Welcome to the month of love!

In this special February edition of The Quite Frankly Bulletin, we’re celebrating all things heartwarming and romantic. With our Valentine’s Day theme, we hope that you can take away something meaningful from each of the love stories shared from our audience and esteemed guests (located in the Fan Features section). 

In addition to personal tales of love and marriage, we have exclusives from Dr. Robin McCutcheon, Krista Roman, John Carroll, and fan-favorite mod, ‘AK’. Timothy Gordon and his wife Steph have also shared an Op-Ed on their life’s work. We hop in the kitchen with Aurora, and even look ahead to Spring gardening.

All of this and so much more. Enjoy!

Did You Know?

• Every Valentine’s Day, the Italian city of Verona receives approximately 1,000 letters that have been addressed to Juliet. Verona is where Romeo and Juliet, the young lovers in Shakespeare’s play, were said to have lived.

• One billion Valentine’s Day cards are sent each year, making Valentine's Day the second largest card-sending holiday of the year, just behind Christmas.

• Americans spend approximately $700 million on Valentine's Day gifts for their pets.

• Cupid is associated with Valentine’s Day because he was the son of Venus, the Roman goddess of love and beauty.

• The most popular theory about the origin of Valentine's Day is that Bishop Valentine of Rome went against Emperor Claudius II’s wishes and performed secret weddings during wartime. For this, Valentine was jailed and beheaded around the year 270. He was recognized as a saint after his death.

• The oldest existing Valentine was written in 1415 by Charles, the Duke of Orleans. While held prisoner in the Tower of London, he wrote a love poem to his wife, writing "I am already sick of love, my very gentle Valentine..."

• In the Middle Ages, young people would pull paper hearts with a name on it from a bowl and claim that person as their Valentine. The name they chose would be pinned to their sleeve for a week. This is where the saying “wearing your heart on your sleeve” originates.

Behind the Scenes at The Culture Club

As you all may know, one of the proudest additions to the world of Quite Frankly has been our extra-curricular clubs and activities chief among them, Book Club. Book Club launched in Spring of 2022 as an exciting new cultural renaissance venture. Since then we’ve read over a dozen books and short stories with top-notch featured co-hosts and a whole lot of priceless contributions from the audience at home. In January of 2025 we just enjoyed our first title of the New Year, the Ray Bradbury classic, Fahrenheit 451.

Sponsors, join us for Film Club on Monday, February 17!

Here in the month of February, we are launching a brand new division of the Quite Frankly Culture Club and that is The Film Club. The inaugural film we are going to be watching is the Christopher Nolan sci-fi adventure insta-classic, Interstellar. Film Club will be much like Book Club, but with new bits and features to explore behind the scenes information, and anything else that does not present itself in the final product of the film. It will also open up new opportunities to examine film adaptations for Book Club titles. I’m really excited about this new dimension added to the show culture and added value for our treasured sponsors.

March Book Club - The Big Fisherman by Lloyd C. Douglas, the sequel to The Robe which we covered last year around Easter. It is helpful to have read this first and you can get caught up with those Book Club sessions as well. Drop me an email if you need assistance finding the link to the sessions from 2024.

April (or May) Film Club - More info to come as we are still trying to decide what film to cover. If you have any really great suggestions please, email me and make your case!

Oh, by the way! The February Welcome Package for all new sponsors includes: movie-themed key chains, slap bracelets, popcorn bags, sample packs of Keto Brainz, stickers and more!

-Frank

CHANGE YOUR BRAIN. CHANGE YOUR LIFE.

Try Frank’s favorite coffee creamer & add an extra boost to your Quite Frankly Elevation blend.

BONUS PERK!

Become a Quite Frankly monthly sponsor in February and we will send you 3 sample packs of Keto Brainz Nootropic along with our February film-themed Welcome Package!

Pharmacy of Love

It was a beautiful day in the late Summer/ early Fall of 2005 that I was home for the weekend from college, and found myself out running some errands with my Mom. This of course meant I was comfy and casual, in my PJ pants and UGGs going to hit up the local pharmacy to pick up a few essentials. “I wonder if that cute guy will be there today…” I quipped to my Mom as I hopped out of the car. It had been months that my “crush at the pharmacy” had been building, but he never noticed me, and today certainly wouldn’t be the day - I was literally in my PJs and ratty college sweatshirt.

I shopped around for a bit before I saw him behind the counter with his late-Summer tan-kissed skin and big smile, hat effortlessly backwards (ladies, IYKYK…), joking with his co-workers. I strolled up to the counter to pick up my prescription and out from a back corner approached my crush. I could feel my face flush with his, “Hey nooowww! How can I help YOU?” and I think I blacked out because I don’t remember too many of the details of our first conversation, but I’m pretty sure it was something like; HIM: “Oh, is that where you go to school?” ME: “Uh, where? Oh, yeah, yes I do…” I don’t recall getting much more than that out of my mouth. I’m pretty sure I just stared at him, mesmerized, while he chatted up my Mom about her upcoming trip to South Africa.

The next evening I was back to school and I received a Facebook message from a “stranger”, requesting to chat. At this time Facebook was only available to select college campuses, so it was a big deal to find someone outside of your college to connect with. It was MY PHARMACY CRUSH… we chatted and I couldn’t sleep all night waiting to tell my Mom in the morning that Frank had messaged me, and we finally had a “real” conversation!

Are we one of Facebook’s first love matches? Perhaps! You can see the date stamp in the upper left hand photo is 12/23/2005 - a photo taken on a date we had a few months into our relationship when we introduced our parents. Though Facebook is what made it possible for us to connect in that initial stage, I still like to think of our courtship as modern, yet old-school and romantic, full of Frank’s hand-written in script love notes, flowers and wonderful dates on low-budget college incomes.

The rest is history. We fell in love. We broke up for three whole years. We grew up. We found our way back to each other. We found our love again. Our love made the most wonderful being, Aurora. We have weathered storms and drained days of sunshine. This year marks 20 years of being in each other’s lives. Frank works every day to make it feel like it was just yesterday and that I’m still that “cute girl from the pharmacy in the PJ pants [he] told [his] boss [he] was going to marry”. And the best is yet to come… I love you, always, my forever Valentine, My Frankie.

<3 xox, Lauren

Vintage Frankly

“Rigged Sports, Old Biden, Friday Extras” ft. Brian Tuohy 2/9/24

This month we bring back a pre-Super Bowl episode featuring an interview with Brian Tuohy. Brian's research has lead him to publishing more on the world of Sports Rigging than anyone else, and his book "The Fix Is Still In", suggests that every major professional sport is driven by profit-boosting scripts and not athletic performance. Click here to watch the episode.

“Weird Love Stories” ft. Lauren 2/14/24

BONUS WATCH … Lauren joins Frank in the studio with Aurora in tow to reflect on some Ash Wednesday thoughts, some Valentine's Day thoughts, and a thread on some of the listeners' stories focused on the weirdest ways they've found love in life.

Looking Ahead

Coming sooner than soon!

We can’t wait to release our updated QF coffee mug for 2025 and our new merch including some fan favorite themes - “Best Apocalypse Ever”, “New Golden Age” and a special addition that may or may not be one of Matt’s favorite catch-phrases…

Join Frank & special guests for 2 Saturday Night Special Broadcasts on 2/8 and 2/22!

Film Club launches Monday, February 17!

A Taste of Spring

Time to Get in the Garden with “Ashies”

Frank’s sister-in-law and Lauren’s oldest sister, Jess who Aurora affectionately named “Ashies”, is an avid gardener and was the lucky one to inherit the family garden. Jess has has grown a passion for planning and managing the garden - from redesigning the layout, learning about our “zone” and what is appropriate to plant when, to growing a lush space that is not only fruit-(and veggie)-ful but relaxing to visit for a recharge. You will find Jess hanging in the garden, cup of coffee in hand, pulling weeds, watering, talking to all of her plant-babies. Aurora is always welcome to pull, plant and eat all the foot-long Chinese yard long beans she can handle! Below are some tips Jess wanted to share with all of you looking ahead to Spring.

How to create a raised garden bed…

Raised garden beds are a great way to plant and to start growing if you are a beginner. They are space-saving, easy to set up and care for, and don’t require the ground to be thawed. Once you have your bed built, lay down some cardboard in the bottom of the bed to help with weed prevention and to reduce the amount of soil you will have to use, because it takes a lot to fill them. You can put down logs, fallen branches from around the yard, leaves and other brown materials like shredded paper to help fill the bed. Fill 1/3-1/2 way up and then fill with soil specifically for raised beds or pots, and compost. Plant your seeds and your beds will be growing in no time!

Springing Ahead….

We are approaching the middle of February here in Zone 7. You need to know your zone in order to know what will thrive, and when you need to get your planting started for your best harvest. For example, here in Zone 7 it’s time to start seeds for tomatoes and peppers, along with onion sets (easier for beginners than starting from onion seeds) and potatoes out in the garden. Planting potatoes is as easy as forgetting about your organic store-bought potatoes and letting them grow some eyes, burry them in some dirt in a deep pot or the ground and once they start to sprout from the earth, you cover them again. Continue this covering process, ensuring the leaves are completely covered until they begin to flower, which takes about 9 months. Once they flower and the foliage dies you can reach down into the Earth and check for your potatoes. Toward the end of the month-beginning of March plant seeds into the ground for carrots, radishes, lettuce and peas. Lettuce and radishes are quick to grow and you should be able to start harvesting in 30-60 days.

As they say, “you reap what you sow”!

Thank you for joining us for this special Valentine’s edition of the Bulletin. We are already hard at work for our March issue and look forward to sharing more exclusives with you.

Please continue to visit us on the Quite Frankly Forum for a chance to contribute to a future newsletter and connect with fellow Franklies.