Thursday, February 14, 2008

Pitchers and Catchers Report!

Today is the first day of spring. Not literally – the vernal equinox is over a month away and the pole still angled away from the sun – but symbolically, which is far more important. Today, pitchers and catchers report to spring training for teams. The annual cycle begins anew.

In honor of this day, a quote from the 2007 American League Rookie of the Year, Boston Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia. On September 7, Orioles fireballer Daniel Cabrera threw at Pedroia immediately after balking in Coco Crisp from third, Crisp having induced the balk by starting home. Pedroia on Cabrera after the game:

The guy's an idiot. I dropped my bat. It kind of freaked me out. I was upset they took him out of the game. He's good to hit. He's 9-15. The guy sucks.

Great story about Pedroia here.

Someone scheduled a consumerist flower/chocolate/greeting card company holiday for today as well. If you’re celebrating that holiday, I have two quiz questions for you:

1.) Does your religion recognize the man for whom the holiday is named as a saint, and is his feast day on your religious calendar? If not, why are you celebrating a feast that your religion has disawoved, or never had anything to do with in the first place?

2.) Can you state one fact about the saint in question?

-- Satan

P.S. The Ask Satan scheduled for today has been deferred until tomorrow. Questions are always welcome, in the comments of any post or by email.

6 comments:

Ubermilf said...

1.) Yes.

2.) I don't know about "facts," but I do know legends. Like curing the jailer's daughter's blindness while he was imprisoned for being a Christian.

3.) Tell me you wouldn't have eaten the buttery, heart-shaped cakes covered in chocolate icing I made for dessert last night.

Hypocrite.

Satan said...

Übermilf -

Why, thank you! But I'm afraid perhaps the compliment is not justified. Maybe I should have given my own answers to the quiz:

1. I don't have a religion, so the question doesn't apply. As such, I can celebrate whatever I feel like.

2. Yes, but I'm saving the answers for later.

As for your answers:

1. Wrong, I'm afraid. It was removed from the Roman Catholic Calendar of Saints in 1969 - and by that point it had already been downgraded from a 'feast' to a 'commemoration'. (Although there is now a catch - as of last July, your new Pope Benedict XVI allowed traditionalist Catholics to pretend Vatican II never happened and use older church calendars. But I am pretty sure you're not a traditionalist Roman Catholic.)

2. I agree, that's a legend. It isn't even clear that its a legend about the 'right' saint of the same name.

3. Of course I would have! I would never turn down any of your baking!

Tell me again why I'm a hypocrite?

-- Satan

Ubermilf said...

Because you decry Valentine's Day yet would gladly partake of its yumminess.

I will tell you why I celebrate Valentine's Day.

I don't believe in any of it, any more than I believe spirits walk the earth on Halloween.

It injects a nice shot of red, warmth and frivolity in the middle of the drab, cold, gray winter.

Quit being a spoilsport. Although, I guess that's part of your job description.

Satan said...

Ah, I see.

Tell me, are people who lament the commericalization of Christmas but then go to Mass on Christmas Day also hypocrites?

-- Satan

Fran said...

There is a reason I attend mass almost every day.

Well not because I have to and also not because of hypocrisy. I just like to.

And it does avoid the hypocrite label.

I love Valentine's Day just to show love. That whole who's who of saints is a sad affair anyway. I love a lot of saints who have been removed. Silly.

God is truly at the center of my life and with that now I am about to be late, for church that is, so off I go.

Satan said...

As a delayed followup, the event that's more meaningful to me (and many others) at this time of year - the topic of the post before I buried the lead - is the symbolic start of spring, of looking forward to the pleasures of summer days. Also a counterpoint to cold and gray winter.

Valentine's Day - the modern version - does have another side, over where Charlie Brown waits by an empty mailbox. Quite honestly, it never meant a thing to me until I had someone to share it with, and since then it's mostly an excuse to go out to dinner. And not to patronize Hallmark.

I don't think Saint Valentine (or rather the Saints Valentine - even the number of them is ambiguous) was actually decanonized. Just the feast day was downgraded and then eliminated, due to a complete lack of actual knowledge of the historical person(s) and why they were canonized in the first place. "Their names justly reverenced by men, but their deeds known only to God," if I recall the quote correctly.

To answer my own question, there's one legend about curing a crippled child; another of being imprisoned for refusing to deny Christ, then curing the jailer's daughter's blindness and deafness (in some versions she is or becomes his lover); and my favorite, that he was a priest who contined to perform marriages after Claudius II banned marriage in wartime so his soldiers would not have domestic entanglements to worry about. Facts? I lied, I don't know any, unless you count the elimination of the feast.

-- Satan