In my hometown, someone, or a bunch of someone’s, hangs red hearts on white background all over the city on the night before Valentine’s Day. We call him/her/them the Valentine’s Day Bandit and it makes me happy every year to see that it still happens after 41 years.
This year, as you can see in the banner pic, they hit Fort Gorges, which is in the harbor. Not an easy place to get to. And if you follow this link you can see a lot more of where the Bandit struck this year.
I have never seen the Bandit hang a heart. I do not know anyone who has ever seen the Bandit hang a heart. I do not know anyone who knows anyone who has seen the Bandit hang a heart. It is a reverse-urban legend. Instead of it being fake and lots of people claiming to know about it, it is real and nobody has a clue.
Now, obviously it is not too tough to find someone who has seen them. It is literally thousands of hearts all over the city. But the fact that it is still a mystery is testimony that my home town doesn’t want to ruin things. And since a lot of stuff in my life got ruined over the past 12 months, I’m glad that this is still what it is. It’s good. Happy belated Valentine’s Day.
