Valentine’s Day originated as a day of feasting to honor two early Christian martyrs in Italy, Saint Valentinus of Rome and Saint Valentinus of Interamna (modern-day Terni). How does overeating honor anyone? Anyway, it was not until the mid-1300s when the day began to be associated with love and romance. And then in 1910 Joyce Hall founded Hallmark Cards in Kansas City and the martyred saints were immediately forgotten.
"Cherish the Thought" is the title of today's crossword by Rich Norris and Joyce Michaels Lewis. Thirty-one black squares form the outline of a heart and within it are the phrases ILUVU and BEMYVALENTINE. Nicknames for one's "valentine" are found at the starts of the theme answers:
Innocent: BABEINTHEWOODS
Ingenue's benefactor: SUGARDADDY
Venezuelan wonder: ANGELFALLS
Weasel relative: HONEYBADGER
Offer that can't be refused: SWEETHEARTDEAL
120-year-old candy: TOOTSIEROLL
"Get up" is WAKEN. I disagree. A person can waken and remain in bed. I imagine
many people do that, especially when a Valentine's Day falls on a Sunday.
"Craving" is YENNING. Yes, "yen" can be used as a verb. The word dates from 1906 and comes from the Chinese
yáhn, which means "a craving." A decade letter, "yen" began to also be used as a verb meaning "to have an intense craving."
"Dutch astronomer who lent his name to a cloud" is OORT. That is also a word used by the Swedish Chef, one of the Muppets, but I digress. Jan Hendrick Oort (1900-92) discovered that the Milky Way rotates and he confirmed and developed the theory of galactic rotation. He was the first astronomer to postulate the existence of an enormous sphere of comets surrounding the solar system. This sphere is known as the Oort Cloud. A picture and brief description can be seen at
http://oort.com/
