Complex Numbers

You heart WHAT??

Ah, Singles Awareness Day.

I was trying to figure out when the symbol came into use, and ran into a lot of speculation and wishful historical thinking. The explanation I like best is that the flowers of a certain member of the parsley family resembled hearts, and this plant was used as a means of contraception in the ancient world. The plant, sadly, only grew in a limited area and became extinct - which I suppose says something deep and metaphorical about human nature, but it escapes me at the moment.

The shape looks nothing like an actual heart, anyway. The human heart has long been known as the symbolic source of love, especially what we now know as "romantic" love. And I suppose that drawing the organ itself would be rather disgusting and, probably, turn thoughts away from amorousness. Unless your beloved is into that kind of thing.

So, okay, the symbol doesn't make a lot of sense either way. But what would you expect from something representative of that least rational of human interactions?

I'm not knocking it, you understand.

Back in the 80s there was this huge fad, perpetrated by the New York tourism people, to put bumperstickers on your car that read, "I (heart) [whatever]" - beginning with "I (heart) NY" and going downhill from there. "I (heart} Jesus;" "I (heart) my dog" and so on. It was slightly worse than the current "ribbon" trend, and not quite as bad as the "Baby on Board" signs from later in the same decade.

I found a big sheet of stickers that had line drawings of screws on them. You peeled them off and slapped them over the annoying hearts. "I (screw) NY;" "I (screw) my dog"... you get the idea.

Trends last until they're parodied. It did my good to see, today, a black "ribbon" on the back of a truck that read, "Someone stole my awareness magnet!"

There is hope.