Forever alone? Not this year. Photo via one of the MOST DEPRESSING STORIES OF ALL TIME in The Daily Mail.

Being a single on Valentine’s Day I imagine is a lot like being a Jew on Christmas: people around you are caught up in the hoopla of corporation-fueled gifting while the rest of us slog along, pretending we’re perfectly happy not celebrating. And then you have to upload post after post about it on the blog you work for, because allegedly everyone is looking for things to do on V Day, because, even though you’re a happy couple, I STILL HAVE TO COME UP WITH DATE IDEAS FOR YOU. Well, nuts to that: maybe V Day is hard to ignore, but this is still Brooklyn after all, and Brooklyn is nothing if not a seething pit of hormones looking for an outlet. I hereby declare all is not lost for you this year! Get thee to one of these events — they’re cool enough that they don’t reek of desperation (or Axe) but close enough to V Day that, let’s face it, everyone knows what you’re there for. (more…)

Motherlovers reunite in front of the Brooklyn Detention Center.

Need a free date idea that borders on macabre this weekend? Don’t pass up the opportunity to tour Brooklyn’s own house of detention free of admission before its grand reopening in early February. The towering, 759- bed gray building in Boerum Hill was constructed on Atlantic Avenue in 1957 as a jail for men, but was shuttered in 2003 due to budget cuts. If you’re curious about the history of the institution (or just want to get the words “penal system” into your date), Warden Walter Nin will be on hand to answer questions throughout the tour, which will include the cells, kitchen and medical clinic. We can’t guarantee a hint of romance — although it worked for Lonely Island’s Mother Lovers, who featured the jail in the opening shot of its video —  but we can guarantee that it will cost you less than dinner at Chef’s Table around the corner. (more…)