Jordan Tate: So who are you? Are you, you, like, some Special Forces guy or something?
Casey Ryback: Nah. I'm just a cook.
Jordan Tate: A cook?
Casey Ryback: [Whispering] Just a lowly, lowly cook.
Jordan Tate: Oh, my God, we're gonna die.

I'M JUST A LOWLY COOK

The above dialogue is from “Under Siege (1992)”.  As we are finding out now though, Casey Ryback, better known as Steven Seagal, is more than a lowly cook, more than a Kung Fu hero; he also is President/Head Misogynist of the “He-Man Woman-Haters Club” (allegedly).

For more than 20 years Steven Seagal has been my “Kung Fu hero” in about a gazillion Hollywood movies.  As an expert martial artist with a 7^th degree black belt in Aikido (an increasingly bigger one these days), he’s amassed wealth, fame and influence which follows him wherever he goes around the entire planet---except last week in Costa Rica. 

Seagal has visited CR a number of times, on expeditionary voyages to pave the way for a possible semi-permanent location for his production company and for real estate investment and home building for him and his family.  As late as just last year Seagal was treated like royalty.  He was able to sit down and talk with the Nobel prize laureate and CR President Oscar Arias as hundreds of pictures were taken of the famous one (Seagal). 

BEFORE PRESIDENT CHINCHILLA

President Arias, ever the diplomat, never considered those little stories that have dogged the Kung Fu hero from as long ago as Kelly Lebrock, wife #3; stories about a Hollywood action hero legend who, in real life, treated women like they were Karate punching bags (allegedly). http://www.nydailynews.com/gossip/2010/04/22/2010-04-22_steven_seagals_exwife_kelly_lebrock_says_she_was_constantly_raped_and_abused_my_.html

Last week, when Steven Seagal returned to his beloved Costa Rica the only thing that had changed was that a new President had been elected.  HER name is Laura Chinchilla (Lowra Cheencheeya).  The fresh stories about Old Steven being his bad-ass usual self around another woman or two or three shouldn’t change things in a little country in the middle of Central America, right?  Wrong.  Shockingly, President Chinchilla was just too busy to meet with Steven Seagal, despite the fantastic assistance Officer Seagal (He is a sworn deputy with the Jefferson Parrish, Louisiana Police Dept.) was offering to the little Costa Rican police forces that would improve their “get the bad guy” techniques. 

She did however send out some of her very important people for some good photo ops and words of encouragement with an honorary plaque and a nice little lapel pin. 

SUCH A NICE PLAQUE (from fusildechispas.com)

Hmm, if S.S. feels that way, it may be advisable for him to return after his possible upcoming court appearances when more personal information about his special way he treated some very unhappy women is exposed; he could compare the way President Laura treats him then. http://www.tmz.com/2010/04/12/steven-seagal-sexual-assault-lawsuit-executive-assistant-kayden-nguyen/

Another celebrity sighting on the beautiful beaches of Costa Rica as Avril Lavigne and Brody Jenner were spotted taking in the ambience of paradise.  The secret of Costa Rica is no longer, as tourists from all over the planet come here to experience Pura Vida. http://tiny.cc/oyho6

FIREFLY by alex tamba

Beginning in Sydney, Australia in 2007 all non essential city lights were turned off for one hour to make a statement for the reduction of greenhouse gasses to stop “Global Warming” (now known as “Climate Change”).  In 2009, 88 countries participated in Earth Hour.                                                                                           

Last year’s Earth Hour, however happened before the little fiasco known as “Climate-gate” where the head of an internationally respected scientific institution was discovered faking global temperature data.  Professor Phillip Jones, head of the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia was head of an overzealous, greedy and arrogant group of scientists that supplied the United Nations with phony temperature numbers in order to cause fears of catastrophic global weather related disasters.                                                                                              

This was to ensure continued grant money and facilitate the trillions of dollars of Carbon Credits that would be bought and sold in a Cap and Trade system where “rich” developed countries would be required to pay less developed “non polluting" nations in order to continue polluting. 

As it was in the Watergate scandal so it was here, where the end game called Global Warming was exposed by “following the money”  Maybe someday the “deepthroat” computer e-mail hackers who revealed the “man behind the East Anglia curtain” will show themselves and receive their well deserved accolades. 

Still, many of the Global Warming devotees will continue to be herded along, faithfully reciting old mantras of how reducing man made greenhouse gasses will save the planet and how “Cap and Trade” will solve air pollution. 

The sadly pathetic Al Gore is still tilting at the windmills of Global Warming, oblivious to the fact that his once loyal minions were able to gather their own facts with just a few clicks of a computer mouse. He is still riding the old Rocinante virtually alone now except for his squire, Sancho Kerry.  Everyone who wanted the truth about what Mr. Gore was preaching, found it; and we who were once so concerned how quickly we were killing our Mother Earth, have discovered that the Natural Machine that keeps it running is more complicated than anyone knew. 

SNOWCOWS by janis fitch

Skeptics have yet to be convinced however; some stating that it’s all a lot of bull----.  It appears that a return to clover and alfalfa instead of grain feed and a little garlic based concoction will reduce the methane eruptions substantially. 

As we all try and find the best ways to individually do the right things, we will be more discerning perhaps but saving and protecting our planet will continue despite the greedy, power driven zealots and a “Nutty Professor” or two.  We still need to protect our natural resources, continue to learn how best to fix what we’ve broken, learn how environmental systems actually work and become better stewards of the amazing planet we live on.                              

We need truth-based scientific information so that our environmental activism will make a difference (what a concept).  So it’s not a bad thing to save a few kilowatts of electricity by turning off our lights for an hour, especially if it serves to bring the world a little closer to learning more about the Earth and how we can all do our part to protect it. http://www.earthhour.org/

*NOTE-PHOTO OF GIRL WITH SUN JAR BY JENNIFER LANCE

Every February, across the United States, Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, France, Australia and a little bit here in Costa Rica, candy, flowers, and gifts are exchanged between loved ones, all in the name of St. Valentine.  

Chocolate, a major gift item for this holiday, has been a big part of Costa Rica’s history since Pre-Columbian times when Cacao beans (that’s where dark chocolate comes from) were used as currency by indigenous people.  Spanish explorers like Columbus and Cortez introduced cacao and chocolate to Europe.  Cacao was a major crop for Costa Rica until coffee and tobacco surpassed it in the late 1700s.                                                       

CACAO PODS

In the 1900s, a nasty plant fungus wiped out 70% of Costa Rica’s Cacao trees and production suffered.  Two of the best facts about Cacao are that there is no need for deforestation in order to grow this crop and Costa Rica is seeing a resurgence of some old cacao plantations on the Caribbean side of the country. 

But who is this mysterious Saint Valentine and why do we celebrate this holiday? The history of Valentine's Day — and its patron saint — is shrouded in mystery.  But we do know that February has long been a month of romance. St. Valentine's Day, as we know it today, contains vestiges of both Christian and ancient Roman tradition.  

So, who was Saint Valentine and how did he become associated with this ancient rite?  Today, the Catholic Church recognizes at least three different saints named Valentine or Valentinus, all of whom were martyred.  One legend contends that Valentine was a priest who served during the third century in Rome.  When Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than those with wives and families, he outlawed marriage for young men — his crop of potential soldiers.

Valentine, realizing the injustice of the decree, defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret.  When Valentine's actions were discovered, Claudius ordered that he be put to death.  Other stories suggest that Valentine may have been killed for attempting to help Christians escape harsh Roman prisons where they were often beaten and tortured. 

According to one legend, Valentine actually sent the first 'valentine' greeting himself. While in prison, it is believed that Valentine fell in love with a young girl — who may have been his jailor's daughter — who visited him during his confinement.  Before his death, it is alleged that he wrote her a letter, which he signed 'From your Valentine,' an expression that is still in use today.                                                                              

Although the truth behind the Valentine legends is murky, the stories certainly emphasize his appeal as a sympathetic, heroic, and, most importantly, romantic figure.  It's no surprise that by the Middle Ages, Valentine was one of the most popular saints in England and France. 

While some believe that Valentine's Day is celebrated in the middle of February to commemorate the anniversary of Valentine's death or burial — which probably occurred around 270 A.D — others claim that the Christian church may have decided to celebrate Valentine's feast day in the middle of February in an effort to 'Christianize' celebrations of the pagan Lupercalia festival.  

In ancient Rome, February was the official beginning of spring and was considered a time for purification. Houses were ritually cleansed by sweeping them out and then sprinkling salt and a type of wheat called spelt throughout their interiors.  Lupercalia, which began at the ides of February, February 15, was a fertility festival dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture, as well as to the Roman founders Romulus and Remus. 

To begin the festival, members of the Luperci, an order of Roman priests, would gather at the sacred cave where the infants Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, were believed to have been cared for by a she-wolf or lupa.  The priests would then sacrifice a goat, for fertility, and a dog, for purification.  The boys then sliced the goat's hide into strips, dipped them in the sacrificial blood and took to the streets, gently slapping both women and fields of crops with the goat hide strips.  

Far from being fearful, Roman women welcomed being touched with the hides because it was believed the strips would make them more fertile in the coming year.  Later in the day, according to legend, all the young women in the city would place their names in a big urn.  The city's bachelors would then each choose a name out of the urn and become paired for the year with his chosen woman.  These matches often ended in marriage.  

Pope Gelasius declared February 14 St. Valentine's Day around 498 A.D.  The Roman 'lottery' system for romantic pairing was deemed un-Christian and outlawed. Later, during the Middle Ages, it was commonly believed in France and England that February 14 was the beginning of birds' mating season, which added to the idea that the middle of February — Valentine's Day — should be a day for romance.  

The oldest known valentine still in existence today was a poem written by Charles, Duke of Orleans to his wife while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London following his capture at the Battle of Agincourt.  The greeting, which was written in 1415, is part of the manuscript collection of the British Library in London, England. Several years later, it is believed that King Henry V hired a writer named John Lydgate to compose a valentine note to Catherine of Valois. 

In Great Britain, Valentine's Day began to be popularly celebrated around the seventeenth century.  By the middle of the eighteenth century, it was common for friends and lovers in all social classes to exchange small tokens of affection or handwritten notes. By the end of the century, printed cards began to replace written letters due to improvements in printing technology.  Ready-made cards were an easy way for people to express their emotions in a time when direct expression of one's feelings was discouraged.

Cheaper postage rates also contributed to an increase in the popularity of sending Valentine's Day greetings. Americans probably began exchanging hand-made valentines in the early 1700s. In the 1840s, Esther A. Howland began to sell the first mass-produced valentines in America.  According to the Greeting Card Association, an estimated one billion valentine cards are sent each year, making Valentine's Day the second largest card-sending holiday of the year. (An estimated 2.6 billion cards are sent for Christmas.)                                                      

Approximately 85 percent of all valentines are purchased by women.  In addition to the United States, Valentine's Day is celebrated in Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, France, and Australia.  Valentine greetings were popular as far back as the Middle Ages (written Valentine's didn't begin to appear until after 1400), and the oldest known Valentine card is on display at the British Museum.

The first commercial Valentine's Day greeting cards produced in the U.S. were created in the 1840s by Esther A. Howland. Howland, known as the Mother of the Valentine, made elaborate creations with real lace, ribbons and colorful pictures known as "scrap".

Reprinted from history.com   The seascape artwork is called "Oceanic Lovers" by Jim Warren (jimwarren.com)