Love Facts and Trivia

• In Bali, men believed a woman would fall in love if her suitor fed her a certain kind of leaf incised with the image of a god who sported a very large penis.
• A four-leaf clover is often considered good luck, but it is also part of an Irish love ritual. In some parts of Ireland, if a woman eats a four-leaf clover while thinking about a man, supposedly he will fall in love with her.
• The maple leaf is a symbol of love in China and Japan—and in North America, it was often engraved on beds of early settlers to promote peaceful sleep and pleasure.
• Many cultures use knots as symbols of an eternal love that has neither a beginning nor an end. Young Muslim women would send love messages to their lovers using intricate knots.
• Scholars recently returned from New Guinea said they noted a lot of elderly natives there had missing fingers. Research revealed that it was the custom some years ago for a young fighting man to give his lucky girlfriend a finger cut from the hand of an opponent. And said girlfriend wore that finger on a string around her neck.
• Copenhagen, Denmark (AP) - He just called to say he loved her. The problem was he did it over and over, running up a phone bill of at least $117,000 to his sweetheart in India. Now the 24-year-old Dane could face jail for fraud because he can't pay the bill, police said Friday. The lovesick Dane, whose name was not released, has never even met his 18-year-old flame from Madras, India. They got in touch through a magazine that publishes names and phone numbers of people all over the world who want to know foreigners. But the Dane clearly couldn't resist the sound of her voice. Police said the long-distance lovebirds once spent 21 of 24 hours on the phone to each other. He got away with it for so long by switching telephone companies.  
• When Buster Mitchell's girlfriend walked out on him, he went back to his beloved and decided to make it legal with her. Mitchell, 28, went to the county courthouse in Knoxville, TN., and started filling out the marriage license application. He listed his fiancee's birthplace as Detroit, her father as "Henry Ford" and her blood type as "10-W-40" before the clerk stopped him -- Mitchell was trying to get a license to marry his car, a '66 Ford Mustang GT. "Why can't we do the good ol' boy thing and marry our cars and trucks?" he lamented later. He plans to try again elsewhere.
• A lover on the island of Trobriand customarily bites off his lady friend's eyelashes. He would never take her out to dinner, however, unless they were married. To share a meal with her would disgrace her.
• King Ferrand of Portugal was held captive from 1213 to 1226 by the Turks. They demanded ransom, but Portugal's Queen Jeanne refused to pay for her husband's return. She had beaten him in a chess game, and he had therefore hit her on the nose with his fist. It upset her considerably. (Perhaps this is why many women don't play chess, and why we need to deal with pent-up anger before the game begins.) 
• In medieval Italy kisses weren't taken -- or given -- lightly. If a man and a woman were seen embracing in public they could be forced to marry. 
• The German language contains 30 words that refer to the act of kissing. There is even a word, Nachkuss, for all the kisses that haven't yet been named.
• The primary ambition of a Zulu's wife is to help her husband acquire sufficient means to buy another wife...  so they can split the chores. 
• What does "getting a Valentine" mean in criminal jargon? Receiving a one-year jail sentence.