth time College Delly told me they would be gone next time I came by, I started to get a bit jaded. We are now on round 87 of “final dollar beer night,” and enough is enough, College Delly! There’s no one out there quite like you, College Delly — your smell of old grease and sweaty men, your impeccable taste in music, your sexy and mysterious fog of cigarette smoke — but you can’t toy with my heart like it’s some sort of game.

p. It’s twisted and cruel, College Delly, and I can only be jilted so many times before I decide to pack up and move on.
I feel like our relationship is subsisting solely on manufactured nostalgia and my unquenchable thirst for cheap beer. But even the cheap beer just isn’t the same; you can’t lure me in with dollar Coors and then, just because you’re getting a little comfortable and not trying as hard to impress me, switch to dollar Icehouse. I don’t care if it is in a bottle — it’s still Icehouse.

p. It’s mid-February, and you’re still here. Now either up your game or let’s move on. Valentine’s came and went, College Delly. Where’s the romance?

p. __Lauren Bell is a Confusion Corner columnist for The Flat Hat. She’s totally had a crush on College Delly since, like, the third grade.__

Horoscopes (Feb. 16)

Scorpio: Oct. 23 – Nov. 21

After Grandma Winifred wrecks you at beer pong this week, you’ll get revenge when she wakes up next to the toilet after your keg stand skills proved superior.

Taurus: April 20 – May 20

The grapefruit that took out your eye this morning will never see it coming when you stick a spoon in its side and put it in a blender with bathtub gin.

Sagittarius: Nov. 22 – Dec. 21

After you miss your afternoon class due to your excessive drinking, you will petition Alcoholics Anonymous to hold its meetings later in the evening.

Gemini: May 21- June 21

You will wake up happy to be alive after you find that the nice girl you met at the Rec stole one of your kidneys while you slept.

Capricorn: Dec. 22 – Jan. 19

In defiance of Parking Services, you will refuse to pay your 12 parking tickets. You will then go to jail for removing a boot that has been placed on your tire.

Cancer: June 22 – July 22

After surviving a bitter Valentine’s Day, you will realize that being in a long term relationship with Anna Nicole Smith just isn’t working out.

Aquarius: Jan. 20 – Feb. 18

Your newly acquired cigarette addiction has you interested in foreign films, berets and halitosis. It also has that girl next to you clamping her nose. Bummer.

Leo: July 23 – Aug. 22

While telling your roommate about your infidelities is acceptable, accidentally telling your girlfriend via text message is not always the best move.

Pisces: Feb. 19 – March 20

After breaking your X-Box controller over a controversial game of Halo, you will be forced to actually do something constructive this week.

Virgo: Aug. 23 – Sept. 22

Speaking of girlfriends, if yours turns into an orangutan and starts climbing all over you this week, don’t worry — at least they’re limber.

Aries: March 21 – April 19

People have never respected your spontaneous and volatile side, and never will, even when you stab a guy this week with a knife from the Caf.

Libra: Sept. 23 – Oct. 22

You will learn this week that your buddy plans to rob 10 dorms this week. Luckily for him, the entire campus is focused on the important stuff: the Wren cross.

Hollywood Gossip

**Cox gets dirty**
Courtney Cox recently announced she is proud to bear it all on her FX show, “Dirt.” She plays a rumor-hungry tabloid magazine editor, but Cox has recently taken some bold steps as an actress. Excitement first surrounded her onscreen kiss with former “Friends” star Jennifer Aniston. Now, Cox has refused to hire a body double to fill in for her during the show’s racy sex scenes, saying that, while at first she was nervous, her powerful character has inspired confidence.

**Voldemort: sex on a plane**
British actor Ralph Fiennes, who plays Lord Voldemort in the “Harry Potter” films, is facing a battle that couldn’t even be resolved with dark magic: an airplane sex scandal. A Qantas airline stewardess’s job is now in jeopardy after her and Fiennes were seen entering the same airplane toilet during a long flight from Australia to India. Fiennes ended a long-time relationship last year after having an affair, so luckily no girlfriend will be harmed in the making of this sex scandal.

**Trimspa’s baby!**
p. Recently deceased star Anna Nicole Smith’s body was ordered to be released from the medical examiner’s office, but the star’s controversy is alive and thriving. Prince Frederic Von Anhalt (Zsa Zsa Gabor’s husband) has entered the fight for her daughter Daniellynn. He joins attorney Howard K. Stern and Larry Birkhead in the custody battle. Smith’s former nanny has also expressed health concerns for Daniellynn who was underfed because Smith “wanted her baby to be sexy.”

**Barton’s BF exposed**
p. Former ‘O.C.’ star Mischa Barton is facing relationship issues even more dramatic than Marissa’s. At least her ‘O.C.’ character never found nude photos of TV boyfriend Ryan in Paris Hilton’s possession, as Barton did of now former real-life boyfriend Cisco Adler. The musician’s naked pictures were found in Hilton’s storage locker on ParisExposed.com. At least Barton had the sixth sense to dump the promiscuous boy soon after his internet debut.

That Girl: Cosmo Fujiyama

Last Saturday morning’s Charter Day ceremonies were ripe with reflection on the College’s impressive past and its boundless future. When senior Cosmo Fujiyama was awarded the James Monroe Prize for Civic Leadership, she greeted the audience with fresh-faced enthusiasm and aplomb, encapsulating in her attitude spirit of our impressive student body.

p. Cosmo’s acceptance speech, which challenged listeners to “build your own bridge” to make the world a better place, offered a small glimpse into the resolve, compassion and unflinching optimism with which this community leader composes and informs her actions. This week’s ‘That Girl’ talks about her work in Honduras and with Teach for America.

**What is Students Helping Honduras?**

p. My brother and I run this together. It began when the two of us ended up in Honduras at the same time because of different international service trips. Shin found this orphanage, basically, that was in tremendous debt. They basically told him, “We might shut down in the next year if we don’t have enough money.” So Shin worked there for the whole summer, sort of figuring out what the deal was, the frankness of that.

p. We ended up going to Honduras together. I was doing another internship in Nicaragua, so I took a bus over and met up with him and we just fell in love with the children, the cause there. We agreed that it was a really horrible possibility, if this orphanage were to close. Hence we devised a walk-a-thon plan — a movement to raise money quickly — so that the orphanage could be sustained and helped.

p. Students Helping Honduras came about because we needed to streamline our work. We not only help the orphanage, but other children in Honduras when we find communities that we build relationships with and see how we can best help. We have a communications site on our website StudentsHelpingHonduras.org.

p. **What sort of service trips has SHH run?**

p. The very first [group] my brother took down was a Mary Washington team in December 2005. They focused a lot on short-term projects, on spending time with the children of the village, and doing things there. The next one, in May, we had students right after the walk-a-thon go and do work on the orphanage and in the community, so that was tailored to the events of the walk-a-thon and spreading the great news.

p. In the most recent one we began helping with the construction of the educational center they’re building adjacent to the orphanage. It’s supposed to be a supplemental center to help the kids gain the most needed and necessary fundamental tools to get them back into the public school system. They all go to public schools, but they’re behind because of their illiteracy prior to getting into school. So they’re behind in their classrooms, and the center is supposed to be a safety net to build them back up, to supplement the work that they’re doing in the public schools. Our money will support that and fund the teachers that come and help.

p. **Did you get interested in service before college?**

p. In high school, we served in very micro levels, Key Club and stuff. I credit everything I’ve done to this tiny seed, to something called international service trips. I went on one my freshman year and I think that malleability that you have as a younger person — as a freshman — when you don’t yet know what you want to do with your life, seeing that sense of life in a completely different definition, different level, rocked me, transformed me. And since then, the questions became even greater: you can go for one week and serve, but how can you do more?

p. That’s how it led me to where I am, where it’s been a building process of all these different events, whether it was going on a trip to Nicaragua with Global Village Project first, leading a trip next, going to Peru to learn Spanish because I knew I couldn’t communicate with the people I wanted to help and gain a sense of fluency, and then incorporating my academic interests in women’s rights issues and going to intern in Nicaragua for that, then going to see Shin in Honduras, where we bused over and met up with each other and said “Well, how can we take all this knowledge and our understanding of what service is and do something on our own, from the bottom up?”

p. **Tell me about Teach for America.**

p. I think it is a really pragmatic post-grad opportunity for a post-grad idealist like me. I say that because it’s going to be one of the most challenging things I’ve ever done. I really believe that the opportunities to do other things are there. Why not go to Honduras for a year and push through with this social enterprise that I want to do? However, I also know this is the time in my life when I need to absorb as much as I can, and TFA is this multi-thousand-person corporation that’s doing awesome work. It’s a very practical skill, to be in the classroom learning and teaching and getting that opportunity to work with young people and shape their lives directly every day with no breaks — to me, that’s an adrenaline rush.

Sensual spices: just add horniness

Sometimes we all just need a little bit more spice in our love lives. We try new positions, new toys, and even new partners. But we rarely think to try to discover that spice (literally) in a spice. That’s right, several spicy foods are commonly mentioned as aphrodisiacs, because of the effects of the spices they contain. The idea that you can eat something special and suddenly feel more sexual — be more sexual — has appealed to people throughout the ages.

p. Every culture has its own aphrodisiacs — food consumed to get you in the mood or to heighten sexual sensations. Although the diversity of possibilities across cultures and legends is impressive, several patterns are clear in the foods that people have considered sexually beneficial. Foods were either rare and expensive — spices like ginger, anise and coriander — or they resembled a sexual organ.

p. On the phallic side, think ginseng root, carrots, asparagus and rhinoceros horn. Oysters and figs have traditionally been prized for their resemblance to the vagina. Apparently, avocados hanging from a tree in pairs do a pretty mean impression of testicles.

p. Hunting for sexual stimulation in your kitchen is a pretty safe way to experiment with aphrodisiacs. The worst that can happen is that you’ll enjoy a good meal. However, some other marketed aphrodisiacs can be dangerous. Spanish fly (also known as cantharis), a powder literally made from dried, crushed insects, does induce blood flow to the genitals.

p. It does so, however, by poisoning and irritating the urinary tract. According to the Food and Drug Administration, Spanish fly can cause burning of the mouth when swallowed, urinary tract scarring and even death.

p. The FDA hasn’t tested many of the powders and potions claiming to hold the secrets to three-hour intercourse, increased erection size and more powerful orgasms. While there might be some small truths in the chemically created claims, there’s also the danger in swallowing unknown chemical combinations that you purchased at a sketchy gas station. So let’s avoid that route and head back to the kitchen in search of stimulation.

p. Some people consider hot, spicy food to be a turn-on. Chilies and curries can get your blood pumping and your heart rate up, if they are hot enough. Your face flushes, your forehead breaks into a slight sweat, and your lips and tongue tingle. These “symptoms” are pretty similar to someone in the process of enjoying themselves sexually, not just enjoying their meal at an Indian restaurant. The idea is that feeling yourself flushed up, or watching your partner do so across the table, gets you thinking about sex. And frankly, thinking about sex is probably better than most aphrodisiacs — like the carrot suggestion.

p. You’ve probably eaten a very phallic-looking carrot many times in your life and never once had a sexual thought. But, now that you’ve read this column, you might think about that big, long, hard carrot just a little bit differently and suddenly find yourself having sexual thoughts while getting one of your daily servings of vegetables.

p. It’s the process and the surrounding connotations that really create the sexual stimulation in most foods; eating, itself, can be a very sensual act. Why do we like to go out to romantic dinners with our significant others? Because eating and enjoying good food arouses all of your senses. Watching your partner use his hands, lips and tongue might remind you of other places you might enjoy their use. Eat an excellent meal with your partner with this mindset and you’ll be rushing home to have dessert in the bedroom in no time.

p. So, let’s say you want to cook an aphrodisiacal meal for someone? Where would you start? Frankly, it might be more about the presentation than about the food itself. A glass of wine is a good start. Wine is widely considered an aphrodisiac, but drinking wine shouldn’t be confused with getting intoxicated. Being drunk may lower your inhibitions, but it most certainly does not increase you sexual prowess, so drink sensually and sparingly. Continue the meal by eating oysters out of the shells with your tongues, while casually slipping into conversation the oyster’s power as as an aphrodisiac, thereby encouraging your companion to associate your meal with sex.

p. For the main course, try something spicy, and perhaps mention in the conversation how your lips are tingling. Follow by starting dessert with raspberries or strawberries, which, if you think about it, look like little nipples. End the meal with a little bit of rich, dark chocolate and some good coffee. They’re both on the aphrodisiac list and the coffee might come in handy in case your after-dinner plans stretch late into the night.

p. __Kate Prengaman is the Flat Hat Sex columnist. She hopes you’ll never look at a carrot in the same way again.__

Editorial Cartoon (Feb. 16)

Staff Editorial: Student senate grows increasingly irrelevant

Most students pay little attention to the Student Assembly. Why should you care about a bunch of government majors in suits, arguing about quorums and bylaws? But the student government matters. They control tens of thousands of dollars in student fees. They have the ear of the administration and can serve as an enormous asset for solving students’ problems. But recent events have damaged the standing of the senate, and without a major reevaluation of their mission and methods, they risk sinking into irrelevance and depriving students of one of their most powerful voices for changes.

p. Last week, a Student Assembly meeting devolved into a shouting match over a technical rule of order. This kind of childish, unprofessional behavior by a few senators is embarrassing for every member of student government and every student at the College. The passion exhibited during this debate shows an admirable, if misguided, dedication, but senators must remember that they speak not only for themselves, but also the students who elected them.

p. Senators are elected to respond to student concerns and manage student fees, but they also serve as ambassadors for the College. News stories about campus controversies often reference the Student Assembly’s actions. Over winter break, senators traveled across the state to advocate student voting rights. As some of the most visible members of the student body, entrusted with the power to speak for their fellow classmates, they have the responsibility to conduct their official business in a civilized manner. When they fail to demonstrate the basic civility of showing respect to their peers during a debate, they create a negative image of the College and its students.

p. This unfortunate incident is only the latest in a string of disappointments from the senate, which has become increasingly detached from the students who elected it. Their meetings, which can last four hours or longer, discourage student participation. Shorter meetings would make it easier for students affected by a bill to speak and have their voice heard. But far too often, students have no reason to be concerned about any of the bills the senate spends its time evaluating.

p. An inordinate number of bills focus on adjusting internal bylaws rather than responding to student concerns. Part of the blame rests on students; senators cannot help students if they don’t know what they want. Senators are almost always eager to help and quick to act when presented with a clear student concern. It is the senate’s job to create a welcoming atmosphere where students feel comfortable enough to express their concerns.

p. Beginning next week, readers will notice an important change in our Student Assembly coverage. We will no longer be reporting on the internal proceedings of every senate meeting, the minute details of seconding motions or amending proposals, but we will instead focus on how proposed and passed bills affect students. We will also start to cover the actions of the Student Assembly executive and the undergraduate council. By expanding our coverage to more branches of the student government and highlighting news that directly affects students, we hope to provide students with a more complete and useful picture of their student government.

Is Aramark doing enough?

Chances are, you’re not going to die from a massive heart attack anytime soon. However, you can rest assured that if you do, it probably won’t be from food in the campus dining halls now that Aramark, the folks who run our food service, decided to eliminate trans fats from its products. Trans fatty acids (or “trans fats”) occur naturally in some dairy products but are more often found as an artificial creation designed to preserve the useful life of fryer oils and improve taste. Apparently, these fats have a nasty habit of raising bad cholesterol and contributing to the deaths of around 30,000 people a year.

p. But the change took place in August, and did anyone even notice? Prior to this decision, it’s entirely possible school food was killing you, or at least that’s what Harvard says. But if we stopped here and gave Aramark a big gold star, we’d be missing a lot.
When the people at Aramark say they’re eliminating trans fats it means they probably are in some areas, but maybe not in all of them.

p. Additionally, not all pre-packaged food made by outside vendors falls under the change. The result is that our food is now fried in zero grams trans fat oil, which doesn’t mean what you think it does. It’s the government’s way of saying “less than .5 grams per serving.” So, you’re probably safe with the fried catfish, but who knows about the morning’s doughnuts trucked in from an outside company.

p. Aramark made this move of its own volition after discussing it with nutritionists and others. Whether this was the result of corporate altruism or sheer business savvy is debatable. But elsewhere, the government is calling the shots and one wonders about the wisdom of their meddling in such things. New York City, in addition to banning smoking in bars, has also already banned trans fats, and a number of other cities are contemplating following suit.

p. The Washington Post in its staff editorial on the subject has likened these bans to the save-the-kids laws which removed lead from paint. The argument has appeal, but the comparison is unjust. When was the last time Mom got off the phone only to find that three year-old Timmy went out and ordered some Chicken Selects and a Biggie Fry while she wasn’t looking?

p. The FDA made the right call in 2003 when it required trans fat content to be listed in nutrition information so consumers could make intelligent choices. Banning trans fat, however, eliminates choice, adds cost to business, and goes even further in our government’s campaign to save us from ourselves.
But are we really being saved? Removing artificial fats might help our hearts, but it doesn’t do much to affect the calorie content of fatty foods. On campus, that means that Aramark has decided their “all you care to eat” meals will no longer get us fat and give us heart trouble — now they’ll just get us fat. Terrific.

p. Props to them for making some foods safer, but additional, healthier options would be more beneficial than merely removing trans fats from current choices. The salad and deli sandwich bars are great, but consider the fact that there are no non-sugary cereals at the Caf, and grilled (as opposed to fried) options outside of hamburgers are rarely available in the University Center. Even the yummy salmon from the Caf, which ought to be good for you because it’s fish, is deceptively unhealthy. One serving of that yummy salmon has more calories and fat than a McDonald’s Quarter Pounder with Cheese. Go figure.

p. Judging from the frequent and campus-wide use of the Rec Center, we’re a health conscious bunch, and the folks at Aramark deserve a hand for this step in the right direction — despite some inconsistencies they’re working to fix. But if they truly have student welfare in mind, the changes cannot stop here. They could at least give us some aspirin; the people at Bayer say it prevents heart attacks.

p. __Andrew Peters, a sophomore at the College, is a Staff Columnist. His columns appear every Friday.__

Cup of noodles catastrophe

About a month and a half ago, academia — to say nothing of the entire planet — lost one of its greatest benefactors. Momofuku Ando died of heart failure on Jan. 5, at the age of 96. He was the inventor of instant noodles.

p. Ando’s creation was both the original and quintessential example of collegiate cuisine. The noodles hit shelves in Sept. 1971, just in time for a generation of well-off suburbanite teens to arrive at campuses everywhere with the frightening realization that they had no idea how to cook. And while this fear was often appeased by cafeterias — er, “dining halls” — there arose a slight urge for self-sufficiency that only the simplest of meals could satisfy.

p. For freshmen, and anyone else with a preternatural lazy streak, the guidelines for dormitory cooking are relatively straightforward—the food has to be microwaveable and take less than five minutes to prepare. It must also be self-contained, so as to prevent the unnecessary sullying of dishes, and its expiration date should be preferably long after one’s undergraduate career has come to a close, if not one’s post-doctoral studies. But most importantly, it has to be so astoundingly inexpensive that ordinary supermarket shoppers are afraid to touch it.

p. Indeed, it’s probably best to avoid reading the ingredients on any packages that boast a quick and easy prep time, fraught as they are with the unpronounceable chemicals that pricey organic companies enjoy pointing out. Yes, they’re called preservatives. Yes, they have more syllables than most Polish last names. And yes, they probably cause cancer in lab rats. But what doesn’t? If a strong dose of MSG is the downside to making dinner in two minutes, we’re all going to take our chances. We’re young and the obscene amount of sodium in Ando’s noodles is probably no worse for us than eating all the salt at the bottom of the pretzel bag. Who hasn’t done that once or twice? Oh, come on.

p. Ramen noodles heralded an era of previously unthinkable suppertime convenience, spotting a consumer trend for instant food that continues to this day and also launching a veritable fountainhead of successors. I may not have survived my freshman year without the bulk-sized box of Easy Mac under my bed, and I have Momofuku Ando to thank for that. Even the most health-conscious of my friends stocked a few of the familiar Cup Of Noodles, which have long been sold in user friendly, environmentally unfriendly Styrofoam containers. Sure, the peas and carrots in there aren’t “real” vegetables. But are they not green and orange, as they should be? Isn’t that enough for 39 cents?

p. When he heard of the noodle guru’s death, my housemate relayed to me a tale that had been passed down to him through a friend. This housemate is in his first year of law school and his older friend was a freshman at the College when this story supposedly happened, so it’s not exactly recent news. Though it’s clearly difficult to validate, I feel that it deserves to be recorded in the annals of the College folklore.

p. Legend has it that a graduate student once tended to one of the foot presses in Colonial Williamsburg. The student was a male, but he had very long, blond hair (I to envision a scrawny version of Fabio) which he refused to tie back. While working at the press one day, he bent down and found that his hair was caught in the press. This, of course, is a very dangerous piece of machinery, and if one’s hair starts feeding through it, it means almost certain death. Instead of finding an untimely demise in the gears of the archaic press, the grad student miraculously escaped unscathed; all of his hair had suddenly separated from his scalp, thus allowing him to go free.

p. What happened? Well, it was later revealed, says this friend of a friend, that the student’s diet had consisted of almost nothing but Ramen noodles for six months straight. This had led, slowly but inevitably, to a mild state of malnutrition whereby his scalp lacked the proper strength to keep his hair attached. If he had varied his eating habits, or even chanced to use some volumizing shampoo, the student may have met a different fate that day.

p. The bottom line is that instant noodles can save your life. After all, Momofuku Ando swore that he ate his original chicken noodle recipe at least once daily and he lived to see nearly an entire century. Of course, I’ll never advocate an all-Ramen lifestyle, but in honor of Mr. Ando’s dedication to sloth and gluttony, instant noodles will always have a place in my pantry. And, since they can probably last for centuries without spoiling, that place may be around longer than I will.

p. __Dan Piepenbring, a junior at the College, is a Staff Columnist. His columns appear every Friday. __

Just another holiday

When I started to think about Valentine’s Day, I realized how little I actually know about the history of the holiday. As far as I know, some Hallmark executive randomly chose this day 50 years ago, and couples just went along with it. I’m going to guess that I’m not the only one, so I thought that before stating my opinion on the matter, I should start by giving readers a little education on the day that so many of us celebrate.

p. There are actually numerous stories that form the history of Valentine’s Day, and no one is sure which applies to the actual holiday. At present, the Catholic Church recognizes three saints named Valentine, all of whom were martyred on Feb. 14. In one story, a Roman emperor during the third century decided that men who were unmarried and unattached were more valuable soldiers. In response, he outlawed marriage throughout Rome. However, a priest named Valentine defied the emperor and continued to secretly marry couples. When he was discovered, he was killed for his defiance on the day of — you guessed it — Feb. 14.

p. However, it was not until the 14th century that this day became associated with love. In 1381, Chaucer wrote a poem to commemorate the engagement between Richard II and Anne of Bohemia, in which he mentioned the day of St. Valentine, leading us to the tradition we know today.

p. Though its history seems somewhat morbid, Valentine’s Day has come to represent the day in which we tell our loved ones exactly how we feel. But, somewhere down the line, we started to hate it. We have all heard the complaints before. Whether you are a boy or a girl, single or in love, Valentine’s Day is one of those holidays that pretty much annoys everyone. At this point, it seems like the day’s sole purpose is for the executives at Hershey and Hallmark to put a few more dollars into their over-stuffed pockets. Some people say that we shouldn’t need a day to remind people that we love them.

p. I wouldn’t go that far. I think it’s good to have a special day on the calendar when you go beyond the normal expectations to show that you care. But isn’t that what anniversaries are for?
Now, Valentine’s Day seems like a yearly reminder that you are single, or just another day that you have to buy someone a box of chocolates. We all remember the days in first grade when everyone got those little cards that our parents bought in bulk, so we would have enough for everyone in the class. I never realized how different it would be when I got older. Now we expect candy and flowers, and we can even pay for an a cappella group to sing to a loved one.

p. The holiday has become so robotic. We celebrate it because we have to, not because the day actually holds meaning for us. Though I don’t really understand its entire significance, I refuse to fulfill the cliche of hating Valentine’s Day like everyone else. So for all of you who have a significant other in the world, enjoy this perfect opportunity to tell that special person how much you love him or her. As for the rest of us, who are flying solo this year, just hope that your parents send you a care package, and think about all of the money you are saving by not having to buy anyone a gift.

p. __Rachael Siemon-Carome, a freshman at the College, is a Staff Columnist. Her columns appear every Friday.__