# single dopers - what are you planning to do on St Valentine's Day? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 3, 2004, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-dopers-what-are-you-planning-to-do-on-st-valentines-day/227310 "2004-02-03T11:21:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![London\_Calling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@London\_Calling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/London_Calling)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2004, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-dopers-what-are-you-planning-to-do-on-st-valentines-day/227310/61 "2004-02-04T12:53:40Z")
> [@Sir Doris](#): > > I’m of the opinion that women don’t spend 'cos they’re _not_ buying into it. Then you’re either: a) nuts, or b) very young Have you ever seen the pout and flounce when men don’t do the buying; it’s the difference between _buying into_ something and doing the actual _buying_ – and if experience doesn’t tell you the difference, it surely will soon. ---
**Author:** ![Daftbugger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9fc29f/32.png) [@Daftbugger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daftbugger)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2004, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-dopers-what-are-you-planning-to-do-on-st-valentines-day/227310/62 "2004-02-04T13:39:43Z")
Aaaahh, one year, me and my housemate, who were both single, decided, that as neither of us had a man, we’d go get a kebab instead. Far more satisfying! ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_Doris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5ac83/32.png) [@Sir\_Doris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_Doris)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2004, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-dopers-what-are-you-planning-to-do-on-st-valentines-day/227310/63 "2004-02-04T13:59:24Z")
> [@garius](#): > > Well i for one will be sitting at the bar in the _Macbeth_ pub, Hoxton Street, Shoreditch, London N1 enjoying a nice pint and watching the world go by. > > You are all more than welcome to join me. 😃 I may well do that. And if anyone asks you to buy me a rose, I’ll punch him 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Scuba\_Ben](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/278dde/32.png) [@Scuba\_Ben](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scuba_Ben)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2004, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-dopers-what-are-you-planning-to-do-on-st-valentines-day/227310/64 "2004-02-04T16:07:59Z")
> [@Eva Luna](#): > > Ah, I really meant that more in a metaphorical, moral support kind of sense. I’m happy to send you a virtuual chocolate cake…or maybe, at risk of alienating all the bitter single people here, I’ll run off and join the Valentine exchange at the last minute. You wouldn’t be alienating all the single people from this thread, **Eva** , you’d be joining some of them in the Valentine exchange. Because of the necessary lead time in preparing 25 or 50 valentine cards, the signup deadline is this Saturday. Personally, I’ll probably spend Saturday afternoon opening the valentine cards I receive from the exchange, then go see the Reduced Shakespeare Company’s _The Compleat Wrks Of Shkspr (Abridged)_. Alone. ---
**Author:** ![phouka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c5a1d2/32.png) [@phouka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phouka)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2004, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-dopers-what-are-you-planning-to-do-on-st-valentines-day/227310/65 "2004-02-05T01:49:20Z")
Wow. I feel so much better after that refreshing dose of bitterness. No, seriously. All this vicarious bitterness has burned off the residual strains of depression V-Day usually brings out in me. Now I can enjoy it while laughing mockingly at people who get suckered in to it. ---
**Author:** ![Bruce\_Daddy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/85f322/32.png) [@Bruce\_Daddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bruce_Daddy)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2004, 9:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-dopers-what-are-you-planning-to-do-on-st-valentines-day/227310/66 "2004-02-05T09:24:26Z")
> [@Bruce\_Daddy](#): > > I dated a girl back in the summer and I talk to her every couple of weeks. I think I’ll see if she wants to go have dinner that night. I asked her last night and she said yes. See you, losers! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![curly\_chick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7ba0ec/32.png) [@curly\_chick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/curly_chick)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2004, 10:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-dopers-what-are-you-planning-to-do-on-st-valentines-day/227310/67 "2004-02-05T10:54:33Z")
> [@London\_Calling](#): > > Then you’re either: > > a) nuts, or > b) very young > Have you ever seen the pout and flounce when men don’t do the buying; it’s the difference between _buying into_ something and doing the actual _buying_ – and if experience doesn’t tell you the difference, it surely will soon. So just how old are the women \*you \* go out with, **London\_Calling**? Sounds to me like you should be seeing **Sir Doris**. **Garius** ’ll fix you up, if you ask him nicely. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2004, 10:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-dopers-what-are-you-planning-to-do-on-st-valentines-day/227310/68 "2004-02-05T10:54:58Z")
Just a suggestion – Send a valentine to someone you are not dating and who would not be expecting one from you. Forty-two years ago I was without a S.O. as Valentine’s Day approached. Ever the romantic, I looked through the cards in the small town drugstore and kept returning to one simple card that I really liked. That same card came to me in the mail – from the young man who worked in the drugstore. It was an adorable thing to do and I remember his name and have that card to this day. ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_Doris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5ac83/32.png) [@Sir\_Doris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_Doris)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2004, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-dopers-what-are-you-planning-to-do-on-st-valentines-day/227310/69 "2004-02-05T12:21:54Z")
> [@curly chick](#): > > So just how old are the women \*you \* go out with, **London\_Calling**? > > Sounds to me like you should be seeing **Sir Doris**. > > **Garius** ’ll fix you up, if you ask him nicely. > 😃 If he has brown eyes and a platinum card, its a date 😃 ---
**Author:** ![garius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e19b73/32.png) [@garius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garius)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2004, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-dopers-what-are-you-planning-to-do-on-st-valentines-day/227310/70 "2004-02-05T12:26:11Z")
I get commission right?! you are more than welcome to buy _me_ a rose… ---
**Author:** ![London\_Calling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@London\_Calling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/London_Calling)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2004, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-dopers-what-are-you-planning-to-do-on-st-valentines-day/227310/71 "2004-02-05T12:36:04Z")
**Zoe** - that’s a lovely story. These days, the girl would worry about how the guy knew her address. **Short an’ Curly** - Unless you play the game demonstrably and _to an acceptable degree_ on the 14th, it doesn’t matter how old the woman is, in my experience. Not all the time, but a lot of women want to think the 14th represents some sort of relationship benchmark or snapshot of ‘how things are going’. But that’s okay, if that’s what they need. I just got tired of artifice or charade or fakery of the day itself, that’s all. Maybe I’ll buy back into it at some point (read: Fat Chance). ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_Doris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5ac83/32.png) [@Sir\_Doris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_Doris)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2004, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-dopers-what-are-you-planning-to-do-on-st-valentines-day/227310/72 "2004-02-05T12:39:27Z")
> [@garius](#): > > I get commission right?! > > you are more than welcome to buy _me_ a rose… It _would_ look very fetching worn behind your ear. But they never ask the woman to buy, do they ? Except when I was in Barcelona, where two women having dinner together were obviously lesbians. Before you ask, it was my mate who was pestered to buy one for me. ---
**Author:** ![curly\_chick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7ba0ec/32.png) [@curly\_chick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/curly_chick)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2004, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-dopers-what-are-you-planning-to-do-on-st-valentines-day/227310/73 "2004-02-05T12:54:04Z")
> [@London\_Calling](#): > > **Short an’ Curly** - Unless you play the game demonstrably and _to an acceptable degree_ on the 14th, it doesn’t matter how old the woman is, in my experience. Not all the time, but a lot of women want to think the 14th represents some sort of relationship benchmark or snapshot of ‘how things are going’. > > But that’s okay, if that’s what they need. > > I just got tired of artifice or charade or fakery of the day itself, that’s all. > > Maybe I’ll buy back into it at some point (read: Fat Chance). Oi, who d’you think you’re calling short? Cheek! 😛 Sorry if I touched a nerve there, **London\_Calling**. No offence meant. If the issue is to an _acceptable degree_ of game playing, I am just pointing out that I am with \*\*Sir Doris \*\* on this and that _some_ women don’t play Valentine’s Day games. (I see you now agree. Excellent - everything’s all fine and dandy.) Hence my jocular suggestion that she may well be the woman of your dreams. Furrther, that I would have thought that such games would and should cease when the woman reaches a certain age. I know mine did. Maybe I’m older than you or maye I’m just peculiar. One out of two, for definite. ---
**Author:** ![Tansu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/67e7ee/32.png) [@Tansu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tansu)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2004, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-dopers-what-are-you-planning-to-do-on-st-valentines-day/227310/74 "2004-02-05T12:57:45Z")
The man of the house and I were mocking an advert for Valentines’ red rose bouquets. “Red card for stupidity!” sez I. “Look at the prices! Fifty f’ing quid? It’s appealing to men who feel they have to make some romantic gesture and bollocks to the value of money. And would the girlie really care or say more than ‘ooh, these are nice’?” From what London\_Calling says, maybe there are swathes of womankind who see things differently. I must admit, a few years ago my partner and I did go out to dinner, on the occasion of our first Valentine’s day together. It was alright, but my value-for-money side has completely vetoed further such activities. So maybe I half-heartedly bought into it for a bit. I distinctly recall paying for the dinner, though. Oh, and L\_C - you seem to have had a small unicode ballsup with your posting of Je ne regrette rien. One of my favourite songs, by the way. ---
**Author:** ![garius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e19b73/32.png) [@garius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garius)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2004, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-dopers-what-are-you-planning-to-do-on-st-valentines-day/227310/75 "2004-02-05T13:03:14Z")
> [@Sir Doris](#): > > But they never ask the woman to buy, do they ? [/SIZE] Slight hijack but i was at a conference once with my sister. we were both staying in the same small hotel so we tended to breakfast together. The car park was tiny, and she’d had to park her car across another one - blocking it in. She’d let reception know so that when that person wanted to check out, they could get hold of her to move the car. One breakfast, we were sitting at the table when a guy came up to me and asked me politely: “Sorry mate - is that your Audi TT out the back?” I twigged straight away that reception had pointed him towards are table, but that he’d just assumed that (because i was the bloke) it was mine: “Yeah mate.” I said, before my sister had a chance to speak, “Woman. Go move my car for me - you’ve got the keys.” My sister refused to speak to me for the rest of the week. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![London\_Calling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@London\_Calling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/London_Calling)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2004, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-dopers-what-are-you-planning-to-do-on-st-valentines-day/227310/76 "2004-02-05T13:26:29Z")
There are a lot of sane, less needy women out ther as well. But it really can be a lot of fucking hard work . . . > [@curly chick](#): > > Maybe I’m older than you or maye I’m just peculiar. > One out of two, for definite. No and yes, in that order. > [@Tansu](#): > > Oh, and L\_C - you seem to have had a small unicode ballsup with your posting of Je ne regrette rien. One of my favourite songs, by the way. Thanks awfully. Not a lot I can do about it at this point. But yep, great song, great singer. I think it’s a good choice for the 14th, together with a couple of full-bodied reds, a little decriminalised material and Matron’s close attention. ---
**Author:** ![UselessGit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/74df32/32.png) [@UselessGit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UselessGit)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2004, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-dopers-what-are-you-planning-to-do-on-st-valentines-day/227310/77 "2004-02-05T14:43:34Z")
I think I will spend this valentine’s day like the last few - furiously wondering and?or debating why on earth my country has taken up this stupid custom. TrickorTreating is bad enough but this is ridiculous. ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_Doris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5ac83/32.png) [@Sir\_Doris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_Doris)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2004, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-dopers-what-are-you-planning-to-do-on-st-valentines-day/227310/78 "2004-02-06T15:13:19Z")
Here ya go, **London Calling** [another woman](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=238342) who doesn’t appear to be on the make regarding Valentine’s Day. that’s at least three of us. Is your faith in womankind restored yet? 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2004, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-dopers-what-are-you-planning-to-do-on-st-valentines-day/227310/79 "2004-02-06T16:20:56Z")
Update: I am now going to the dentist on Valentine’s Day. So at least one man will be getting a chunk of my hard-earned cash! ---
**Author:** ![London\_Calling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@London\_Calling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/London_Calling)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2004, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-dopers-what-are-you-planning-to-do-on-st-valentines-day/227310/80 "2004-02-06T16:21:58Z")
Are you mad, woman ! I can only think you’ve not read my experiences subsequent to putting the golf putter through the idiot box screen almost 18 months ago. I don’t own a teevee, I don’t want to own bloody TiVo – it’s a conspiracy and a subversive dumbed down hell. Be gone !!! Do I read like I want to live in semi-detached, suburban, fitted carpeted, centrally-heated hell . . . with my TivO to talk about over dinner with neighbours in between talking about little Charlie’s new teacher ? No! What that capitalist-consumer addicted woman is doing is making sure her poor nose-to-the-grindstone husband also buys in to the ‘more=better’ mentality – she’s drip-feeding him heroin. ‘Go to work, Tiger. Go earn more baubles we can spend on Saturdays !’ God save me from conventional wisdom ! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-dopers-what-are-you-planning-to-do-on-st-valentines-day/227310.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-dopers-what-are-you-planning-to-do-on-st-valentines-day/227310.md?page=5)