Mark Aldrich

Chaucer and Valentine’s Day

Posted on February 14, 2017 by Mark Aldrich

The Invention of Love …

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Because of the rampant commercialism associated with the holiday, Valentine’s Day is considered a “Hallmark holiday,” a day selected by a blindfolded intern at Hallmark HQ and pegged as one we consumers are told to celebrate by spending. It isn’t.

In the grocery store last week, the center of which is holiday-red right now and overstuffed with heart-shaped balloons and streamers, as if the store manager himself demanded a ticket-tape parade for Cupid, I walked past a fellow shopper who, shaking her head, declared out loud, “Valentine’s Day! Already?” because that is what we say when we view holiday decorations in stores nowadays. (Each reminder of time’s passage is responded to as a newly experienced emotional trauma in our culture, each time we encounter it.) It was February 10, the decorations had been up in this particular store since January 2, and there was no hint of irony in the person’s exclamation.

Starting in the late 1700s, publishers started to print and sell Valentine’s Day-oriented books, usually guides for young men to use in composing their love notes. On this much, most cultural historians seem to agree. The disagreements begin with who Valentine might have been and why February 14 is his feast day and extend to the question about what any of this has to do with chalky heart-shaped candies and smooching.
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A Victory for the Autonomous Nation of Anarchist Libertarians

Posted on February 13, 2017 by Mark Aldrich

In the last week of January, members of a group that calls itself the Autonomous Nation of Anarchist Libertarians started to reside in an unoccupied mansion owned by a Russian oligarch in London. The group earned a legal reprieve today.

Since the group took over residence a legal case has proceeded through the court system to evict them from the premises. At different times, police have been called to attempt to take advantage of any moments in which the residence might be empty—lines of moving vans have been assembled outside to and the group has posted photos—and on several other occasions “groups of fascists” (as A.N.A.L. has described them in posts online) have been employed to take over the several doorways to the mansion and block entry to the property.

The group outwitted the blockade by erecting ladders from the sidewalks to the second-story windows.

The group at times numbers activist Lauri Love among its fellowship, whose legal case has been documented on this website. He faces extradition to the United States to face unspecified hacking charges and if he is sent to the U.S. and is convicted, faces multiple sentences that could add up to 99 years in prison.

A post from one hour ago (6:00 p.m. EST February 13) on the group’s Facebook page reads in part: “… the possession order was strictly for the land of the address, not the building itself, which effectively means they don’t have any power.”
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A Valentine’s Day Disaster

Posted on February 13, 2017 by Mark Aldrich

It was as if every wish I had made in childhood for a hole in the ground to open up and rescue me had been answered in reverse …

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I bear a scar from the first Valentine’s Day that I had a reason to celebrate as Valentine’s Day, as a part of a couple.

Until my last relationship, my romantic history was a long walk alone in an empty field, punctuated by moments in which I interrupted someone else’s walk, attempted to try a relationship, and discovered that I try people’s patience instead. (All the women I have dated are brilliant and accomplished and I was lucky to get to know them; I was stuck at age 15 for an astonishingly long time, however.)

My love right now, my soul mate, Jen, is quite brilliant and accomplished, and for the first time in my life, four-plus years now, I am an equal partner and have opened myself up to having an equal partner. Not too bad for a 48-year-old 15-year-old.
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