Orca calf that was trapped in B.C. lagoon for weeks swims free
An orca whale calf that has been stranded in a B.C. lagoon for weeks after her pregnant mother died swam out on her own early Friday morning.
It was Valentine's Day 1917 in the Minnesota farming village of Lewiston, and Fred Roth -- a fourth grader -- seems to have come up with just the way to express his love for his sweetheart, Louise Wirt. He gave her a card.
The folding, pop-up Valentine's Day card, on stock so heavy it remains in good shape 106 years later, reads: "Forget me not!/I ask of thee/Reserve one spot/In your heart for me."
And so she did. Years later they married, and Louise displayed the cherished card, tucked into the fretwork of a bedroom dresser, for decades to come. She pointed it out to her daughter, and later to a granddaughter, me, and it remained near her bedside until her death at 91, a token of lasting love.
Although the message was in English, the card is printed with the word "Germany" and is seemingly imported, as were many cards of that era. Small companies in the U.S. also were part of a flourishing commercial card business.
Hallmark, which arrived on the scene in 1916, estimates that today, 145 million Valentine's Day cards are exchanged annually, not including the kids' valentines popular for classroom exchanges.
Fertility-related customs and rituals have been celebrated in mid-February since pagan times, says Emelie Gevalt, curator of folk art and curatorial chair for collections at the American Folk Art Museum in New York City.
Tokens of affection varied: In the 1600s, the practice was to give pairs of gloves in mid-February, she says.
"By the 18th century, we start to see something that really begins to resemble modern Valentine's cards," she says. "In the 19th century, this evolved further to the point where popular ladies' magazines like Harper's Weekly published instructions for readers on how to craft them."
There have long been both earnest, heartfelt Valentines like Grandpa Fred's, and ones in a more teasing, playful vein.
The museum's collection includes several lovingly crafted tokens of affection from various periods. "You see the heart motif quite a lot," Gevalt says.
Although not specifically linked to Valentine's Day, an exhibit at the museum opening March 17, "Material Witness: Folk and Self-Taught Artists at Work," features two examples of "fraktur," exuberantly decorated watercolours made by German immigrants in Pennsylvania. One is called "Inverted Heart," and another depicts a labyrinth.
"They were really dazzling objects, including motifs of flowers or hearts. The playfulness and cleverness of these objects is one of the most interesting aspects they have in common," Gevalt says.
In the mid-19th century, some people shared "Vinegar Valentines," a sort of anti-Valentine that featured playfully insulting verses, not unlike a modern-day roast.
Sometimes, cards involved writing in a circle or upside down, like a puzzle. Some had a decorative folded border or verses on the folds; cutwork resembling lace; or watercolour decorations of pierced hearts, lovebirds and flowers. Lover's knots and labyrinths were also common elements.
"They remind me of games, like plucking the petals of a flower saying `she loves me, she loves me not,"' Gevalt says.
The boom in commercial Valentine's Day cards in the mid-1800s was a reflection of changing courtship patterns, says Elizabeth White Nelson, associate professor of history at University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
"The idea of companionate marriage and love became a part of the calculus of marriage, and Valentine's Day cards became a part of courtship," she says.
These days, the cards continue to evolve.
"Over the last few years, trends have been less about romantic love but more about letting someone know they matter," says Jen Walker, vice president of trends and creative studios at Hallmark Cards, Inc.
There are "more inclusive visuals, and a larger representation of relationships -- love, chosen family, friendships, parents and children, self-care," she says.
A bit of mystery surrounds my Grandma Louise's precious Valentine. It would have been out of character for Fred to buy a commercial card as opposed to, say, presenting her with a bouquet of pussy willows he had picked.
"That period would have been the beginning of an organized practice of exchanging Valentines in school," says Nelson. In some classrooms, everyone was required, or at least encouraged, to give a Valentine.
"The giving and receiving of Valentines was always partly about performing love, for an audience," says Nelson, "and once that Valentine's Day card got saved, it would have become a talisman of all that love is supposed to be."
An orca whale calf that has been stranded in a B.C. lagoon for weeks after her pregnant mother died swam out on her own early Friday morning.
King Charles III’s doctors are 'sufficiently pleased' with his cancer treatment and he is expected to return to public-facing duties, Buckingham Palace announced on Friday.
After the Assembly of First Nations' national chief complained to Air Canada about how staffers treated her and her ceremonial headdress on a flight this week, she says the airline responded by offering a 15 per cent discount on her next flight.
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau says there is 'still so much love' between her and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as they navigate their post-separation relationship co-parenting their three children.
The current overall public health risk posed by the H5N1 bird flu virus is low, the World Health Organization said on Friday, but urged countries to stay alert for cases of animal-to-human transmission.
Philadelphia 76ers All-Star centre Joel Embiid has been diagnosed with Bell’s palsy, a form of facial paralysis he says has affected him since before the play-in tournament.
An idyllic 453-acre private island is up for sale off the west coast of Scotland and it comes with sandy beaches, puffins galore, seven houses, a pub, a helipad and a flock of black-faced sheep.
An investigation is underway after a Regina police officer was accidentally shot by a fellow officer’s gun during the search of a house early Friday morning.
A pair of Montreal designers' work has now been viewed over 41 million times. Taylor Swift dons a Victorian throwback black gown in her latest music video, 'Fortnight', designed by UNTTLD due Simon Belanger and Jose Manuel Saint-Jacques.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
A property tax bill is perplexing a small townhouse community in Fergus, Ont.
When identical twin sisters Kim and Michelle Krezonoski were invited to compete against some of the world’s most elite female runners at last week’s Boston Marathon, they were in disbelief.
The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.
A local Oilers fan is hoping to see his team cut through the postseason, so he can cut his hair.
A family from Laval, Que. is looking for answers... and their father's body. He died on vacation in Cuba and authorities sent someone else's body back to Canada.
A former educational assistant is calling attention to the rising violence in Alberta's classrooms.
The federal government says its plan to increase taxes on capital gains is aimed at wealthy Canadians to achieve “tax fairness.”
At 6'8" and 350 pounds, there is nothing typical about UBC offensive lineman Giovanni Manu, who was born in Tonga and went to high school in Pitt Meadows.