Did you see the Valentine's Day humor flood Twitter over the last week? There were #FedValentines (as in The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, not edible cardioids), #HealthPolicyValentines...and, to CGD's everlasting credit (from the Latin credere "to trust, entrust, believe," from the Indo-European kerd-, "heart"), there were #DevelopmentValentines.It was the health policy world that infected the development sphere with this love fever. My wife sent me a link to the #HealthPolicyValentines (whether as a token of affection, I'm not sure). After guffawing at tweets about not wanting to be single-payer no more and statistically significant others, I perceived the policy implications for CGD: we must do it. Characteristically, while I merely talked, CGD's Lawrence MacDonald acted, putting out the first tweets on the tag and tweet-cruiting the likes of CGD's master wordsmith Charles Kenny.It was a good thing, because once the hash tag was launched, something unfortunate happened. I couldn't perform. I couldn't think of anything funny. Fortunately, the gallant Charles rescued #DevelopmentValentines from her loneliness with a stream of endearing chirps. My favorite was:
Clive Crook also lent #DevelopmentValentines an early helping hand:Then, at 4am the next morning, I awoke in the dark, and I couldn't stop thinking about her. Now the words were there, in a torrent. Oddly, my miniature missives of amorosity found more inspiration in the denatured world of econometrics than in the person-centered business of spreading prosperity and good government. "Our propensity scores match." "How do I love thee? Let me count the principal components." "Just thinking of you makes my specification robust." Since I couldn't sleep, I tapped the ideas into the phone at my bedside. A similar obsession struck
Daniel Rozas, though in his case I gather the baby woke him up.Especially at the beginning, some people took the idea
seriously. Ha ha! You know, they said nice things about others in development! Happily for the annals of comedy (at least until Twitter erases the history), the cynics won out, and their love's labor was not lost. The joviality climaxed yesterday with some
744 tweets.Here,
according to Topsy.com's tallies of retweets, are the top 10 #DevelopmentValentines, in ascending order. Needless to say, Topsy.com doesn't have a refined sense of humor. I think the rankings are swayed by timing---tweets on Valentine's Day, not before, got more attention---and the number of followers of the tweeter. Check the
full list and post your favorites below. Or check the list from our friends at the
Democracy & Society blog.
CGD blog posts reflect the views of the authors, drawing on prior research and experience in their areas of expertise.
CGD is a nonpartisan, independent organization and does not take institutional positions.
