The Love Potato

This is kind of a Christmas story, but I figured with Valentine's Day approaching it would be appropriate to share with all of you now.

This is the story of the love potato.

I think I may have mentioned before that the Coyotes are not an incredibly romantic couple. Mushy-gushy just isn't our style and most of our romantic attempts either seem forced or just backfire in our faces (remind me to tell you about the great Valentine's Debacle of 2010 one day... That's a fun one). Anyways, we like to keep it real and express our love in ways that might seem a bit strange to others.

That is true love my friends. / (Personal Photo)

Now a few years back we were celebrating Christmas Day with my family. Everyone was exchanging gifts and doing their thing when Mr. Coyote dumped a small, oddly wrapped gift in my lap. He seemed very excited about it and was grinning like a fool while I opened it. I have never, ever seen him act this way over a silly Christmas gift so I was starting to feel a little suspicious. What in the hell was this thing and why he was so freakin' excited about it?

So what was this amazing gift that had my dude so giddy?

A potato.


Yes, that's right. Not Mr. Potato Head. Not even potato chips. No, no, no... I received an actual potato for Christmas.

Image via South Texas Gardening

And I opened it up in front of all of my relatives, who were just as bewildered as me.

And so, Mr. Coyote sighed heavily and told us all about the "potato story". The problem is I don't know where it came from, and he can't remember the source either, so it's going to have to go uncredited... But it absolutely needs to be shared:


Why Potatoes Make a Better Love Symbol Than Roses 

The first reason is that roses only last a couple weeks and that's if you leave them in water. That's like saying "My love for you is transitory". But a potato! Potatoes last for a long time. In fact, not only will they not rot, but they actually grow stuff even if you just leave them in the sack! That part alone makes it a good symbol. But wait, there's more! 

There are so many ways to enjoy a potato! You can even make a battery with it! That's like saying: "I have many ways in which I show my love for you". 

Flowers really only exist to be pretty so that's like saying: "My love for you is based solely on your appearance". Potatoes may be ugly, but they're still awesome. So that's like saying: "It doesn't matter at all what you look like, I'll still love you". 

For these reasons and more, we would like to see potatoes become the mainstream symbol for love and friendship. 

So on Valentine's Day, anniversaries, birthdays, and ANY other gift giving occasion: save a flower, give a potato.

And so he did.

Do you and your significant other show your love in strange ways?

PS. Many people have asked me what we did with the potato... We planted it that summer and believe or not, but our love potato actually sprouted baby potatoes!!

 (Personal Photo)