This Valentine`s Day you`d best forget sweets, sweetie, according to February American Demographics.
Judith Waldrop, the magazine`s research director, reports that sweets have ”fallen victim to Americans` obsession with healthy eating,” with only 16 percent of those surveyed calling candy romantic.
A weekend at a quaint inn tops the list of desired romantic doings (I urge staying away from New Hampshire, though; too many grubby reporters chasing after one another), with sending long-stemmed roses next. Women like the idea of a romantic dinner more than men do, and, no surprise, more women than men find jewelry an alluring gift.
If you`re a gent thinking of giving that special someone a pair of undies, 16 percent of men and women find lingerie romantic.
That`s dwarfed by the 31 percent who prefer a romantic letter or card, even if it boasts the sort of message that would have prompted Grandma to break a bottle over Grandpa`s noggin. That`s because messages on cards reflect attitudinal changes, with ”sexually suggestive messages, sarcastic one-liners, and silly puns now common.” Cards for gay couples are increasing, too, as are cards from unattached women to unattached women, bemoaning ”the scarcity of eligible men.”
Quickly: Feb. 17 New Yorker concludes Marshall Frady`s three-part Jesse Jackson profile with a touching inside account of his stunningly successful, if unappreciated, procuring of Western civilian hostages held by Saddam Hussein prior to the Persian Gulf war and of his deep anguish about suspicions over, and scant attention given to, ”what may have amounted to the most remarkable enterprise Jackson had pulled off in his entire career.”
. . . Would you like to be part of a loving, caring support group based on a shared orgasm? March Details discloses how, despite the AIDS horror, sex clubs and ”swinging” are back, at least around New York, with no apparent shortage of couples wanting what amounts to longterm sexual relationships with other couples. . . . February Florida Trend`s ”Who Killed the American Space Program?” traces most of the program`s decline to NASA, ”which fantasized about what it could do and lied about what it would cost,” and contends that the space shuttle, an ”Indy race car” rather than the originally planned
”reliable Ford pick-up,” symbolizes the ills ($3.50, Box 611, St. Petersburg, Fla. 33701). . . . Feb. 10 New York`s profile of the late Robert Maxwell includes an account by Carolyn Hinsey, his assistant while he owned the New York Daily News, who recalls how Captain Crook applied Pan-Cake Make- Up to his face daylong, adored Clint Eastwood videos, had three bowls of cereal and an entire watermelon for breakfast, and usually dined on $200 of takeout Chinese food. . . . Continuing recession in the art market: Feb. 17 Forbes notes how ”Booster,” a famous 1967 Robert Rauschenberg print that sold for $165,000 in 1990, is down to $20,000 for each of 38 copies that originally cost $100. . . . Gourmet, which has never been tailored to dieters or public-aid recipients, unveils a ”Forbidden Pleasures” column in the February issue. The first foray into a disgustingly expensive or high-caloric dish is a recipe for caviar pancakes. . . . Winter Critic, from Chicago`s Thomas More Association, examines testy relations between organized labor and religion, arguing that hope for renewal of a once-strong bond is found in black workers and churches. . . . Given the current mess over silicone-gel implants, it`s worth checking February Lear`s primer on hospitals that perform natural breast reconstruction that uses the patient`s own tissue, a procedure that costs from $13,000 to $20,000. . . . While Feb. 17 Newsweek`s cover ridicules a new obsession with lack of self-esteem as the root of many personal ills, February Atlantic boasts clinical psychologist Robert Karen`s argument that his profession, long neglectful of the concept of shame, increasingly sees that feeling of inadequacy as the ”master emotion”
underlying aggression, addictions, obsessions, narcissism and depression. . . . There`s a profile of Alex (”Roots”) Haley, who died Monday, in February Essence. . . . February Outside`s annual ”Trip-Finder,” a guide to 131 exotic vacations, includes a tour of the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Vietnam, where the locals are friendly to Americans and the ”circular duck ponds” are really bomb craters. It`s about $3,500 to $4,500 for 14- to 19-day tours.
