Vickie Fee

Celebrating VaLENTine’s Day

Today is Valentine’s Day—and Ash Wednesday. Kind of an odd mash-up of things that don’t really match. The day we kick-off forty days of fasting and remember we are dust and unto dust we shall return combined with the day we normally celebrate romance, go out to dinner and binge on candy. (For the record, the last time Ash Wednesday and Valentine’s Day collided was 1945. The Detroit Tigers also won the World Series that year. True story.)

 

odd-socks
source: pixabay

This got me thinking about other unlikely mash-ups. For instance, Wired Magazine took a look at some combination inventions. Some that work. Some not-so-much. Best (or, at least, my favorite): Clock radio. Waking up to music instead of a siren was a brilliant idea, especially for those of us who aren’t morning people. Worst: A combination plow and gun, which was patented in 1862 by two guys in Waterloo, NY. Another mash-up that’s a total fail: the combo steering wheel-desk tray, which allows you to eat or work while you drive. What could go wrong? A pet peeve of mine: sporks. They don’t work well as either a spoon or a fork.

 

Food mash-ups: Mac ‘n cheese pizza. That would be a no for me. But T-ball players may disagree. As a kid, I loved peanut butter and sweet pickle sandwiches – all the sweet of jelly with the bonus of crunch.

 

Check out YouTube if you’d like to see some odd music mash-ups. Adele’s Rolling in the Deep and AC/DC Back in Black mash-up is a total fail, in my opinion. The mash-up of Pink Floyd’s The Wall and the Bee Gee’s Staying Alive? Brilliant. It totally works for me, but then I grew up during the disco era.

 

Back to the Ash Wednesday/Valentine’s Day conundrum. Obviously, we could move our Valentine’s celebration to another day. But if we want to be creative and work both in, candy and a big dinner are off the menu. Maybe Mass and a movie? We could get our ashes, then go to the cinema (sans popcorn). Is there a movie currently playing that would seem appropriate to watch with ashes on our foreheads?

Any special plans for Valentine’s Day or Lent or a mash-up of the two? Any favorite mash-ups—food, music or other? Share your thoughts in the comments.

28 thoughts on “Celebrating VaLENTine’s Day”

  2. My significant other and I are having Valentine’s dinner at ihop with his cousin (I bet he forgot it was Valentine’s Day!) You know the one, the woman who is never wrong and can’t shut up long enough to breathe. As a side note, your son has NEVER lied to you in 35 years? Seriously?
    My gifts?
    I gave a box of Godiva biscuits to my local Starbucks crew this morning.
    My daughter is getting her first “dirty” card, with 9 hunks on it. Count them, 9!
    The significant other is getting a personalized book of how he is wonderful, from http://www.lovebookonline.com.
    Favorite food mashups?
    Vanilla ice cream with pretzel sticks to use instead of a spoon.
    Chili with Fritos instead of cornbread, aka frito pie.
    Tv mashups?
    I’d like to see Moonlighting and Remington Steele have the same case to solve in a reunion movie. Which team do you think would win?

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  4. Vickie, I feel your dilemma. I’m also feeling a little ill today because we celebrated Valentine’s last night on Mardi Gras. Still recovering from a huge Italian meal with dessert accompanied by double-Goldiva martinis. Ugh. I’m good for all of Lent now.

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  6. I don’t celebrate Valentine’s Day (being single) or Lent (being Protestant and not Catholic). So today is a combo of nothing for me.

    A pizza chain in the Phoenix area had a Taco Pizza. California Pizza Kitchen has a similar Tostada Pizza. Both are definitely unusual combinations, but they are delicious, especially that Taco Pizza from Godfather Pizza. (If they are even still around. I haven’t been to Phoenix in years.)

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  7. My goodness, that macaroni and cheese pizza looks amazing!

    Agree to disagree about sporks? I adore them. They’re so cute. 😉

    Can’t think of a mashup but maybe that’s because I’m all caught up in Shaun White winning the gold yesterday. I was pretty surprised to be crying at the end of a televised snowboard event, but it was so dramatic! And then he was crying too after he won. And then I cried because he was crying. LOL.

    This is very random.

    Happy Valentine’s day!

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    1. Olympic snowboarding – Fat Tuesday mash-up = tears for Cynthia! ❤ (I'll buy you a six-place setting of sporks for Christmas!)

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  8. I’ll just pop in to say your blog title is SO clever! I’m jealous I didn’t think of it. Happy Valentine’s Day to all of you and…sad (?) Lent also. I’m Methodist and we do Lent. My favorite part is the music for this season. I love sad music.

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  10. I’m with Vickie on the mac-n-cheese pizza. No thanks.

    We celebrate Valentines, but rarely on that day. Car show this weekend and a dinner with two other couples in a week or two on a Saturday (a big dinner at a local place that is all about roasted meat is not an Ash Wednesday or Friday option for us LOL).

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