CouplesQuestions Premarital Blog: September 2007

Friday, September 28, 2007

Marriage, Jane's Guide

Warning: Risque content!

JaneSays has two thoughtful pieces on marriage in the last two days. Being the sex-positive, alternative sort that she is, she has a wider range of experience than most of us.

I didn't find the blog easy to navigate so here are the two posts:

the first has the unlikely title of 'books and rain and colds, part deux', but trust me, it moves onto marriage
the second post -- 'more on marriage' -- follows from the first

Warning again: Jane's Guide (the blog is part of it) is a sex site, with explicit everything including ads. If that isn't your thing, don't follow the links.

Happy Couples, Happy Planet!

Labels: marriage, sex

Thursday, September 27, 2007

Married seniors are financially better off

In Canada, only one percent of married seniors live below the poverty line. In 1980, seven percent did.

Now this is a really phenomenal improvement. From 7 to 1 may not seem like that big a difference, but think of it this way. If you lined up these seniors and started counting, you'd find number 13 living in poverty in 1980. Now, you'd have to count all the way to 100 before hitting one living in poverty. *

Single seniors have also seen large improvements, though not as dramatic as for the married. For men, the rate has gone from 47% to 13%. For women, the rate has dropped from 57% to 20%.

It would be interesting to know what accounts for the married/single differences:

Does a successful marriage spill over into success elsewhere in life?
Is it that government support programs are more helpful to married couples?
Is it that retirement benefits tend to get cut upon the death of one spouse?

Happy Couples, Happy Planet!
*We know that isn't exactly how the distribution would be in a real random sample, but it is easier to write. This information, by the way, comes via Maclean's magazine.

Labels: marriage

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Interesting Proposals: 2 Down and 8 Across

There are always those who look for interesting ways to pop the question. There's sky writing and there's the fortune cookie with ring in it. There is also the scoreboard proposal, the champagne glass with the ring in it proposal, the bended knee in the crowded restaurant proposal and there is, of course, the crossword puzzle proposal...huh?

A man in Boston has just made his girlfriend very happy by posing the question, "Will you marry me?" through the clues in a crossword puzzle. What a great and very personal idea. It showed real thought and creativity. Not to mention a keen understanding of his fiancee's interests. SOOOOO much better than the poor girl who has been dragged to some football game she has no interest in only to be proposed to in front of thousands of people (My idea of a complete and total nightmare! Of course, if she likes football, and crowds, and very public displays of affection that's a different story...)

Follow the link to the whole story of the Crossword Puzzle Proposal

Have you got any interesting proposal stories? Think you can top this one? Drop us a comment.

Happy Couples, Happy Planet!

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