Valentineís faux pasAfter secretly dating two guys ó Dan and Joe ó for a few months, I told Joe I didn’t want a relationship, so that I could get serious with Dan. On Valentine’s Day, Dan took me out to dinner, and I almost choked on my drink when our waiter arrived. It was Joe! To make matters worse, Dan ordered a dish with bÈchamel sauce, which he loved. He gushed to the waiter, a.k.a. my ex, “If she could cook like this I’d marry her.” I wanted to die.†Cristina, age 26, Cosmopolitan online Jan. 22A crime of passionOn Feb. 27, 1859,U.S. Congressman Daniel Sickles murdered Washington D.C. District Attorney Philip Barton Key, son of Francis Scott Key, in a fit of rage.Key had been having an affair with Sickles’ wife, Teresa. Although the public was well-aware of the affair, Sickles wasnít until an anonymous letter revealed the love triangle. When Sickles caught Key eyeing his wife a few days later, he followed Key to Lafayette Park, across from the White House, and shot him three times.He was arrested and jailed until his trial. The public supported him, as did then-President James Buchanan.Within two months, Edwin W. Stanton, future secretary of war, represented Sickles; and a jury found him not guilty by reason of temporary insanity ñ the first ever successful use of the defense.Sickles went on to become a Union general in the Civil War, lost his leg at the Battle of Gettysburg and lived to the age of 94.This gives new meaning to the stand-your-ground laws.
