Long after the Valentine's Day roses wilt and the chocolate is eaten, the scent of used panties remains. This is the brilliant premise that two young women behind a used-panties-for-hire business have hatched to weather this tough economy (damn economy!) Our very own Carrie Dennis spoke to one of the women in a chance encounter on the subway last night. The 20-year-old entrepreneur, who directed us towards her Craigslist ad, and said she was on her way to move some product, gave us some insight into her foolproof business model. more ›

Over nearly a decade, more than 70,000 individuals have shared over 40,000 stories with StoryCorps, the oral history project that has become a treasured national institution. And just in time for Valentine's Day, the most heartfelt, mushy tales of love ever recorded have been turned into a collection of essays for founder Dave Isay's latest book, All There Is: Love Stories from StoryCorps, released February 2nd. more ›

Don't have any Valentine's Day plans tonight? Join us, as we hate-watch others fall in love Hollywood-style, in the comfort of our own homes. Netflix and Amazon streaming will wrap you in their warm embraces with romantic plot devices that will make you wonder why you can't find love. Below, our picks for some rom coms you can watch tonight while you're celebrating this day alone. So so alone. more ›

If one things goes perfectly with Valentine's Day, it has to be free ice cream, right? So how good of select Ben & Jerry's locations to offer up the stuff from 5—8 p.m. today, just as the lonely people are getting out of work. Even if the give-away technically has nothing to do with soothing the loveless and everything to do with raising awareness for the company's "Get the dough out of politics" campaign. more ›

While New York City has a Museum of Sex, Croatia has a Museum of Broken Relationships. The museum displays donated artifacts with the donors' descriptions of the relationships. For instance, here's the story behind this Slovenian "Divorce Day Mad Dwarf": more ›

Valentine's Day is a garish, corporate shill designed to trick you into substituting commerce for Love, but don't take our word for it: it also just happens to be the Word of God. We picked out a few religious takes on the holiday that have us pondering conversion. Hear that, deities? We'll accept cash, anatomically correct chocolate hearts, and massage hula-hoops for our soul. more ›

So, Valentine's Day is nigh! Can't say you weren't warned though, what with the regular onslaught of promotions (White Castle!), deals (private couples pool time!) and curiosities (name a hissing cockroach!) offered in the name of commerce love. But just in case you haven't gotten around to figuring out plans, here's some pointers from your friendly Gothamist love gurus: more ›

Hey ladies, looking for that perfect gift for your man for Valentine's Day? Single men, want to lose yourself in a night of manufactured caresses? Head over to Craigslist where one poster has fallen into a treasure trove of free admittance cards to the Hustler Club in Manhattan. They claim the cards are "left over from an event," and have no expiration date. There are around 500, which means, if you see about five naked ladies upon each visit (is that accurate? We haven't been), you'll be seeing approximately 5,000 boobs once you work your way through the pile. Or something. Math! But you'll see a lot of naked lady parts. Just stay away from those private lap dances, they really add up. more ›

Was White Castle all booked up when you went to make your Valentine's Day reservation? Fear not, fast food loving Romeo, Pizza Hut has got you covered. Because if you have $10,010 to drop on a proposal, obviously Pizza Hut should be your first choice. Is that what you are thinking right now? That there is probably nowhere else your future bride would rather be proposed to than over a lukewarm $10 pizza? Seriously dude, you can't think of one better place? Fine. Let's do this... more ›

Ladies, we know the New York dating scene is tough, especially around Valentine's Day. But put down your Match.com dinner spreadsheets for a moment and have your heart melted by hard facts: men are more lovelorn than women according to The Internet. According to a release from Google, "places to meet women" is 55% more popular in NYC than the search "places to meet men," and the phrase "single valentine's day" is up 145% nationally from this time in 2005, and up 1500% in the last 30 days. No word on the popularity of "fleshlight" or "make the crying stop." more ›

Breaking up with someone on Valentine's Day is a pretty cold-blooded idea, unless of course the no good p.o.s. has it coming. But you know what's even worse than getting dumped on V-Day? Being a publicist who has to flog a Valentine's Day "angle" for every trash-bound press release sent between now and mid-February. These things are currently flooding in at a rate of 25 per hour, like a fire hydrant spraying sickly pink champagne all over our cringing faces. But occasionally one pitch stands out from the herd, such as this beaut—pasted below verbatim—with the subject "Where to Dump Someone on Valentine's Day": more ›

It's almost time to commit that compulsory act of capitalism to show the person you're sleeping with that you'd spiral into a dark cellar of self-remorse if they ever left you! Sure, you could pick something up for Valentine's Day at your favorite, locally-owned and operated bodega, but to make the holiday really special, you need an exoskeleton. This year, the Bronx Zoo is yet again charging $10 to name one of their Madagascar hissing cockroaches, but for $15 you can buy an edible "Cocoa-Roach." 100% guaranteed to do something to your libido! more ›

It's nearly Valentine's Day, and nothing says romance like the adulterous Don Draper of Mad Men. Enter: Hamm-O-Gram! These people are offering to send you, or the one you love, a Hamm-centric love note for five bucks a pop. They say the Hamm-o-gram is "like a classic telegram, where you send a special someone a transcribed message, usually in letter form. Except this message is always a picture of handsome actor Jon Hamm (with a lil' somethin' extra)." more ›

Get ready to start dialing, the annual rush to score one of those highly coveted White Castle Valentine's reservations is on! The slider emporium has finally released the numbers to call to make sure that you and yours can spend the February 14 holiday properly, uh, greased up. more ›

For the past 17 years, a handful of lucky couples get married atop the Empire State Building on Valentine's Day—and those couples all get lifetime anniversary passes to the building. But you better put the "lifetime" in quotation marks, as one couple discovered on Monday. more ›

If you're waiting to pop by the Duane Reade on the way home from work to pick up a $5 heart-shaped box of Russel Stovers for your sweetheart, you might be out of luck. According to ABC7, Valentine's Day spending is on the rise, with Americans expected to spend $1.5 billion on sweets alone. And with that chocolate shortage looming, it's unclear if manufacturers planned for the uptick in sales. Our local grocery store was nearly out of boxed chocolate (and completely out of strawberries!) last night, and at least one Duane Reade is suffering from a Sweetheart shortage. more ›

When we think of Valentine's Day, our first thought is usually, "Oh God, how much is this going to cost us?!" But apparently other people associate this holiday with the making of sweet, sweet love! And to help facilitate that process—and avoid any delayed after-effects like dependents or the clap—there are at least three different prophylactic promotions in NYC today. The first comes from the NYC Health Department, which has launched a smart phone application that uses GPS technology to locate the nearest spot to score free condoms. Because New Yorkers who own smart phones are famous for their frugality? In any case, we just got it on our Droid, and it sure is taking its sweet time to load. Maybe we need to light some candles and put on some Al Green. While we do that, the Health Department has some handy tips on correct condom usage: more ›

Say what you will about Valentine's Day, it certainly elicits some of the year's most amusing P.R. pitches from the city's most desperate creative publicists. Flacks for the Brooklyn Diner (located in Manhattan and... Dubai), for instance, have effectively lured us into their arms with a press release that touts the joint as "the perfect midtown spot to celebrate your anti-Valentine’s Day stand or even break someone’s heart. Why not? This is New York after all." Because in New York, we break each others' hearts in brightly-lit midtown tourist traps? Whatever, what really put this pitch over the top was the promise of a special "Love Bites" 15 inch hot dog. more ›

If wooing your lady with a romantic night of wine and chocolates by White Castle-scented candlelight just isn't romantic enough, it may be time to splurge for the real deal. White Castle's annual Valentine's day dinner is accepting your reservations now, and the New York dinners seem popular already. The line was busy when we called to inquire about locations! (Bring a roll of 20s to, ahem, grease the maître d). more ›

Yesterday Joe Biden fêted his wife with a romantic lunch at Brooklyn’s River Café. "It was a belated Valentine's," said owner Michael (Buzzy) O'Keeffe. A tourist from Oklahoma chatted Jill Biden up in the lady’s room, and the two went back to her table to meet the vice-president, reports the Daily News. "I shook his hand and said, 'Don't worry. Mine are clean.' He said, 'Mine are clean, too,'" she recounted. "They were very friendly, very lovely." As the Bidens dined on pear salad, warm goat cheese, potato terrine, and sirloin steak (cooked medium well) their beefy secret service escorts ordered a pie from Grimaldi’s. more ›

Today a hopeful, young New York Rangers fan thought he'd pop the question to his girlfriend at a Valentine's Day game at MSG. Instead of the camera panning in for a clichéd shot of the couple embracing, however, it ended up being what some call "arguably the most botched marriage proposal of all time." When his question: “Melissa, will you be my Blueshirt Bride?” came up on the big scoreboard screen, she simply stood up and walked out, as fellow Rangers fans booed her. It was all caught on tape, as most embarrassing moments are: more ›

The first of fourteen weddings to happen at the Empire State Building this Valentine's weekend went down this morning. They tell us this was the "first ever wedding at the Empire State Building’s 86th floor Observatory," though this is the 16th year the Knot has been holding their weekend-long event. Previous weddings, and the rest of this weekend's, are held on the 61st floor. more ›