Why Valentine's day has a particularly meaning for me ... I found a new love -- well, two of them --
When I taught in western TN for a semester I noticed some stray kittens hanging around the apt. I was renting. Cute little harlequin kittens, hanging around outside the apt entrances -- at first I didn't realize that there were two of them (eventually three) because their markings were almost mirror images. I asked the mgmt. office about them and they said there was a momcat and several kittens who had been hanging around the pool since mid-Summer. IIRC Mom was a tuxedo tabby (gray tabby w/white bib and feet); there were two candidates for Dad, both big, obviously intact toms who looked truly feral, as was Mom. The kittens were apparently growing up outdoors and hiding in hedges and maybe under foundations. By Jan. it appeared that one of the harlequin kittens had been run over and the other disappeared. It seemed no one else was going to do anything about them, so I decided it would be me (bear in mind I was pretty broke w/no job lined up after Dec., so not a casual decision). I borrowed a trap from the vet and set it up. Mom and three babies (or was it four?) were inside when I sprung the trap -- but the door hung, and all escaped ! Meanwhile I had been leaving food, water, and insulated shelters of a sort outside as the weather grew colder and colder. As the deadline for moving out approached, I got the cats gradually more accustomed to my presence and started letting them inside my apt., which revealed there were more of them than I realized -- apparently two successive litters from the same queen, with notable family resemblances, despite the huge variety of coats (tabbies, tuxes, harlequins, some orange splotches and orange stripes). Over the next few nights I stayed up late with the door partially open (despite Winter weather) and let them wander in when they wanted, encouraged by a game of "chase the vittle" with tasty cat treats. I had pet carriers set out with the doors open and old towels for linings, and some of them just walked in and set up camp. I also had two litter boxes which a few laid down in and even took a nap. But my lease was running out, and I needed to make some final decisions.
I had already visited the Humane Society, where a very nice, helpful, but waaaay too busy woman let me know my (realistic) options. One was Rabies Control, the worst option. I ended up taking two of the older litter there -- a handsome tuxedo and a gray tuxedo tabby -- on the assurance that local ladies kept watch on Rabies Control and scooped up cats if the cages were getting too crowded. Apparently, as long as the cages didn't fill up they could stay until someone adopted them. Still, it was wrenching to leave them there, in those cramped cages with dogs barking and baying in the next building. Their pictures were posted online to invite adoption, and before long they had been adopted, to my great relief. Leaving them with the Humane Society was out of the question as they were being inundated with a population explosion of feral cats, as locals didn't seem to do much in the way of spaying and neutering. They were too young for trap, neuter, and release -- and besides I was getting too fond of them. One had already taken a nip at my toes as they were hanging over the edge of the bed and they seemed like they were probably willing to settle in. But I had to move. So I kidnapped the orange-and-white one I had decided to name Caramel (once you name them, you're kind of stuck 
). Drove 5-6 hours with him in a pet carrier, complaining all the while. I moved in with Mom (who of course gave advance permission for the new cats, to share the house with her two older cats) and had no kitten-proof area suitable for him, but needed to put a door between him and the other cats. Left him in the downstairs "workroom" (which wasn't seeing much use) with a food dish and litter box. He darted under some shelves and hid for the longest time. After 2-3 days he started coming out to get his food when I brought it, and eventually he settled in and met the other cats (both queens).
By this point, it was really deadline time for my lease, and I wanted to get two more kittens. I quickly caught a gray tuxedo tabby female and dropped her at the "Barn Cat Rescue" run by a local vet, who gave her the most economical spay and vax I could find. While I was waiting to pick her up I tried to get the remaining kitten, but he seemed to go crazy when I tried to catch him -- so much so that I was afraid he would injure himself if I didn't give up (he tried to jump through a window pane, apparently not understanding glass, and then tried to force his head underneath the back door, where there was only a small crack). I think he may have had some sort of vision problem, based on his strange behavior. He may have had hearing problems as well. Out of time, and with no clever solutions I could see, I abandoned him to take his chances in the wild, hoping that maybe he would meet up with his mother again. Then I picked up Ralph (named after one of the Monroe "Brothers" from Green Acres) and drove her all the way to Mom's. She recovered from the anesthetic and began complaining and poking me with her claws through the pet carrier's grille -- I had her in the front seat, so I could keep checking that she was OK. She got housed in the work room -- Caramel was much calmed down by now -- and went nuts. She jumped up onto a shelf and knocked down some picture frames, breaking all their glass. She crawled behind the dryer and clawed through the aluminum-foil wrapper of the exhaust, crawled into that and into an aluminum pipe, and was trying to force her way out of the narrow exit, which was covered with a flap. I had to pull out the dryer, cut the carpet and padding off of the stairs and saw in two a board of the stairway landing to get to the pipe she was in. I finally got it loose and let her escape forwards, since she seemed to be jammed too tight to go backwards. What an anxious episode that was ! There's still signs of damage to the stairs, where I never got around to putting the carpet back down. I think I had to lock her in a bathroom for a while, but eventually regular feedings got them both domesticated. Despite, or perhaps because, they lived the first several months of their lives outside, they've never shown any interest in escaping to the great outdoors, but have become sweet, lovable little house cats, who enjoy sharing a warm chair or bed with their humans (Mother and I are now jointly owned) and after the passing of Mother's cats they have the whole house to roam in. There have been times when I've worried that I might have to turn them over to friends or even a no-kill shelter when I was having such health and money problems that I couldn't properly care for them. It was getting close to the point where I was going to give them up if things got any worse, but slowly things have improved and they're still here, to my great satisfaction. When life is not going well, it's hard to handle by yourself, but a couple of non-human companions make it all feel better even though they don't solve any material problems. We've learned their habits and they've learned ours, and just sharing their company is a balm, sometime one sorely needed. I can't imagine trying to keep going without them to provide emotional support.
What's all that got to do with Valentine's Day ? Well, it was 2/14 when I left my apt. and drove Ralph to her forever home. I had still been looking for a name for her -- all my attempts to name the cats had been tentative, since their itty bitty kitty genitalia were not obvious, especially from a distance, and I had tried for ambiguous or unisex names. I happened to hear on the news that Mary Grace Canfield, who played Ralph Monroe on Green Acres, had just passed away and I decided to name my cat after that character -- Ralph, despite being female. I have since come to call her Ralphie Girl much of the time. (I also call her "Ratt-Butt", but that's another story.) Anyway, whenever Valentine's Day rolls around, I remember the saga of that time when I drove until late at night to give her a forever home, and the ensuing havoc that kept me up until the wee hours. But all's well that ends well.
(Gotta get that pix host set up, and post their portraits *someday* ....)
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I use fancy words like peruse in spite of being a salt of the earth populist !😤
Or no wait, I am erudite and use words like erudite and peruse..
Depends on the day, context etc. I think that is what those tech creeps like Marc Andreessen call an optimization problem! 🤭
Thanks to damn Trump 2.0 my Serious Staid Lady persona is permanently trashed ;-/..Well it was never a very good fit.
(But any creeps who think people are influencers/fair game etc for being shit at science will seriously be fed to whatever kraken are and MeToo… the contortions a person has to bristle and make..since it is the web not just DU/the NIH/one’s own doctors or other networks one takes on the system of trust, one has to bark at those crazies experience has taught me ;-/. But it is even more tiring to keep trying to mechanically roleplay a Serious Person..I was shooting for serious and not quite succeeding even at that..shit work not bullshit work 🫡 . Cleaning Stations come to mind.. As a women’s libber I walk a line between non-paranoia (the tradwife movement has been good at perverting MeToo into paranoia of men in general and workplaces etc 
..this is a diseased and broken society). I owe this one artist Evgenia Kovda).
Otoh I have met a few rare predators and strive to be clear..One is a jester not a sitting duck for perverts! Never was..never will be.
I must read the whole post. You might like Adam Becker’s new book “More Everything Forever” eppur_se_muova.
I mean it is blood chillingly full of crazy creeps. But compelling on that account.
Rough gig being a scientist these days..citizen or publicly funded and almost certainly honest private sector (as Yan Lecun can attest to going by his recent interviews).
It is very sweet of you to take care of the kittens eppur_se_muova 
.
These days no good deed goes unpunished so that creep Elon Musk would project and accuse you of bestiality as he pathetically did here:
https://apnews.com/article/d2bf9fd81c8643c4b3c5532c4d214536
His dad is a pedo so not surprising.
But I volunteer to feed Musk to the kraken on your behalf with uncorrupted, undiluted women’s libber muscle on the system of trust if you need it ;-/.
💪
Way better than the system of paranoia our surveillance capitalists and defence contractors peddle with sadsack kayfabe and gaming because apparently those douchebags have never actually met any people but creeps, bullies, sycophants, scammers, sleazebags, sellouts, morons etc and have no honest notion of non transactional human community..extortionate times and so damn stupid. I used to shut up or try to..
But if an ass like Vance can drivel so can I!
Free speech! I have rights! Not sure for how much longer..🤭
It is annoying to have to spell it out, but in the last over the years I have seen so much damage done to lefty causes by these social media shit stirring types.
I am a card carrying Me Too supporter and the other day I was reading about some creep like Stephen A Morse (a creep and kraken food).
But there are also just really dumb things-like that Justine Sacco thing/the Tim Hunt thing and the Amy Cooper thing where it is ott and a distraction from the real sexism/sexual harassment/police brutality and mass incarceration and each one was courtesy of these social media companies.
And sometimes as with a recent TikTok thing calling faith leaders helping immigrants, the point is to attack the few people doing the decent thing.
That Tim Hunt thing was so stupid. Not one of his students or postdocs said he was anything but goofy and socially awkward. And that he supported women. Same with the women present at the time.
He sounded like my dad. My dad is pretty feminist in any real sense and has helped lots of women and genuinely would be shocked at the idea of objectifying women. His female students love him.
But if he was on social media..I am so glad he is not. I take bets on how long it would be before he was cancelled and tops a few months. And worse he would fight it instead of going quietly into the night if he felt something was unfair..
I wonder where I get that from..
But it can seem trivial but malicious demagogues and polemicists exploit that at scale.
I have never had insipid views nor do I ever dilute anything genuinely serious at all. That would be sleazy, stupid and unviable.
But policing jokes and wasting so much time on such shit and culture wars over our careening calamitous ecocollapse and war of economic attrition, the attacks on publicly funded science, net enriches this same robber barron type who should all be fed to kraken.
Rough gig ;-/. With these fucking extortionate creeps hoovering up so much needless data for those stupid next level GPT things with rubbish physical ai and some bullshit ubiquitous computing that destroys millions of years of animal evolution, damages the web of life, causes more light and sound pollution, tries to exploit the web of life for better weapons and pointless spyware..
Did they expect people to just meekly accept it as vaccine adjacent or go full on paranoid crazy like the UFO researcher on bloody Fb who claimed 5G was killing bird, thus not just spreading a bullshit rumor, but also allowing hyperlibertarian tech cos to shut down any questions at all and demand for explanations before use of residential or public spaces as something only the paranoid do?
Yeah well they thought wrong…
Bah humbug..a pox on all of them ;-/..
I try to write about it lightly, but it really does bother me though. That either you wave in all the creeps and fascists and shady types. Or now excruciatingly lengthily have trials by fire and worst of all exploit a next round of bullshit to distract people from environmental issues, deregulation and publicly funded science etc. But if those come back more (like these Lyman Stone/Musa Al Gharbi bullshit populists want) use the ill will the bs creates to get many men tacitly on board with agreeing that well maybe the creeps have a point and the point is the creeps don’t have a point.
They are not Machiavellian but like all snoops and tabloid types a type of understanding of human nature of the lowest kind to have most people have a generally worse and contemptuous understanding of the vast majority of random humans so they can herd and tune better…
They also like getting rid of “difficult” people. But difficult people sometimes notice things
But it is definitely not easy to communicate something so ineffably human. I was myself worn down with the rather mechanical communication style that most media adopt. But then I started reading - .first it was Nicholas Carr and now Yasha Levine/Evgenia Kovda/Andy Nikiforuk and many others who with a light touch can without sacrificing any left ideals communicate without beating people over the head till a pile of thought terminating cliches send people if not to an ass like Trump or Bannon, still damage left and liberal causes a lot.
My mom used to joke about the communication style that assumes that you have to cater to the meanest intelligence in explaining things. It is as if, if you don’t write in a way obvious to the most disingenuous dullard (no offense to disingenuous dullards …not an IQ thing.. Musk, Nadella, Pichai and Vance - a diverse and inclusive group!- are dullards but they are called bright for reasons unclear to me) you must be friendly to those awful alt right kayfabe creeps..lame..