{"id":3832,"date":"2012-02-16T16:05:32","date_gmt":"2012-02-16T23:05:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=3832"},"modified":"2012-02-16T16:06:29","modified_gmt":"2012-02-16T23:06:29","slug":"the-valentine-code","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=3832","title":{"rendered":"The Valentine Code"},"content":{"rendered":"

Valentin’s Day came this week, and I owed M. a dinner out, so we went. In our case, that means a longish drive, half on gravel roads, to a restaurant with soft lighting and an actual wine list.\u00a0 Just doing our part for the Romantic-Industrial Complex.\u00a0 Snow was in the forecast, but did not arrive.<\/p>\n

She half-apologized for not getting me a card, but that’s all right, I had not bought her one either. Normally I would shy from buying a card with the word “special” on the front, and now I know why\u2014in the World of Hallmark, it is a sort of code: <\/a><\/p>\n

\n

S: Are there any words writers are banned from using on a Valentine?<\/strong><\/p>\n

DD<\/strong>: We tried to avoid “soul mate terminology” because you don’t know how well a couple is going to know each other or how well they’re getting along. Some one might not feel comfortable using the word ‘love’ which is where the word “special” comes in. You’ll see that again and again on greeting cards: “for a special mom” or “for a special person.” The word special can mean anything from “you’re the most beautiful person to me” to “I’m glad I don’t live that close to you anymore.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Valentin’s Day came this week, and I owed M. a dinner out, so we went. In our case, that means a longish drive, half on gravel roads, to a restaurant with soft lighting and an actual wine list.\u00a0 Just doing our part for the Romantic-Industrial Complex.\u00a0 Snow was in the forecast, but did not arrive. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[12],"class_list":["post-3832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-writing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-ZO","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":529,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=529","url_meta":{"origin":3832,"position":0},"title":"\"Pseudo-factual claptrap . . .\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"October 7, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"\"Pseudo-factual claptrap . . . half-baked historical revisionism\"The Da Vinci Code movie is viewed with alarm.It's nice to be a Pagan on the sidelines. Heck, we're still in the parking lot eating chile off the tailgate. Then we'll enter the stadium with our lap robes and hip flasks and watch\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8412,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=8412","url_meta":{"origin":3832,"position":1},"title":"Some “Spare” Links and the “Witchcraft Aesthetic”","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"January 9, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00b6 The University of Heidelberg has scanned and put online a 1916 issue of Form, a small British art magazine containing numerous illustrations by Austin Osman Spare, noted English occultist and artist. Here is a sample. \u00b6 If I were visiting Milan, I would visit this Tarot painter's studio and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"art\"","block_context":{"text":"art","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=art"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/form11.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":120,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=120","url_meta":{"origin":3832,"position":2},"title":"Saint Valentine . . .\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 16, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Saint Valentine . . . not a culture hero? Those fundamentalist Saudis mentioned earlier are not alone in their hatred of hearts, flowers, and by extension, divine Eros. They have company on the Indian subcontinent, where other Muslims and the Hindu Shiv Sena party also rage against the evil foreign\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1061,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1061","url_meta":{"origin":3832,"position":3},"title":"On the Road","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"September 12, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Blogging will be sketchy for the next week, as I am on the road, my destination being first, a small town and an old friend in eastern North Dakota -- and then possibly the Turtle Mountain area of that state.Tonight I fetched up in Valentine, Nebraska (more than halfway there!),\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"travel\"","block_context":{"text":"travel","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=travel"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":119,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=119","url_meta":{"origin":3832,"position":4},"title":"Saint Valentine . . .\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 15, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Saint Valentine . . . the pagan? Islamic clerics in Saudi Arabia (our good friends, the Saudis) denounce Valentine's Day as a \"pagan Christian holiday\" and forbid its celebration in the kingdom. Other news reports speak of reprisals against shop owners selling Valentine's Day items. Ah, wonderful, a jihad against\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9820,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=9820","url_meta":{"origin":3832,"position":5},"title":"You’re Using Too Many Cards and Other Tarot Stuff","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"September 24, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"The title of this post was inspired by a recent post by Thorn Mooney on Oathbound: \"The Celtic Cross is Kind of Terrible.\" Near as anyone can tell, the Celtic Cross comes out of the assorted Golden Dawn materials and was propagated (if not totally invented) by A.E. Waite in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"divination\"","block_context":{"text":"divination","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=divination"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/too-many-cards.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/too-many-cards.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/too-many-cards.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3832"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3832\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3834,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3832\/revisions\/3834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}