with Sapa-AFP

Valentine's Day - be it a celebration of junk love or of the authentic, warm and fuzzy kind - is wrapping Capetonians around its pink fingers again.

Less predictable than the day's popularity are our means of persuasion in luring and securing mates.

"Will you be my Valentine? I want to eat your heart out - love Hannibal Lecter," reads an irresistible entry in the Cape Times classified ads.

More than 100 mystery marriage proposals await SMS delivery

"Deepak - I love your eyes, your nose, your lips, etc ... especially your etc!" reads another.

Lust is an eternal theme in the classads and proposals pepper the libido-inspired lyrics: "Shaheema Majiet, my horny baby ... be my wifey!" writes an enthusiastic Alister Brauns.

"Smuts Nelius - the only man in the world with the perfect: hands, bum, shoulders ... will you marry me, please?" writes "Nei".

Best of luck to them both.

"My rodeo man, I love you ... Your Titanic girl," warns another romantic.

'Just being here makes me want to get married'

It seems Valentine's Day is an opportunity to explore our sense of all that is sentimental, gorgeous, theatrical and heroic.

Romance rears its head even while people are on the move. More than 100 mystery marriage proposals are queuing up, waiting to be sent by SMS on the day, according to iTouch, which offers a selection.

The most popular of the serious options is "marry me" and the less-than-serious winner is: "When I think of your thingamajig I want to watchamacallit."

Happily, Valentine's Day spreads love outside the bounds of romance.

In a press release entitled Red Cross Children's Hospital Loves Firefighters, the organisation acknowledges firefighters' work and says children will make a presentation to firefighters at the Roeland Street fire station at 12.30pm.

St Valentine, a persecuted third-century bishop, was beheaded in Rome on February 14, about the year 270, for his devotion to Christianity.

It is said the Valentine myth began when the bishop agreed to marry a Christian woman and a pagan legionary. He is also believed to have given the gift of eternal love to a couple when he handed them a flower from his garden.

His reputation spread and couples pour into the town of his birth, Ternini, to this day.

Ternini is a dowdy industrial centre 120km north of Rome.

"I agree, the city is not beautiful," said Elisabetta, a young woman pilgrim from Rome, "but just being here makes me want to get married."