It's 5 Things Straight from the Heart

1. It's Valentine's Day. You've been warned. Don't forget to get something for your sweetie.

2. Having a great heart is a wonderful character trait, but having a good head on your shoulders is invaluable. A group of students at Trabuco Hills High have such heads: They finished second in the Orange County Academic Decathlon and earned the opportunity to compete in the state finals next month in Sacramento.

3. In case you didn't read about and the need to be extra careful while on the road, there was while a woman was on the sidewalk. The only thing that made this one different from the ones referenced Saturday was that it was on the other side of the 5 freeway. These tragedies are coming in all forms.

4. On this date in history, approximately A.D. 278, a holy priest of Rome, Valentine, was beheaded for secretly marrying couples in defiance of the emperor Claudius, who had forbidden marriages because he felt it was preventing young men from joining the Roman army; he was later sainted. In 1779, Captain Cook was killed by natives in Hawaii, which apparently wasn't yet a romantic destination. In 1929, the gang war between Al Capone and Bugs Moran reached its zenith when four of Capone's gangsters, dressed as cops, entered Moran's headquarters and executed seven rivals, essentially wiping out the Moran gang in the St. Valentine's Day Massacre.

5. Here's the story, of a lovely lady—Florence Henderson (77) is celebrating a birthday today, along with Hugh Downs (90), Michael Bloomberg (69), Carl Bernstein (67) and Meg Tilly (51). Also born on this date were the late abolitionist Frederick Douglass (1818), funny man Jack Benny (1894), legendary baseball announcer Mel Allen (1913) and Vic Morrow (1932). Oh, and somewhere, Jimmy Hoffa (1913) is celebrating his 98th birthday. Or not.

For What It's Worth: It's National Condom Month, the last day of Risk Awareness Week, and Library Lovers Day.