Yesterday was Valentine’s Day. Did you remember to recognize your loved ones?
Our Take: Valentine’s Day (Oops!)
Yesterday was Valentine’s Day. Did you remember to recognize your loved ones? If so, congratulations. If not, you need to rally today and make amends. You can always take the honest approach and simply say that you forgot.
For those of us who are not suicidal, we need to find a weasel-way-out plan to save ourselves. Assuming that one’s dating life begins around the age of 16, I have had 54 years of Valentine’s Days, almost equally divided between being married and being single. Below is a list of battle-tested plans that I have used during those years. Not all were successful, so choose wisely:
Gift Purchased, But Not Delivered On Time. If you can scrounge a gift together today, you can simply say that the gift arrived late and you wanted to await the celebration of Valentine’s Day. The key to this one working is the quality of the gift. If you hit a home run with the gift, the tardiness of the delivery will be minimized. But, if the gift is off the mark, you will be further away from being pardoned. “Late” and “Bad” are adjectives to avoid with a Valentine’s Day gift.
Gift (or Flowers) Went to the Wrong Address. Find a gift or order flowers today and have them sent to the person’s office or to an address similar to theirs. Finding the gift at the office, though rude in most cases, may forestall the disappointment of not receiving a gift. Your receipt showing the address will be your “Get Out Of Jail Free” card.
Saturday Is More Romantic. Yes, you knew that Friday was Valentine’s Day, but Saturday is more romantic and can be billed as Valentine’s Day Weekend. You better be prepared to back this one up with a whiz bang weekend, but it may work.
Every Day is Valentine’s Day. Defending a “no show” Valentine’s Day by saying that Valentine’s Day is every day is lame, but just lame enough to work. You would need to sell this one hard and be on your very best behavior for the entire weekend.
You Are My Love. The best defense is a good offense. Simply look your loved one in the eye and say: “You did receive a gift … the gift was my love, which you have every day of our lives … do you need more than that?” In many ways, this is the best path to follow. It is simple, requires no gift, no fibbing and has the ring of truth as well. That it is manipulative, sneaky and unfair simply adds to its beauty. As you might guess, this is my personal favorite.
Or, you can confess your mistake, go out to dinner, listen to some jazz and make fun of the silly ways that I suggested to get around missing Valentine’s Day. Blame it all on me. I am glad to be of service.
We hope these ideas help, but feel free to offer some stop gaps of your own.
Our Take is written by Michael Lazaroff, Executive Director – Jazz of Entertainment Cruise Productions. Feel free to express your views or pose questions to him at michael@ecpcruises.com.
2021 Stateroom Availability Update
As of this week, all of our jazz cruise programs are now fully launched for 2021. Due to record demand, it’s more important than ever to keep you updated as to the availability of staterooms. As you can see, The Jazz Cruise, Blue Note at Sea and The Smooth Jazz Cruise are more popular than ever, so plan accordingly:
Our own John Pizzarelli co-produced the upcoming album American Standard from legendary singer-songwriter James Taylor, featuring material from the Great American Songbook.
Coming out February 28 on Fantasy Records, John plays guitar along with Taylor on this album that also features Steve Gadd, Larry Goldings, Walt Fowler, Lou Marini and other jazz cats. This is not the first time John has worked with Taylor, with whom he recorded October Road and James Taylor at Christmas. Taylor admitted that he’s a real fan of our John.
“My collaborator, John Pizzarelli, is a living encyclopedia of the best popular music that the West has ever produced,” wrote Taylor in the liner notes. “Like his father, Bucky, he is a master guitarist and a casual, matter-of-fact genius.”
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