Travis Smith: my resume, bio and photos back to the main blog page

No Rest for the Lonely on Valentine’s Day

posted at 11:01 am
on Feb. 11, 2003

Comments: 0 so far

Permalink

 

Previous entry:
The Death of Seven

Next entry:
Real Resume Bloopers

[I debated whether to re-edit this humor column I wrote in 1994 to, you know, add good jokes and such.  But I decided to leave it basically us is. Also, I left the original headline on it, though it makes absolutely no sense. This was a common problem at the campus paper, and I soon learned to provide my own headlines.]

From the Daily Trojan, February 14 (or thereabouts), 1994.

Half Past Deadline

NO REST FOR THE WEARY ON VALENTINE’S DAY

Another Valentine’s day.

If I had a dollar for every Valentine’s day I spent without a Valentine, I’d be able to break a twenty.

There’s nothing sadder than an empty mail box on Valentine’s, unless it’s an answering machine with no messages, an apartment with no one waiting and a car up on blocks because your tires have been stolen.

That’s how I console myself on Valentine’s Day, by checking to see if my tires have been pilfered. “Hooray,” I shout.

Pile this in with St. Patrick’s Day, President’s Day and New Year’s Day (come on, how many people celebrate the day after New Year’s Eve?) I’m left with relatively few holidays I enjoy. So here’s a few new ones I’ve come up with. I’m going to be celebrating them, and you’re welcome to join me.

First, I think, will be Smith Day. There’s enough of us, why not have our own holiday? And certain it’s not only Smiths who can celebrate Smith Day. Any of us will be able to wish someone a Pleasant Smith Day, and give them an overpriced Hallmark Card.

All parking will be free for everyone on Smith Day, and movies will have discount ticket sales that day. Anyone born or married on Smith Day will be entitled to adopt the last name Smith—that way, the holiday will grow more and more popular.

I’d have the holiday on a Monday in May, because there’s no really good holidays during May, and banks are itching for a reason to close.

Shoe Day is next on my list. I bought a new pair of shoes last weekend, and they really make my feet happy. If every one had happy feet, we’d certainly be a lot less worried about the problems in our world. Oh, sure, there’d still be homeless, pollution, unemployment, crime and oppression. But there’d be less foot fungus, and we have to start somewhere, right?

There’ll be many different shoe festivities held this day, such as shoe drives (where volunteers will give clean shoes to the less fortunate) and a shoe hunt on the lawn of the White House for all the bankers who’d get the day off work. Maybe Clinton would donate some of his old shoes; after all, they’d make a great tax write-off.

Shoe Day would be in July, when people go barefoot and don’t mind giving away their shoes.

Call me silly, but I’d also like a Snow Day. This could be really played up with ice sculpting festivals in northern communities like North Dakota and Northridge. People in less fortunate climes (read: where it never snows and they have to walk around in loud T-shirts and get tans all year long, oh, the horror) could participate by defrosting their refrigerators.

We’d have public safety announcements about hypothermia and slushee headaches—you know, the kind you get when you drink cold things too fast and it feels like an ice pick is being pushed from your brain out between your eyeballs. The medical profession has practically ignored this vital area of research. We need a day to raise people’s consciousness, and I think that a international snowball fight would attract the global awareness. Bankers would whine about the cold and get the day off.

I also think there should be an Elle MacPherson day, where she goes on a fabulous date with the person who established the holiday. But wait—that’s me! What a shocking surprise!!

So you see, there’s no reason for Valentine’s Day, a scourge which causes countless labor to be lost by lovesick couples crooning at each other on office time, while nearby office workers run for convenient bathrooms, trash bins, other people’s purses, etc. to be sick into.

Look how much time I’ve spent writing this moping column, when I could have been working on my ongoing world peace research project. (OK, I’ve been letting it slide a little, but all these other things keep coming up.)

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go home and check my mail box.



 
 

 

Previous entry:
The Death of Seven

Next entry:
Real Resume Bloopers

Overheard

“The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good or evil.”

...who said it?

“Almost every American I know does trade large portions of his life for entertainment, hour by weeknight hour, binge by Saturday binge, Facebook check by Facebook check. I’m one of them. In the course of writing this I’ve watched all 13 episodes of House of Cards and who knows how many more West Wing episodes, and I’ve spent any number of blurred hours falling down internet rabbit holes. All instead of reading, or writing, or working, or spending real time with people I love.”

...who said it?

“Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones.”

...who said it?

“I play with variables constantly.”

...who said it?

“Only the person who has learned Continual Love coming from a heart of Gratitude/Worship can effectively deal with the problem of loneliness.”

...who said it?

Comments

 

 

There are no comments for this entry ... yet. So leave one already! Go on!

Add a Comment

 

 

Name:


Email: (optional)


URL: (optional)


Submit the word you see below:


 

 

 

Your comment:


Remember my personal info


Email me about follow-ups


 

Syndication Links


Click here for the main
XML feed for this blog.



Column only



Side links only



Quotes only

 

MetaBlogs

AboutBlogs

Clients

Humor

Journalism

Los Angeles

Mac

News

Personal 1

Personal 2

Photos

Politics

Other A-F

Other G-Q

Other R-Z

SocialNetworking

Tech 1

Tech 2

Travel

Vancouver 1

Vancouver 2

Vancouver 3

Vancouver 4

BizBlogs

Back to Main

 

Powered by
Expression Engine

 

Copyright 1995 - 2024 Mar 28

 

 

Want Column?

Enter your email address:


It will NEVER be shared.
Unsubscribe

You can scroll right easily by holding down the SHIFT key and using your scroll wheel. (Firefox users trying this will end up jumping to old Web pages until a) Firefox releases a fix, b) they change their settings like so.)