In Context: 5 Web Perspectives On A Story In The News

Valentine's Day

(Indo-Asian News Service) Right-wing Hindi groups are threatening to marry off or even beat couples caught together in public on Valentine's Day in India. This comes only a few weeks after a group called the Sri Rama Sene attacked women at a pub in Mangalore. Sri Rama Sene has since received about 1,000 pairs of pink underwear by mail as part of a campaign by "The Consortium of Pub-going, Loose and Forward Women," a Facebook group that started after the Mangalore attacks. In Bangalore, Delhi, Lucknow and Chandigarh, local police have promised that couples will be able to celebrate in peace. The National Students' Union of India has also promised to "come to the rescue of couples." The Hindi groups say that Valentine's Day is a Western holiday that doesn't suit Indian traditions or values.

1.

The History of Valentine’s Day

The History Channel
The History Channel's website offers several videos on the history and origins of Valentine's Day, covering subjects including the legend of Saint Valentine, how the Greek god Eros became a greeting-card Cupid and the St. Valentine's Day Massacre in 1929. On that day in Chicago, Al "Scarface" Capone sent a number of his henchmen, dressed up as police, to kill seven rival gangsters. Capone's Valentine ended poorly - though it did allow him to take over Chicago's criminal underground, the grisly murders attracted public attention to the level of mob violence in Chicago, sparking a police investigation that had Capone convicted of tax evasion two years later.

2.

Recession to make dent in big-ticket Valentine’s spending

Christian Science Monitor
According to the National Retail Foundation's annual Valentine's survey, U.S. consumers plan to spend about 20 per cent less on the holiday than they did last year. "You'll find a lot less money being spent on high-end gifts - like jewelry and cars - but candy and flowers, and maybe teddy bears, won't be affected that much," says Dennis Jacobe, chief economist at the Gallup Organization. Thirty-five per cent of Americans say they plan to buy flowers for their loved ones, which is consistent with last year.

3.

First-person account of a “seduction lair meeting”

blogTO
Those looking for seduction advice may want to steer clear from Dimitri the Lover, who is well-known around Toronto for advertising his advice on how to meet and have sex with "psychologically weak women" and "romantically shell shocked sluts." Here, two writers for blogTO attend one of his monthly "seduction lair meetings." They offer several eyebrow-raising details of the meeting before one of them concludes: "unlike many of Dimitri's more strident opponents, I don't believe he'll have any lasting impact on Toronto or be part of some kind of backwards progression in the psychology of men. He's simply too ‘out there' to reel in the casual consumer and his antagonistic, low-budget advertising reeks of desperation." The comment section is full of people quoting his wildly offensive website, followed by the defensive responses of Dimitri's satisfied former lovers. (At least, that's who they say they are.)

4.

Indie rockers share their first crush

eMusic
Musicians ranging from the obscure to the semi-obscure share their first crush experiences for digital music retailer eMusic. Unsurprisingly, most of them are disastrous, but surprisingly, most of them are charming and well-written. Canadian hardcore band F***** Up makes multiple appearances, involving fishing lures and a weird bodysuit fetish, but the saddest story belongs to John Roderick of The Long Winters, which will have you either pulling out your handkerchief or cynically wondering whether he's seen one too many Lifetime movies. Many of them are just really funny: "When I was about 13, I saw an Adam and the Ants concert on cable TV. It took place on a set that looked like a pirate ship. I fell in love. I am a pirate too! I let him know by growing a tail (in my hair) and developing a swishy and dark clothing style of my own. He ignored me completely."

5.

I Wish I'd Spent Valentine's Day Eating A Prix Fixe Dinner, But I Was Too Busy Getting Beheaded

The Onion
In this faux-editorial from fake news site The Onion, the legendary version of Saint Valentine -- as one of the History Channel videos shows, the Catholic Church canonized several Saint Valentines before creating the holiday -- laments that our annual celebration of the holiday fails to remember his grisly torture and execution at the hands of Emperor Claudius' guards. Should you find yourself somewhat embittered on the day of lovers, you can't be more bitter than a probably fictional dead man who took a vow of chastity and whose "painful, unnecessary death" is now celebrated by couples having expensive dinners together: "How rude of me! Blabbering on about myself when this is clearly your special day. Where's my head? Oh, here it is. In my hands. Because it was chopped off by savages who wished to punish me for practicing my faith. That's how I celebrated Valentine's Day -- also known as the Feast of St. Valentine, who just so happens to be me."