Tidbit for December 20, 1999:
Love in the Year 2000
There's a "Special Report" in the millennium edition of The Old Farmer's Almanac called " The State of Romance in the Year 2000." Believe it or not, this annual publication, which is better known for its weather forecasts and planting tables, is predicting a "renaissance of romance" in conjunction with the rollover to the Year 2000.
Here's a quick look at some of the highlights of this 10-page spread on love by Almanac writer Christine Schultz:
Signs that romance is on the rise?
Bed and breakfast reservations are up 25 percent, Victoria's Secret reported a 20
percent spike in sales before Valentine's Day in 1999, and 1.2 billion cut roses are sold
in the U.S. each year. Viagra's
miraculous debut has also spawned an increase in romance. After all, as a Texas
Monthly columnist quoted in the Almanac says, "you can't kindle the fire of love
with a pill."
Do you read romance novels?
According to to the Almanac, 14 percent of Americans do, and they spend $750 million on
182 million romances every year. The "Special Report" quotes Men's Health
magazine as saying, "In the end, romance novels tend to support what most men
suspected all along--that women want conversation, devotion, inner strength, and romance.
'They understand, however, that all this may not be available in massive doses, so they
use romance novels like multivitamins to supplement their actual diets.'" And
romances aren't all about men who are pirate kings and ruthless barons any more.
Silhouette Romances has a new line of romances "devoted to the new pulp hero that
women want: the Fabulous Father," the Almanac reports. Of course, it also says that The
New York Times has called these particular leading men, "as docile and pliant as
a winter-blooming shrub."
So you want to be a millionaire?
No, I'm not talking about marrying one! The Almanac quotes New York Times
columnist John Tierney as saying that there's a new custom on the rise in which a single
individual offers a "bounty" to the friend who introduces him or her to a
marriage partner.
Looking to whisk your sweetie away
to the most romantic city in the U.S.? Go West! The Almanac says that a Ladies' Home
Journal survey of the country's 200 largest cities placed San Francisco at the top of the romantic city heap,
followed by Denver; Concord, California; Salt Lake City; and Brownsville, Texas.
What a guy! Astronaut Jerry
Linenger had flowers sent to his wife every week while he was away on the Mir space
station.
Looking for love online? The
Almanac admits that it's "the latest craze," but cautions that not all of these
stories have happy endings. As proof, the Almanac points readers to the Cosmopolitan
article titled, "I Married a He Who Was Really a She!"
Want to break a record? The Almanac
reports that the two longest marriages on record both lasted 86 years. The first was
between cousins Sir Temulji Nariman and Lady Nariman, who wed in 1853 at the
age of five! The other record-breaking duo was from right here in New
England. Lazarus Rowe and Molly Webber of Greenland, New Hampshire, married in 1743 when
both were 18.
Order your own copy of the Almanac for a more in-depth look at what lies ahead for hopeless romantics in the new millennium. The official Almanac.com Web site also points you to a Romanticism Scale so that you can test how romantic you are.
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Photograph of Farmer's Almanac 2000 by Kim Knox, copyright 1999.
