15 FEB 07: I WANT TO KNOW WHAT LOVE IS

Wednesday was a day with several names. Most people referred to it as Valentine's Day. A Ledger-Enquirer columnist had a good point the other day, when he called it "Obligation Day." And you know what it was for single guys like me - another college basketball night on radio.

It was a day many associate with love - so that made the timing of this e-mail interesting:

Who is this guy that wrote the "Letter to the Editor" that was basically a threat to Columbus if the Kenny Walker case is not settled? How can he call himself "Brother Love?"

This apparently was NOT a recent letter to the Ledger-Enquirer, as I couldn't find it on the newspaper's web site over the last seven days. Once some people find Love, they simply can't get it out of their minds....

A search of the Ledger-Enquirer's archives found a letter from last June, which was signed by Brother Love and other people. He's listed among the writers as "Concerned Citizen Activist, OAAU." I didn't know the Amateur Athletic Union had to call itself "original" these days.

I haven't anyone make a "threat" to the city of Columbus in the Kenneth Walker case since the 2005 Riverfest boycott, which was called off at the last minute. If Brother Love is making a threat of some sort, perhaps he's being like some parents - the ones who say they only spank you because they love you.

To be honest, I was tempted to write something on this matter of "love" for Wednesday's blog entry. I've noticed that four-letter word tends to have a lot of definitions. Take the sports world - which was put well by a sign I saw in a high school years ago: "Never date a tennis player. To them, love means nothing."

For some people on Wednesday, love meant buying something special -- or something unusual. I was in a Walgreens store, and saw a man buying a giant stuffed animal. If that was for his wife, either he was hiding something nice deep inside it - or he was making up for losing a lot of money at the Greater Columbus Fair last fall.

One employee at Walgreens suggested a customer purchase a balloon floating above the checkout lane. It showed a scene from the comic strip "Peanuts," of Snoopy kissing Lucy. That might work if your sweetheart works at the Humane Society....

For the Russell County Child Advocacy Center, love means something other than abuse. WRBL showed the agency selling shirts at Phenix City Central High School Wednesday which say, "Love shouldn't hurt." The staff is concerned about battered children -- but try using that phrase around any of the runners-up on "The Bachelor."

For students at St. Luke School downtown, love may mean dancing. I saw several young girls there Wednesday afternoon, wearing 1950's-style "poodle skirts" as if they were holding a sock hop. But strangely, I didn't see any boys with greasy hair....

So to borrow the classic question of David Frost, what is MY definition of love? That's become a bit more difficult for me in the last couple of years. It's not because of anyone special I've met. It's because of what "experts" have been telling me - and I don't mean the men at Gold and Silver Trading Center.

The church congregation I attend tends to say the love of God is defined by keeping the Ten Commandments. OK, so I'm not killing anybody and I'm not committing adultery. So if I don't hold a gun in front of women or steal their purses, why haven't I become a babe magnet?

(In fact, my church denomination is against Valentine's Day. That's because it's a pagan day in origin and not Bible-based. So the message comes across that God is love, but even He takes a day off from it.)

People sometimes ask me if I love things - anything from pro football to chocolate chip cookies. I'm not comfortable saying I "love" such things. Others might consider that an unhealthy addiction, and try to put me in a 12-step program.

I'd prefer to save "love" for people, not things -- but I have to be careful about that as a single guy. Look too longingly on the wrong woman at my age, and her teenage son may walk up and slap me in the face.

So I'm looking for the right time and place, to show love for the right person - but I'm admittedly not sure where that person is, or exactly what I'd do if I found her. It was only fitting that I spent the bulk of Wednesday finishing my federal tax return. I resist Valentine's Day red, by trying to find as much "green" in a refund check as possible.

Now that my confessional time is over, let's move on to other items from Wednesday:

+ AFLAC announced it will allow stockholders to vote on the compensation of company executives, starting in 2009. BUT the vote will be non-binding - so no one in the Amos family is likely to eat the duck's bread crumbs for awhile.

+ Columbus South Inc. planted a row of trees on Fort Benning Road. Well, actually prison inmates did some of the planting - and if those inmates can be trained properly, perhaps they can tear down some abandoned businesses as well.

+ Protesters held signs outside a circus performance at the Columbus Civic Center. The group opposed how the Barnes and Bailey Circus supposedly treats animals. I'm surprised there wasn't a second protest -- by the Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus, complaining about its name getting ripped off.

(A spokesman for the Barnes and Bailey Circus suggested the protesters were ignorant, and dared to say they "look like idiots." So who had the bright idea of putting little outfits on the monkeys?)

+ The manager of The Sports Page bar in Americus was charged with hosting recent drug-infested teenage parties. Bill Brown officially is accused of "keeping a disorderly house." If you saw his mug shot on TV, you'd know the disorderliness starts from his hairdo and expands from there.

+ A U.S. Agriculture Department official spoke to the Georgia Legislature about alternative energy ideas. At one point he declared: "Georgia is one big photocell." [True/GPB] This is different from some civil rights leaders, who consider the state one big prison cell.

+ The Mayor of Birmingham barred the A&E cable channel from taping a "reality series," following police detectives in murder investigations. Sadly, it can't be because there's nothing to tape....

+ Georgia was nearly embarrassed in men's college basketball, but rallied to beat Kennesaw State 75-66. Kennesaw led 60-54 with six minutes left - and then I guess Bulldog coach Dennis Felton called Columbus State's Hubert Greene for advice.

+ Former Phenix City Central player Clarence Sanders hit a last-second jump shot, as Mississippi edged Louisiana State 71-70. L.S.U. has now lost seven out of eight games - enough to make their star Glenn "Big Baby" Davis cry like one, and Columbus Councilor Glenn Davis want nothing to do with him.

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