What if on Valentine’s Day, instead of flowers, people gave books with the word “love” in their subtitles?
Today is Fat Tuesday, which means that tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, the season during which Christians traditionally give up things they love – often foods, frequently chocolate. Tomorrow is also Valentine’s Day, so some “fasts” may be delayed 24 hours.
I'm featured in the February issue of City & Shore magazine: https://www.sun-sentinel.com/2024/02/02/travel-writer-and-editor-thomas-swick-answers-all-of-our-questions/?share=eeama0cerruwwm0tmu2m
Today is Fat Thursday (Tłusty Czwartek) in Poland. Why the Poles celebrate on Thursday and not on Tuesday I never found out, probably because I was too busy eating the traditional doughnuts (pączki) filled with rose-petal jam.
A while back, we had dinner with friends who were heading to Montreal to visit their daughter, who had married a Canadian. Hania asked if the couple were thinking about returning to the States at some point (they had met in Miami). Vivian said it wasn’t likely; now that their children were both in school, they liked the safety that Canada afforded.
In the ’60s and ’70s, young Americans went to Canada to avoid the violence of a foreign war. Today, they go to Canada to avoid the violence of the United States.