Valentine's Day: Free hugs for heart health

February has been American Heart Month since 1963, and it’s surely no coincidence that February features Valentine’s Day. For the American Heart Association, it’s a month devoted to increasing public awareness of heart health and raising money.
In support of such a good cause, a gentleman from Ohio (Jeff Ondash) raised money for heart health by giving away free hugs outside a Las Vegas casino. After 7,777 hugs in 24 hours, he had surpassed the previous Guinness record of 5,000. Mr. Ondash, who is 51, was motivated by the memory of his father and brother, who died prematurely of heart problems.

I’m afraid I’m really not into Valentine’s Day. Way too commercial. But it does inspire some interesting stories, like the following on personal ads.

Advertising for love in Victorian times

Pam Epstein writes in the New York Times about personal ads in the Victorian age.

In the 19th century, as cities experienced enormous population growth, men and women invented new ways to find partners in an increasingly atomized world. Amorous advertisements abounded in newspapers around the country. … Victorian critics derided the mostly male advertisers as wicked seducers, but the ads were a favorite among readers, who found them titillating glimpses into the hearts of strangers. … [They] feel surprisingly familiar, reminding us, perhaps, that we are not so different from our 19th-century counterparts

An example from June of 1863:

A young lady of 18, wealthy, pretty and agreeable, wants a husband. Not finding any one of her acquaintance who suits her, she has concluded to take this method of discovering one. The happy gentleman must be wealthy, stylish, handsome and fascinating. None other need apply. Address within three days, giving name and full particulars, and enclosing carte de visite, Carrie Howard, Station D, New York.

Ms. Epstein, a graduate student at Rutgers, is writing a dissertation on the transformation of love and marriage between the mid-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries in America. More samples of Victorian personals are available on her blog, Advertising for Love.

Sexually, I’m more of a Switzerland

Kate Harding writes in Salon about personal ads in The London Review of Books and its New York counterpart, The New York R of B. David Rose, the advertising director of LRB who started the personals section, has published two collections of ads (see Resources below). A sample:

Tall, handsome, well-built, articulate, intelligent, sensitive, yet often grossly inaccurate man, 21. Cynics (and some cheap Brentwood psychiatrists) may say ‘pathological liar’, but I like to use ‘creative with reality’. Join me in my 36-bedroomed mansion on my Gloucestershire estate, set in 400 acres of wild-stag populated woodland. East Ham.12 Box no. 0620.

Harding’s assessment:

Writing a self-deprecating personal may let potential partners know you’re imperfect (gasp!), but it also tells them you know who you are and have the confidence to say, “Take it or leave it.” And if you go far enough over the top (“Join me in my 36-bedroom mansion on my Gloucestershire estate …) it can even invert the usual concern about how truthful a personal ad is. Instead of wondering how much worse this guy is than he claims, you’re wondering how much better.

Harding gives an example of a personal ad that worked for her:

I smoke, I drink, I talk waaaay too much and think even more than that, I swear like a longshoreman, I’m usually covered in dog hair, I do not order salad as a full meal, I always want to Talk About It, I might be funnier than you, I want to be taken care of but hate feeling weak, I’m completely disorganized, I will keep cuddling until you pry me off you (and so will my dogs), I say “awesome” a lot, I don’t lie even if it’s easier, I tell my girlfriends everything, I expect to come, and I’ve been told repeatedly that I scare the crap out of men. If that sounds like your kind of girl, awesome.

Within two months of posting this ad, she’d met the man who became her husband.

Back to Hugs

While I may not be into Valentine’s Day, or personals either, for that matter, I live in California, where hugs are de rigueur. So here’s my favorite video on hugs. Happy Valentine’s Day.

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Happy Holidays!