Seasonal Greetings...

...and please buy our beer. (Wasn't that from a Pogo-style Christmas carol? I'm not sure.) However, I apologize for not getting the Super Bowl promos. The sign above caught my attention instead ... somehow I couldn't help thinking "the narcs are coming...the narcs are coming."

The occasion was my first visit to a supermarket since just before Christmas. A pretty good record, if I do say so. But though I wasn't there, the marketing people were out in force. They made it very hard to forget one's Valentine upon entering Fry's. In fact, between the thoroughly heart-ed entrance and the chocolate/goodie niche (below), the beer folks' Super Bowl display didn't stand a chance.

Then at the back of the store, I spotted this display of the latest appliance toys. Look at the top row. Is nothing sacred? The commodified chocolate fountain, yet. Just in time for Valentine's Day, of course; for sure, it's the next major $10-15 item in the Salvation Army's small appliance department.

Footnote to the Partridge Creek petroglyph post (1/20/07): The Google has started sending inquisitive people to my piece about the three weird critters pecked into the rocks at that site. Being inquisitive myself, I checked out Google. Turns out that Elderhostel has scheduled a rock art recording session starting at Partridge Creek and working westward, primarily on private lands. Time: April -- a good month; not too cold, not too hot. I'm tempted. One other reference Google turned up was somewhat amusing -- my favorite upside-down creature was shown twice -- carefully turned right-side up. Wrong, guys!

Valentines Yet?

The house of many lights over on Park Avenue is already ready for the next holiday: St. Valentine's. As you may (or may not) recall, the owners celebrate many holidays -- and frankly all this warm red is quite welcome in the midst of the current cold wave. I suspect that the strings of lights that outline the house and fences serve more than one holiday. The red Valentine's lights plus the green St. Pat's lights certainly add up to Christmas colors, for example.

Here are some past displays I've photographed: July 4th Independence Day (plus St. Pat's) ... Halloween. I will try to catch more night pictures as the year's holidays roll across the calendar.

In the past ten or so years, Valentine's Day has caught on in such major non-European cultures as Japan and India. The Japanese celebrate St. Valentine's day in a rather unique fashion. Women give the men gifts of chocolate as well as other gifts. These gifts of chocolate are divided into two types: giri choco (obligatory chocolate) and honmei choco (chocolate for the man the woman is serious about). Giri choco is given by women to their superiors at work as well as to other male co-workers. It is not unusual for a woman to buy 20 to 30 boxes of this type of chocolate for distribution around the office as well as to men that she has regular contact with. But, according to this site, there's a Japanese twist to the celebration -- one month later to the day, Japanese men are expected to give chocolates to the women who previously gifted them.

The Indian version of Valentines Day -- not always pleasant -- is detailed in this article, while thumbnails of other international variations can be found here.