A Reel Look at Love

“I want it juicy, but not pink. And I want it done, but not burned.” 

If there is one thing I learned in my eight years of waiting tables, it is that, when it comes to cooking a steak, the vast majority of restaurant-goers thinks that there is some sort of magical temperature in between medium well and well. And if there is a second thing I learned, it is that Valentine’s Day is, quite possibly, the most dined-out night of the year.

While most people will spend this night waiting in a lobby full of impatient couples and nervous husbands who had forgotten to make reservations, some will spend it quietly at home. Perhaps they could not afford the restaurant’s consolidated yet lavishly priced “special” menu, or they could not find a babysitter, or maybe the preferred alternative is, quite simply, dinner at home - either made from scratch or Chinese takeout - with a bottle of wine and a movie. 

And while February 14th can serve as a celebration of the love that exists between two people, for the rest of us it merely marks the midway point of the shortest month of the year. According to those statistics gathered by the U.S. Census Bureau and on which e-Harmony survives, nearly half of the adult population will be spending the forty-fifth day of the year free from the pressures of this Hallmark holiday.

Regardless of what the relationship status on your Facebook profile indicates, you may find yourself on the couch browsing through the Netflix library or standing outside the nearest convenient store in front of the Redbox machine sifting through its available options. If you are like most people today, you may be in the mood for a movie centered around the theme of “love.”

Just like love, movies based on it can come in all different forms. Granted, most of them come in the form of the cliched, formulaic romantic comedy which contains more sap than a ninety-foot tall sugar maple tree. However, there are many that take a different approach and provide a more real - like "seven strangers picked to live in a house and have their lives taped" real - look at love and the joys and pains that come with it.

Below is a glimpse at the assortment of stories and styles that, in my humble opinion, best depict what this day - and the emotion it evokes - is all about. So feel free to check out my list before you and your friends watch Sex and the City, or you watch Bridget Jones with Ben & Jerry for the eighteenth time, or your girlfriend decides that the two of you are spending the night with the ensemble cast of Valentine’s Day (what is that expression about too many cooks in the kitchen spoiling a movie?).

How Do You Like Them Apples? (Fifteen Years Later)

Presidential infidelity takes over the White House. The nation is captivated by a steroidal assault on baseball’s most hallowed number. The FDA makes life  harder for men over the age of 60. We say “Goodbye” to Ol’ Blue Eyes and a show about nothing. By year’s end, there were many stories that had, at one point, gripped the nation in 1998.

Perhaps the biggest story that broke early in the year was the scandalous affair between President Clinton and Monica Lewinsky and the ensuing investigation and media frenzy. And, later, from the “totally unrelated, yet possibly related” department, on March of 1998, the FDA approved the use of the Viagra drug as the first oral treatment for erectile dysfunction. 

Speaking of performance enhancing drugs, the cities of St. Louis and Chicago became the centers of the sports world for the majority of the baseball season as Mark McGwire of the Cardinals, and the Cubs’ Sammy Sosa spent the summer chasing the vaunted single-season homerun record. Both men would not only break the thirty-seven year old mark, but also the hearts of fans everywhere when, seven years later, suspicions of their rampant steroid use were validated by evidence found in a Congressional investigation.

And on May 14, 1998, the city of New York bid a fond farewell to two icons with whom it had become synonymous throughout their respective lives. After nine seasons, the 180th and final episode of Seinfeld aired, thus bringing an end to one of the best sitcoms in television history. Later that night, at the age of 82, "The Chairman of the Board", Frank Sinatra - arguably one of the all-time greatest entertainers - passed away after suffering a heart attack.

Yet, for an aspiring writer with a story to tell, the most inspirational event of 1998 was the release and success of the movie Good Will Hunting. For those who may not know, Good Will Hunting, is not the sport of tracking and killing animals while maintaining a friendly and helpful attitude. Nor is it a reality show on A&E chronicling a group of people as they travel the country in search of stores that sell donated goods in order to raise money for charitable organizations.

Like A Boss

“Remember when people used to say "boss" when they were describing something really cool? Like, "those shoulder pads are really boss man." "Look at that perm, that perm is so boss!" It's what made me want to become a boss. And I looked so good in a perm and shoulder pads. But now, boss is just slang, for “jerk in charge”
- Michael Scott, founder Michael Scott Paper Company

I recently spent some time looking for something for a newly-married co-worker in the greeting cards aisle of a local drugstore, when I noticed two things. First, whether it was birthday, graduation, “Thank you”, “Congratulations!”, or “Get well”, it seemed as if every category of card, except for wedding, came with both a serious and humorous version. I could only surmise that this is because, today, the idea of two people believing they will be together forever is comical enough in its own right that a funny card acknowledging the notion would simply be comedic overkill.
 
The second thing I noticed was a section devoted to cards being sold for an officially designated day of the year on which you recognize the one person whom you dread seeing in the morning, about whom you spend the entire day complaining to co-workers, and to whom you pay little or no attention once your workday has ended. And, no, I am not referring to your wedding anniversary. Rather, this specially marked day circled on the calendars hanging in every employee break room in the country is, of course, National Boss’s Day.