Valentine

Yesterday I made what I believe may be one of the world's largest Valentine's Day cards.

I got the idea right after I acquired a GPS the other day -- a gizmo I have no actual use for, but instead got merely because they're nifty. The first step was determining points; I used a Rutgers bus map and a magic marker to draw the I ♥ U message, one character per campus. Then I chose a minimum number of points which, when traced between, would be recognizable. This was easy for "I" and "U", a bit harder for the heart -- especially given the limitations imposed by the terrain itself. A point couldn't be in a building, or on private property, etc.

I spent the rest of the day on foot with the GPS and a fat permanent marker. At each point, I drew on the ground (mostly concrete sidewalks) a heart, the latitude and longitude (WGS 84 datum), and the distance and magnetic bearing to the next and previous points.

I then gave the list of coordinates to my girlfriend. (I could have just given her the first point, but that'd be too much work... and it is Valentine's Day...)

VALENTINE

he first woman seen by a man, or man seen by a woman, on St. Valentine's day, the 14th of February, when it is said every bird chuses his mate for the ensuing year.

The 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue.

Val"en*tine (?), n.

1.

A sweetheart chosen on St. Valentine's Day.

2.

A letter containing professions of love, or a missive of a sentimental, comic, or burlesque character, sent on St. Valentine's Day.

St. Valentine's Day, a day sacred to St. Valentine; the 14th of February. It was a very old notion, alluded to by Shakespeare, that on this day birds begin to mate. Hence, perhaps, arose the custom of sending love tokens at that time.

© Webster 1913.