Ad
I was talking with my son the other day and in the course of our conversation, the Super Bowl came up. He asked me if I was going to watch it, and I said I don’t know, maybe, “but who’s playing?” Call me out of touch when it comes to pop culture. Oops, I mean professional sports.
Either way, I told him, I was sufficiently stocked up with essential “big game” goodies and snacks.
Long story short, I forgot and ended up watching a movie instead. It was one of those old Sherlock Holmes films from the 1940s starring Basil Rathbone as Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Watson. Like most movies made back then, they told a straightforward mystery story with some suspense and a bit of humor.
Although I love movies from the thirties and forties, I’m not at all stuck in the black-and-white world, but at least in the older movies, you don’t have to watch someone vomiting or using the bathroom like in films these days.
Where was I? Oh yes, there was a scene in the above-mentioned one where an elderly woman raised a glass of milk and said, “What would we do without cows?”
It had nothing to do with the plot; they just stuck in there, but it’s an important question. What would we do? While cows are good for the local economy, there’s more to it than that, and I’m not talking about the cigarette-smoking cows of Gary “no relation” Larson.
For instance, one of the things that calms one nerves is the sight of cattle grazing in pastures along the highway. I’m thinking, sure, they’re headed for the dinner table, but right now, today, they’re not fretting over all the things that can make us humans uptight, like the price of eggs or internet security or new shoes for the kids. Not to mention political weirdness.
I guess it comes down to this, with our constantly changing technology and new ways to communicate and so on, I find myself wondering if I am getting too out of touch. Then I would drive by and see cows; I’m thinking, yes, this is real. They just flat don’t care about TikToking or tweeting. Oops, do I mean X-ing?
What I’m getting to is that without the likes of Jerseys, Holsteins, and other dairy denizens, we wouldn’t have chocolate milk. Or, more importantly, milk chocolate.
And without milk chocolate, where would Valentine’s Day be?
Ad
And that day is nigh. Golly, what to do, what to do?
We’ve always heard that chocolate and affection go together, and here’s why: Chocolate stimulates the release of endorphins, neurologists say, generating feelings of pleasure and promoting a sense of well-being. And if that’s not enough, Dr. Ruth of TV fame once said, “The taste of chocolate is a sensual pleasure in itself, existing in the same world as sex.”
All I know for sure is that I must have been corrupted at an early age when I got my first taste of a Hershey bar.
Hey, I’m not complaining, but like some of the male species, I have never been good at Valentine’s Day romantic antics. I’m more like, “Here’s some flowers and chocolate. Let’s watch a movie…” Especially one appropriate for Valentine’s Day, romantic comedies and such. That said, I’m not talking about what my father used to call “mush.” No love stories or Hallmark Channel cutesy romances, but the ones guys would also like, those that aren’t necessarily about a romance per se, but still stir up a nice feeling. Not unlike chocolate.
No, a good Valentine’s Day movie doesn’t necessarily have to be specifically about love affairs but rather honest affection or just friendship, like when we were in grade school and had to give Valentine’s cards to everyone in the classroom.
By the way, do you think Holmes and Watson ever swapped valentines?
As for romantic movies that might also appeal to guys, there’s Bill Murray learning to be a decent human being in Groundhog Day, or Humphrey Bogart doing the right thing in Casablanca. I’m also partial to Say Anything, with John Cusack as the eternal optimist, and Big Fish, the story about a man re-discovering his father.
Another favorite is Late for Dinner, where a young man unexpectedly gets cryogenically frozen in 1962 only to be thawed out in 1991 and wants to get back with his wife, who is now some 30 years older.
And don’t forget The Princess Bride. It’s got a sort-of romance between Westley and Buttercup, but mainly has action, swordfights, and Andre the Giant, but above all, has a hero on a quest. And answer me this: who hasn’t wanted to be the guy who says, “Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die!”
That, my friend, is a real man’s romantic movie.
