My long established hobby has earned me a membership in POP (People Observing People) Culture. The rules specify that each member must swear not to divulge anything observed.

Being a minister, I'm not allowed to swear, so I am exempted from this rule.

I love to get a nice hot cup of coffee, a local newspaper and situate myself where I can see most people in their natural environment. Nothing is more hilarious than observing people who don't realize they are being watched.

Don't get me wrong here, I love people. All sorts of people. I would never unduly make fun of anyone — well almost anyone. Everybody has something about him or her interesting and worth observing.

One of my favorite authors, F. W. Boreham, made this observation: Leave your house early in morning and first person you meet take him or her aside and write their biography. Of course, person will not conceive anything interesting about his or her life, and that's way most people are. We think everybody else is more interesting than our life.

The average person, in my opinion, leads a more interesting life than almost all celebrities, except for Elvis who is more popular dead than alive.

As an expert in POP Culture, most interesting thing about people can be summed up in one word: mistakes.

Mistakes are common characteristics of all those addicted to oxygen. Other similarities exist among people, but this one thing supercedes culture, time, age and gender. Everybody at some time to some degree makes mistakes.

Two kinds of people populate our planet: those who admit their mistakes and those who don't.

Now, a mistake is not just a mistake. There are categories and degrees of mistakes. Let me list a few categories and see which one fits into your lifestyle.

The first category would be, inaccuracies. It is easy to get something wrong when dealing with numbers, especially dialing telephone numbers. Not long ago my wife, who works as my secretary, dialed a number for me. I can't remember now who we were trying to call, but I do remember who we really got.

My wife dialed number and as soon as it started to ring, she handed phone to me. When I put receiver to my ear, I heard a sultry voice invite me to do things I had never considered before in my life.

BRING OUT YOUR INNER ROMEO OR Juliet!

-- Or, where to find a romantic rendez-vous to reconnoiter? -

By Theolonius McTavish, currently a ribald roving reporter (with an abiding interest in arcane topics like curious, odd, or downright postively playful placenames), and part-time errant carpet knight, (a left-over piece of Karma from a previous lifetime)

Valentine’s Day is rolling around again. What would February 14th be without all those wretched little red, cinnamon-flavored candy hearts and calorie-laden chocolate candy kisses?

Well, if you’re not into any of these sumptuous “sweet nothings”, maybe a Valentine vacation might do trick. If so, you’ve got plenty of "hot" spots to choose from in North America.

For benefit of mapless folk, North America includes UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and that cold comfort country (on other side of 49th parallel, just a tad due south of Santa's hangout at North Pole lies an off-the-beaten track place) called, "Canada".

For digitally-inclined, a quick peek at any road atlas or an on-line GPS geo-locator service will certaintly whet one's appetite for a romp in hay with a sizzling “Voluptuous Vixen” or a secret rendez-vous with a “Rudolph Valentino”, far away from madding crowds.

Let’s see, my list of romantic reconnoitering retreats includes these humdingers and doozies. They may look a tad over-the-top, but I’ll have you know these little gems actually exist.

So Don Juan, Casanova and Romeo, not to mention damsels-in-distress like Juliet and all other divas ...what are your waiting for? Just grab your gear, step on gas and hit highway of life. And don't forget to stop off at these delightful destinations to get in mood and set hearts a flutter!

On second thought, perhaps you'd like to think twice about your last-minute libidinal travel plans. After all you, may have to blow some serious coin in all these pleasure palaces filled with all manner of decadent indulgences or at very least how to cope with red heart-shaped balloon-filled events.

Hmmmm...let's see where to begin...