Special Valentine's Edition - The Power of Love (not by Huey Lewis)

We are having a Valentine's snow day up here in Quabbin Qountry, and with it plenty of time to do the lazy sit-around-the-house things that work days don't allow, and weekends discourage with their travels and hangovers. All morning I have delighted in watching the birds compete for the freshly-tossed seed on my front porch with a diagonally blowing sleet falling behind them. Yet the warm, woodstoven confines of my apartment have allowed me to anxiously await the days I can go outside in running shorts again.

I was also able to bask in the pleasures of multimedia with half of the second season of Kids in the Hall and a few movies on the premium channels. All this media overload was taxing on a simple man like myself, and only worked to reiterate the allure of power and money to both women and men, as evidenced in the great number of Presidential aspirants this time around. The idea of White House sex being the best possible sex is intriguing, and quite possibly truthful. Why else would it run in the Adams, Roosevelt and Bush families? Why else would Hillary be running, and both Doles gave it a shot? Why was Al Gore so horny? They heard the whispers, the rumours, the creaking and the thuds like nothing they had ever heard before. It leaves the rest of us schmucks sitting at home, wondering what might be, wondering if women will ever figure it out that if a guy is into money then he is almost certainly into M.O.B.

But here in Quabbin Qountry, we have acres of virgin snow in the woods, ripe for the taking. I'm putting on tights, a sweatshirt, my new Holyoke Athletic Staff pullover, a hat and gloves and getting it on. Three cheers for February, and that unmistakable squishy sound that only comes when shoes and snow meet in the crevasse of a footprint.

While I'm at it - a Valentine's Day Playlist.

Ask - The Smiths
So. Central Rain - R.E.M. (video)
Jackie Wilson Said - Van Morrison
I Married Her Just Because She Looks Like You - Lyle Lovett
Night Moves - Bob Seger
Beautiful Girls - Van Halen
Patience - Guns N Roses
Hard Candy - Counting Crows
The Heat of the Moment - Asia
Knockin' Da Boots - H-Town
This Must Be the Place - Talking Heads
Song for the Dumped - Ben Folds Five

In the words of Cabbagehead: "A guy has an English accent and you're all wet. You're a lake. But a guy's got a little green on his shoulders and you puke. That's sexual discrimination!"

Festivale,
BTB