Is it just me, or is love in the air?

It should be! We're a mere seven days away from Valentine's Day!

Normally I'd take this opportunity to do a deep dive into weird Valentine's trivia, but we've got a tremendous amount of ground to cover before you get bored and leave!

OK, OK...one little tidbit. Unless you spent your formative years obsessing over D'Aulaire's Book Of Greek Myths like this guy did, you may be wondering why the heck a pomegranate was included with Cerberus the three-headed dog and Charon the ferryman of the dead as a symbol of the underworld in our new shirt design. Or maybe not, but I'm gonna tell you anyway!

Hades was the Greek god of the underworld; a very old school version of your typical bad boy. Squint hard enough at his chariot and it just looks like a really fancy (and really slow) motorcycle. Anyway, being a bad boy, he knew that no self-respecting parent would let him date their daughter. So when he took a shine to Persephone, daughter of Demeter, the goddess of the harvest, he kinda just kidnapped her and made her his queen. What. A. Cad.

Demeter was (understandably) pretty pissed about this and convinced Zeus to force Hades to return Persephone to the land of the living...which he allowed. BUT...in her brief time in the underworld, Persephone had eaten six kernels from a pomegranate that had grown in the land of the dead. As a result of this bit of trickery, Hades was able to require that Persephone spend one month in the underworld for every kernel she ate. According to legend, this is why it's cold for half the year and no crops grow — Demeter is too sad pining for her daughter to do her job effectively. Spring heralds Persephone's return to the land of the living, and Demeter's joy upon her return consequently means we don't have to eat potatoes forever (as if that were a bad thing...)

Alright, enough with the quasi-history lesson!

This week on the podcast we share a customer review, relate some listener-submitted anecdotes about the worst dates they've ever been on, tell how owner and co-founder Meredith and I met, and chat with digital advertising expert Brian Swichkow about how he's using Reddit to drive traffic to his dating profile in his quest for Ms. Right. Let's dig in!

We'll be back next week with some fresh designs and products, but in the meantime you may want to enter to win our epic Valentine's Day giveaway contest!

Now through February 22nd you — and your friends! — can enter to win an amazing prize package from us and our partners! You can get all the details here, but entering is a breeze, and the prizes are rad. They include:

• $100 gift card from Boredwalk

• $100 gift card from The Bro Basket

• $100 gift card from Metal Marvels

• A Snarky Tea Bouquet and rad It's Motherf**king Tea Time mug from Snarky Tea

Until next time...

Peace, love, and tacos,

Matt