Good morning. Today is the 45th day of the year. It is St. Valentine’s Day, celebrating the feasts of two Christian martyrs of the same name. One, a priest and physician, was beaten and beheaded on the Flaminian Way in Rome in 269 A.D.  The second Valentine, the bishop of Terni, Italy, is said to have been beheaded several years later, also on the Flaminian Way. 

 

Well-known people who were born today include author Carl Bernstein (All the President’s Men), Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Borough President Marty Markowitz, filmmaker Jessica Yu and basketball player Richard Hamilton.
 

 

This evening at 6 p.m. at Pratt Institute, Higgins Hall, design innovator Todd Oldham will speak on legendary designer Alexander Girard. Girard’s work spanned many disciplines, including textile design, graphic design, typography, illustration, furniture design and more. ¼ This afternoon between 3 and 4:30 p.m., St. Francis College, 180 Remsen St., will present a discussion on the roots of Brazilian samba, accompanied by a performance by Afro-Brazilian dance company Grupo Ribeiro. ¼ Today, for Valentine’s Day, the New York Transit Museum on Schermerhorn Street between Court Street and Boerum Place will open its doors after hours for its second annual Missed Connections Party. Would-be romantics and all others are invited to mingle, enjoy music and art, and possibly find the one that got away. 
 

The Brooklyn Strategist, a haven for interactive board and card games, has opened at 333 Court St., Cobble Hill. The store, which also has a café, will be offering free play time and features such as after-school clubs, evening and weekend leagues, tournaments and more. The Brooklyn Strategist has staff on hand to teach people how to play a “huge library” of board and card games.
 

The Brooklyn Strategist is open Sunday through Wednesday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Thursday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. To contact the store, call (646) 470-3556 or visit www.brooklynstrategist.com.

 

According to McBrooklyn, Baluchi’s, the new Indian restaurant at 46 Henry St. in Brooklyn Heights, has been closed by the city Department of Health for several violations, most of them involving inadequate refrigeration. A spokesperson for the restaurant says steps are being taken to correct the situation. Baluchi’s is a branch of a Park Slope Indian restaurant.

 

Bensonhurst author Ed Pessalano has published a book of 13 scary suspense stories called Night Shivers. The stories all have surprise endings and are reminiscent of the “Twilight Zone”: In one, someone meets a stranger and then find out that the person has been dead for several years; in another a couple goes on a haunted house ride in an amusement park and finds that the ghoulish wax dummies hide the real bodies of people who have been murdered. Fans of horror fiction will be sure to like this book. For more information, visit  www.nightshivers.net.