On this Valentine’s Day, Becky ponders the meaning of love.

Meanwhile, 1LG offers a guide to buying roses.

BoingBoing points out that Valentine’s Day is for infidels. (Hat tip: InstaPundit.)

And Scott F. sends along this list of 50 romantic dates in each of the 50 states.

P.S. USCroger also ponders the age-old question, “What is love?” (”…baby don’t hurt me…”)

I think the answer is obvious: this is love. (For those too lazy to click the link: it’s a news story about a mother cat adopting a six-day-old puppy at a pet shelter in Connecticut. Awwww. There’s a picture.)

Meanwhile, Kristin’s friend Kenlyn offers a list of overheard statements about love. My personal favorite: “I said I love you and think I want to spend my life with you, but right now I’m in Safeway and I can’t find anything, so I’ll call you later.” Heh.

Incidentally, Becky and I had a very nice Valentine’s Day. We had dinner at LaSalle Grill, and I can report that their Long Islands are — surprisingly enough — considerably better than the Backer’s. ;)

A deadly plan of Columbine-style violence at Newington High School, averted thanks to YouTube:

Investigators said they uncovered a high school student’s alleged plan to attack classmates.

According to Newington police, a parent contacted Canton police to report the discovery of videos found on the Internet video Web site YouTube.com. Police said the videos depict teens firing several weapons and igniting explosive devices.

The parent told police that one of the students was planning an attack at Newington High School, which has a school resource officer, some time over the next few months.

Newington police said they identified the teens involved in the video on Tuesday and that they have since interviewed the teenagers. Police said one of the teens — a 16-year-old — planned to attack classmates at Newington High School while class was in session.

Police said the 16-year-old’s plan involved guns and explosives, which prompted authorities to search his home. Newington police, along with state police officials, searched the teen’s home and they said they confiscated several weapons, detailed notes and a list of more than 20 students. …

Newington police said they met on Tuesday morning with several parents of students who were identified as potential targets in the alleged plot. The students were identified as potential targets in statements made by the 16-year-old, which was also indicated in documents police seized from the teen’s home.

There seems to be some conflicting information about how the plot was uncovered. The above-linked WFSB article claims it was Canton parents who came forward. This WVIT article says it was a Canton teen (and that the plot involved attacks in both Newington and Canton). And this WTNH article says it was a Newington teen, who alerted his parents, who in turn called the police.

Regardless, thank God it was caught in time.

The Hartford Courant has more:

The suspect, a junior, has not been arrested and was committed to an area hospital for psychiatric evaluation. Police described him as someone who was not known to school officials or police as a troublemaker.

Still, said Lt. William Darby, “we believe this was a legitimate threat.”

UPDATE: The Courant has more details this morning:

Police are investigating a Newington High School student’s alleged plot to harm numerous classmates in a Columbine-style attack at the school. Authorities say the plan was foiled after a Canton teenager’s parents were alerted by their child to an Internet video showing teens firing guns and setting off explosives.

Town and state police searched the home of the suspect, a 16-year-old, Tuesday evening and found explosive devices and weapons, including several rifles, authorities said Wednesday. They also uncovered documents that indicated a plan to attack Newington High sometime during the school year, and a hit list of potential victims with at least 20 names, police said. …

Investigators were tipped off Monday by parents in Canton whose child saw the student and other teens on a YouTube video that showed the youths firing weapons and igniting explosive devices. The Canton teenager, who had received the video in an Internet message from a second Canton teenager, recognized those in the video as acquaintances and was concerned, authorities said. The teen’s parents were then alerted.

The parents called the Canton Police Department about 11:20 p.m. Monday. Canton police then contacted Newington police and began investigating the Canton teenager who had sent the video.

Canton Deputy Police Chief Don Hull said investigators initially were concerned that both Canton and Newington high schools were potential targets, but later determined there was no “immediate threat planned” in Canton. Police searched the home and school locker of the Canton teenager who sent the video and found no weapons, explosives or plans for a potential attack, Hull said. …

Newington High School Principal Bill Collins said “a possible catastrophe” had been thwarted, and that unspecified disciplinary action had been taken against the 16-year-old. Collins also said he personally did not know the teen or recognize his name when investigators told him of the plot Tuesday. About 1,500 students attend Newington High.

One Newington High student, who asked to remain anonymous out of fear for his safety, said Wednesday that he and a friend had previously joked that the suspect, who wore dark clothing and overcoats, would “probably snap one day.”

As an aside, I’m sure some people reading this article know the name of the accused student. I’m going to ask that you not post it in comments; if it’s posted, I’ll delete it. I’m going to follow the lead of the local media on this one, unless I see some compelling reason to do otherwise.

Anyway… the Courant also has a separate article about the YouTube angle of this story.

When I was growing up, my dad used to call me the “Master of Disaster” — a reference to my affinity for big storms of all kinds — and used to joke that I was somehow responsible whenever bad weather hit Connecticut. He’d say that I had personally arranged the storm, just to annoy him.

So, I’d like to say… Happy Birthday, Dad!

:)

P.S. “Agatha” is the name WFSB, the CBS affiliate in Connecticut, is calling this storm by. They always name the winter storms, and it’s a sign of the mildness of this winter that they’re only on “A” in mid-Februrary.

This morning, the entire Notre Dame student body received an e-mail titled “A message from Coach Brey.” It contained a Microsoft Word attachment in which Coach Brey (or whoever writes his e-mails) thanked the students for helping the Irish put together the conference’s only unbeaten home record, and urged us to come out in force for the last three home games.

I would like to use this forum to thank Coach Brey for his message, and respond as follows:

Dear Coach Brey,

Please win a f***ing road game.

Sincerely,
Brendan Loy

:)

With all this snow, instead of complaining, one team of students decided to do something constructive — literally. They built a loudspeaker primarily out of snow (although the drivers were obviously more than just frozen water). It was part of a snow statue contest at Michigan Tech, and while they lost on a technicality, it’s still damned impressive.

So y’all quitchyerbitchin’ about class not being canceled and go build a snowman or something. :)

Woohoo! Go Salukis!

National Weather Service: “PEOPLE ARE BEING URGED TO STAY OFF OF ROADS GIVEN THE TREACHEROUS DRIVING CONDITIONS. SECONDARY ROADS IN MANY AREAS WILL BE SNOW COVERED AND MAY BE IMPASSABLE DUE TO BLOWING AND DRIFTING. TRAVEL ONLY IF IT IS AN EMERGENCY.”

. . .

Pretty much everything in Michiana — including, for the first time this winter, the day-care center where Becky works — is closed today because of the Great Valentine’s Blizzard of 2007. Purdue University has cancelled morning classes. Admittedly, West Lafayette got it worse than South Bend… but IUSB and Ivy Tech are closed, too, and so is Holy Cross College.

But Notre Dame? Ha! Surely you kid.

If they were cancelling classes, I assume we’d receive an e-mail, and I assume the news would be posted here. But as of yet, nothing — and the only “Notre Dame” on WSBT’s list is Notre Dame Grade School. Same goes for WNDU’s list.

Of course, it’s barely 6:00 AM, so I suppose that could still change. But there are classes as early as 8:00, so they’re running out of time to make a decision to close. I assume they have, in fact, made a decision not to close, this being Notre Dame and all. As I said before, it would take an act of God or the Pope to cancel classes at ND — and by “act of God,” I don’t mean a mere weather event, I mean something more akin to the sky actually opening up and the Almighty declaring in His booming Voice for all to hear, “CANCEL CLASSES, FATHER JENKINS!” (And might I humbly suggest, lest there be any confusion, that He add, “You too, Dean O’Hara!”)

Here’s the thing that bugs me about this. If they don’t want to cancel classes, fine, whatever. But they absolutely need to at least require professors to allow weather-related excused absences on days like this. You might think that would be a superfluous requirement, but you’d be wrong. I’ve already heard one story of a fellow law student from a Sun Belt state (so, not an experienced winter-weather driver) who, on that morning two weeks ago when it was snowing ridiculously hard (with yellow echoes on the radar from 8:00 to 8:20 AM), decided it was unsafe to drive to school for her 8:30 AM class. The roads were awful, there were near-whiteout conditions, and apparently her apartment complex was totally unplowed. So I really can’t blame her for not going to class. Her professor, however, apparently could blame her. When she explained her reason for missing class, she was reportedly informed that it was not a legitimate excuse.

That sort of thing has got to stop. It’s completely ridiculous. The roads were godawful yesterday, and with all the blowing and drifting, and the apparent inability of local road crews to deal with snowfall rates of more than a flake an hour, I have no doubt they’re just as bad, or nearly so, this morning. For heaven’s sake, the National Weather Service is telling people not to travel unless it’s an emergency, and we don’t even get an excused absence if we prudently decide to follow their advice? That’s unconscionable.

P.S. Incidentally, I don’t have an ulterior motive here. I, personally, don’t have class till 2:00 PM today, by which point I expect the roads will be better. (The blowing and drifting is expected to decrease around noon.) So this isn’t about me. I’m just ticked off as a matter of principle, and on behalf of my fellow students who have morning classes today.