February 2024: The Strange Files Newsletter
February 2024: The Strange Files Newsletter
Welcome to the
Frosty -- and Somewhat Odd -- Month of February!
What does rawhide have to do with Valentine's day? And why is George Washington's February birthday so peculiar? These are among the many stranger-than-fiction stories in this month's newsletter, dedicated to ensuring that you're the smartest person in the room -- or the Zoom.
The Strange Origins of Valentine's Day
Valentine's Day, February's most notable holiday, conjures images of chocolate, flowers, and greeting cards. But Valentine's Day is rooted in the ancient Roman Feast of the Lupercalia in which naked men got drunk and ran around slapping women with animal hides believing this would increase their fertility. Pro Tip: Don't even think about it. Just stop right now!
The holiday is named after St. Valentine. Small problem with that: Nobody seems to know who he was. One theory suggests he may have been a priest who secretly married lovers so the men could dodge service in the Roman army. For his troubles he was killed by Emperor Claudius II.
Back to that hide slapping, Pope Gelasius in the 5th century got sick and tired of all the debauchery during Lupercalia (especially since he wasn't invited), so he canceled it. But, not wanting to be a total drag, he came up with Valentine's Day, a less raucous affair, as a substitute.
The first Valentine card -- letter, actually, since Hallmark hadn't been invented yet -- was written in 1477. The French Duke of Orleans was missing his wife, so he wrote her a poem. Email hadn't been invented yet, either, so it took a while to get there. Especially since she was locked up in the Tower of London. Fun times.
Who helped publicize Valentine's Day, making it such a big deal? It started gaining traction in the Middle Ages, and that's when William Shakespeare jumped on the bandwagon and began referring to it in his plays. That expression, "star-crossed lovers," yeah, that's Shakespeare.
Things to Know About Black History Month
Black History Month, as the name implies, is dedicated to studying and celebrating the role of African-Americans and other Black people in American history. The website We Are Teachers has some unusual facts to share. Here are a few:
Why is Black History Month in February? It's not random. This month was chosen in recognition of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass' February birthdays.
The first novel published by a Black author was Clotel: or, The President's Daughter. It was written by the abolitionist William Wells Brown. The story is about the fictional slave daughters of Thomas Jefferson. I checked, and it is still available. Here's a link.
Rosa Parks was not the first woman to refuse to give her seat up on a bus despite what most people believe. That distinction goes to Claudette Colvin who was arrested nine months earlier.
Here's another name to remember: Lucy Stanton. She's the first Black woman to earn a four-year college degree -- from Oberlin College in 1850.
One final bit of trivia: Nat King Cole was the first Black American to host a television show. It premiered on NBC in 1956.
It's Super, but Not the Biggest
The premier event in American professional football -- the Super Bowl -- will kick off on February 11 in Las Vegas. Defending champs Kansas City will face San Francisco.
For those of you organizing Super Bowl parties, game time is 6:30 p.m. ET although there will be all manner of televised hoopla beforehand. The halftime performer is Usher. Tune your TV to CBS.
Despite what many people may think, while the Super Bowl is a big deal in the States, it is far from the most widely watched sporting event in the world. That honor belongs to soccer's World Cup. And it's not even close. Super Bowl: 113 million viewers; World Cup Final: 1.5 billion.
Of course, the World Cup is once every four years and the Super Bowl is an annual extravaganza, so there's that. Plus the halftime show. And the hilarious TV commercials.
One more Super Bowl note: in last year's February newsletter I observed this about the 2023 game:
"No matter which team wins, Donna Kelce will have a son with a Super Bowl ring. She's the first mom to have two sons face off in the big game, Jason Kelce with the Eagles and Travis Kelce with the Chiefs."
Honestly, being a lifelong Dolphins fan, I hadn't kept up with the Eagles or Chiefs' rosters, so at the time those names meant nothing to me. Little did I (or you) know that a year later Travis Kelce's reputation as a football player would be eclipsed by his new role as Taylor Swift's main squeeze.
Speaking of Sports
The three most watched sports in America are football, basketball, and baseball. After that you have a smattering of other pastimes including soccer (which is pushing its way into the top tier), hockey, tennis, boxing, and some people actually think golf is a sport -- as opposed to a game like, say, croquet. We do not dignify automobiles racing around in circles as a sport any more than tractor pulls or swamp buggy races. They are contests, sure, but so is checkers. So, can we please ban the word "motorsports"? Thank you.
Anyway, I digress. There is another major sporting event involving actual athleticism taking place in February, and that is the National Basketball Association All Star Game, which will be televised on February 18 at 8:30 p.m. on TNT.
George's Strange Birthday
We celebrate George Washington's birthday this year on February 19, a federal holiday also known as President's Day. It's always on the third Monday in February, which means Washington's birthday bounces around from one year to the next. That's confusing, but it isn't the half of it. Read on:
Here's a nerdy bar bet you can make: Was George Washington born on February 11, 1731 or February 22, 1732?
The answer is: YES.
Among the many atrocities visited upon the American colonies by the British, the King and his minions abandoned the Julian calendar, in use when Washington was born, in favor of the Gregorian calendar in the year 1752 while America was still under British rule.
The upshot is that it moved Washington's birthday from February 11, 1731 to February 22, 1732.
So during his lifetime, Washington got two birthday cakes every year. Sweet!
But February isn't always so kind on the birthday front. This is Leap Year, meaning February has 29 days instead of the usual 28. (It takes Earth 365 AND A QUARTER days to orbit the Sun.) So every four years we add a day to February to adjust the calendar. So, for those poor souls born on February 29, they only get to celebrate their birthdate every four years.
Further proof that life isn't fair.
More February Events and Observances
Groundhog Day is February 2. The event originated from a Pennsylvania Dutch superstition that if a groundhog emerges from its den on this day and sees its shadow there will be six more weeks of winter. If it doesn't, spring will arrive early.
The most famous weather-forecasting groundhog is Punxsutawney Phil, named after the Pennsylvania town where he lives -- Phil. No, just kidding. He lives in Punxsutawney where members of a club devoted to him (it's a small town, entertainment options are limited) drag him outside and ask him the crucial question: "See your shadow, Phil?"
Phil doesn't respond, naturally, and instead gives the crowd a terrified look, no doubt wondering what he must have done wrong to be punished like this, held aloft by a fat guy in a top hat when he'd rather be napping.
Whether Phil sees his shadow or not, winter will end, as usual, on the vernal equinox, the first day of Spring, this year arriving on March 19. (And, yes, Spring arrives earlier this year. Why? Blame February and its extra day.)
The Sound of Music
The annual Grammy Awards will be televised Sunday, February 4 live from Los Angeles at 8 p.m. ET. Trevor Noah will once again be the host. Here's the list of the nominees.
In addition to the Grammys, February is a busy month for entertainment awards:
Feb. 10: Directors Guild of America Awards ceremony
Feb. 12: Oscars nominees luncheon
Feb. 18: BAFTA Awards ceremony
Feb. 21: Writers Guild of America Awards nominations
Feb. 22-27: Final Oscars voting
Feb. 23: Oscars Scientific and Technical Awards ceremony
Feb. 24: Screen Actors Guild Awards ceremony
Feb. 25: Film Independent Spirit Awards ceremony (see the full list of nominees)
Feb. 25: Producers Guild of America Awards ceremony
FYI, the Oscars ceremony isn't until March 10.
But that's not all. Ten more February observances ...
February 1 -- National Chocolate Day
February 2 -- National Ukulele Day
February 5 -- Shower with a Friend Day
February 9 -- Read in the Bathtub Day
February 10 -- Chinese New Year
February 13 -- Mardi Gras
February 14 -- Ash Wednesday
February 24 -- National Tortilla Chip Day
February 27 -- Pokemon Day
February 29 -- Leap Day
Politics and Very Strange Bedfellows
Over the next few months, presidential preference primaries will be held in most of the states, which will determine their delegates to the Republican and Democratic national conventions to be held, respectively, in July and August. And while that may seem anticlimactic at this point, who knows what might happen during the intervening months?
So, for you political junkies out there, here's a calendar of every state's primary election including several in February.
They say politics makes strange bedfellows. Here's a case in point, a story so drenched in weirdness I had to share it. The headline from an NBC TV station in Colorado sums it up:
Anti-abortion GOP lawmaker
praises the impact of the
abortion he paid for
DENVER -- Republican State Rep. Richard Holtorf, a candidate for Colorado's 4th Congressional District, disclosed Friday that he financed an abortion for one of two girlfriends he impregnated saying it helped her "live her best life."
Holtorf was was a sponsor of a failed 2020 measure to ban abortion in Colorado after 22 weeks. In 2022, Holtorf made headlines when he dropped his handgun in the state Capitol while rushing to the floor to cast a vote against abortion rights.
He went on to tell House colleagues Friday that he "had another beautiful woman" and got her pregnant ...
"I have so much lived experience, you have no idea," he said.
February's Watch List
February presents us with a cornucopia of movie and TV choices.
On the silver screen, among many others, will be the premiers of Argyle, Madame Web, Winnie-the-Pooh and Honey 2, Lisa Frankenstein, Scrambled, and more.
The big TV event in my household will be the return of the next season of Survivor. Haven't missed an episode in more than 20 years. (Yeah, I know, it's an addiction.) Click on the "Survivor 46 Cast" above for a sneak video preview of this season's contestants.
For the complete rundown of all the February TV and movie offerings, my favorite websites are:
MOVIES: Movie Insider
TELEVISION: Entertainment Weekly
Reading List
Having plowed through a dozen or so witty but lightweight SciFi novels, I've decided to take a more serious bent in February. But, full disclosure, it's mostly because of the influence of the book club I belong to. Two of the three books on my TBR stack are queued up for discussion and I selected the third because Ron Rollins, a former newspaper colleague and podcast partner, recommended it.
Yellowface by R.F.Kuang is variously described as a satire of racial diversity in the book publishing industry as well as metafiction regarding Twitter and other social media. At this point, I'm halfway through it and it is extraordinarily clever and compelling. Footnote about the author: Rebecca Kuang made her debut as a fantasy novelist; this is her first work of literary fiction. She's 27 and already has two graduate degrees (Cambridge and Oxford) and is working on a third (Yale.) Fair to say she's a smart writer.
North Woods by Daniel Mason is a Pulitzer finalist and Prophet Song by Paul Lynch won the 2023 Booker Prize. My wife Sandy and I plan to listen to them on Audible during an upcoming road trip. Will report back.
Nonsense Quotes to Impress Your Friends
"I like nonsense. it wakes up the brain cells."
-- Dr. Seuss
"Forgive me my nonsense, as I also forgive the nonsense of those that think they talk sense."
--Robert Frost
"If we listened to our intellect, we'd never have a love affair. We'd never have a friendship. We'd never go into business ... Well, that's nonsense. You've got to jump off cliffs all the time and build your wings on the way down."
--Ray Bradbury
Strange News to Share
An Australian woman got the fright of her life recently when she went to get a drink of water from her refrigerator only to find a nearly three-foot long red-bellied black snake hanging from the ice and water dispenser. The snake is common in eastern Australia and is venomous, but herpetologists say they aren't aggressive. Most likely it was just trying to find a place to cool off. Read more here.
Jellyfish don't do a whole lot. They have no brains, no heart, no blood, and they just float around like the blobs they are, drifting to wherever the tides take them. But they do have a superpower: They can regrow their tentacles. How? Stem cells at the ends of those strands they use to grasp their prey. Could we learn from jellyfish and someday regrow our own severed limbs? That's why scientists are studying them. Read more here.
Want to keep your brain working well? Numerous studies have pointed to the importance of stimulating the senses as a way to keep our gray matter in peak form. This study shows the relationship between the sense of smell and memory and decision making. Good oral hygiene is also crucial as bacteria in the gums can make its way to the brain and could be a cause of dementia. Read more here.
Strange Fact
Q: What did the ancient Greeks use for napkins?
A: Edible pieces of soft dough.
Thanks to reader Anne Daley for sharing this.
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Readers Write...
Dear J.C.
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Well, thanks for signing up and I hope you enjoy the book. Yes, the protagonist in the series of novels I've written is Alexander Strange. He writes a column called "The Strange Files" for an online news service and frequently finds himself embroiled in mysterious adventures. I've adopted that name for the newsletter as well.
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Darryl from Vermont
Oh, I know you guys. Darryl and his other brother Darryl. Bob Newhart had you on his show way back when, didn't he? Just found the clip online:
Dear J.C.
Still Didn't answer the question.
Darryl and Darryl
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Parting Shot
(in honor of National Penguin Day)
Thanks to reader Becky Rife for sharing this!
J.C. Bruce is the author of The Strange Files series of mysterious novels (available on Amazon, other fine online booksellers, and at selected libraries). He also writes this free monthly newsletter. He holds dual citizenship in the United States of America and Florida where he has moved all of his books to his upstairs loft because of rising sea levels.
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