Hello and Welcome!
To-morrow is Saint Valentine's day,
All in the morning betime,
And I a maid at your window,
To be your Valentine.
William Shakespeare, Ophelia
in Hamlet (1623); Act 4, Scene 5.
Before Shakespeare, Valentines was a pagan day called Lupercalia, the Roman deity Luper, believed to bestow fertility. Anyone want a baby? The Romans celebrated by actions all of which are regarded criminal in our day, including striking---beating---women, eating dogs, running naked. All this took place every year on February fourteen.
The church leadership was outraged that the populations still celebrated Luper. So, the higher heads decided to substitute a martyr (Valentine) and declared it a day of feast. Since there were several Valentines who were martyred, we do not know which one. However, food almost always triumphs. The day of fertility acquired the formal greeting cards in 1913. By commercialization of invitation to intimacy, the immortality of February fourteen was thus secured.
H. B. PAKSOY is happily retired. Earlier, he taught at several universities. So far, over thirty of his books are published. He earned his D. Phil. from Oxford University, England (with a Grant from the Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals of the Universities of the United Kingdom), M.A. at the University of Texas at Dallas (with a National Science Foundation Project Grant Assistantship), and B.S. at Trinity University (with Bostwick Scholarship)
H. B. PAKSOY is happily retired. Earlier, he taught at several universities. So far, over thirty of his books are published. He earned his D. Phil. from Oxford University, England (with a Grant from the Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals of the Universities of the United Kingdom), M.A. at the University of Texas at Dallas (with a National Science Foundation Project Grant Assistantship), and B.S. at Trinity University (with Bostwick...
Books
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BLUE MOHINI
courtship of a couple, marriage and wedded life; all within the context of their environment, family and friends.
CHASING BLUE MOHINI
the intense search for the philosophy and leadership of Blue Mohini by several federal law enforcement agencies and the effects of that search on the principal characters
ZEKE
Zeke discovered that there were more branches of the U.S. military much more secretive than the Navy SEALS. Given the particulars of his service record, he was not consulted but was simply ordered into a new training program. He was still part of the military, yet was no longer wearing a uniform. He was being trained as an ‘operator.’ On his...
Other Writing
Of the novelists
HB Paksoy, DPhil
The old buzz-saw states: “do not anger a novelist; he will put you in his book and kill you.” Go ahead; ask the...
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Valentine's Day
by HB Paksoy
To-morrow is Saint Valentine's day,
All in the morning betime,
And I a maid at your window,
To be your Valentine.
...