The Idler, Friday, February 24

Love, romance

and adventure

-      for some

 

IT'S that day when you have to tread warily in places like the Street Shelter for the Over-Forties to avoid damsels dropping on you out of the rafters. Yes, Valentines Day again, dedicated to romance and love.

The origins of this day are lost in the mists of time. There was the pagan fertility festival of Lupercalia in ancient Rome, which was eventually banned by the Pope and renamed St Valentine's Day.

St Valentine had been a Christian priest who secretly married Roman soldiers to their lady loves, much against the wishes of the pagan Emperor Claudius who threw him into jail.

In jail, Valentine cured the jailer's daughter of her blindness, according to legend, and would write to her, signing off "From your Valentine" – the origin no doubt of the Valentine messages. Eventually he was martyred on February 14.

The day came to the notice of the Anglo-Saxon world in the 14^th century with Geoffrey Chaucer's poem, Parlement of Foules, which apparently was written for Valentine's Day. Nature calls a parliament of birds (foules), at which they choose their mates. St Valentine gets praise.

It caught on. Next we have in Hamlet, Ophelia singing:

Tomorrow is Saint Valentine's day,

All in the morning betime,

And I a maid at your window,

To be your Valentine.

Then up he rose, and donned his clothes,

And dupped the chamber door.

Let in the maid that out a maid

Never departed more.

And that's how things have developed to where you and your sweetheart have choices like: a Valentine's Day concert at Botanic Gardens; an air safari over the Valley of a Thousand Hills; a wander down the Golden Mile; hot air ballooning in the Berg; a holding hands skydive at Eston; and the "Big Swing" at Moses Mabhida Stadium, 106m off the ground and swinging at 120km/h in a 220m arc.

But nothing as hair-raising as those gals at the Street Shelter.

 

 

ComeKipWithMe

FORMER Tory MP Rory Stewart has fallen out with new British prime minister Boris Johnson. He didn't stand at the last election but is now running as an independent for mayor of London, Bojo's old job.

He's launched an unusual campaign called ComeKipWithMe in which he appeals to Londoners to be allowed to sleep a night in their home, to get to know them properly.

All he needs is the couch to doss on. He'll bring his own sleeping bag and a box of chocolates,.

"Today I'm launching #ComeKipWithMe - asking Londoners to invite me into their homes and show me the city through their eyes," he says in a video. "I want to know your concerns and your ideas. And I promise to bring a sleeping bag and a box of chocolates."

The video shows Stewart talking to a woman as he reveals he has previously stayed with "Lorraine in Newham" and "a young man in Streatham".

The campaign has been met with derision on social media, according to Sky News. One person said: "He can't get a date for Valentine's." Another: "Why don't you just use Tinder like everyone else."

But they could be getting it wrong. Rory Stewart might have become a top-of-the-range vagrant.

 

Tailpiece

The fame of Albert Einstein pales in comparison with his brother, whose work in cellular regeneration has been the subject of many books and several movies.

The brother's name: Frank.

 

Last word

When we remember we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained. - Mark Twain