propose day, Propose Day 8 February SMS, how to impress a girl, propose a girl, propose quotes, propose sms

Today is 8th February and its Propose Day. If you like Someone and want to propose Him or Her, then today its a best day for you, just go and try your luck and propose him/her you may hit the jackpot.

And I heard that girls dont say no on Propose Day so you must try your luck today itself, yesterday Was rose Day today.

Well, as you all are looking for some good stuff about Valentine’s day and for Specific Day of Valentine’s day like how to impress a girl, how to kiss, how to impress a guy, how to impress a boy, how to get pregnant, how to impress a french woman, rose day, valentine week, chocolate day, propose day sms, kiss day, propose day, propose day sms, propose a girl, propose quotes, chocolate day sms, propo, propose sms, rose day, chocolate day, valentine week list, slap day, valentine week 2010, valentine week.

Here is something very good for You.

Want to propose a girl
Just do it - Nike

Before going to propose to a girl
Believe in the best - BPL.

If you are hesitating before proposing to a girl
Vicks ki goli lo kich kich door karo - Vicks

If you are going to propose to a girl
Chances are 50-50 - Britannia.

If a girl slapped you when you proposed to her
Take it easy - Limca.

Girl says NO !
Jor ka jhatka dhire se lage - Mirinda.

Those who succeed in love always say
We dream because we do - Daewoo.

If some one wants to write a love letter to his girlfriend
Likho script apna apna.- Rotomac.

If you love someone
Go get it - Visa power.

Boy riding a bike with neighbor’s girl
Neighbors envy owner’s pride - Onida.

Not satisfied with your date
Yeh dil mangey more - Pepsi.

A guy having a number of girl friends
The Complete Man - Raymonds.

A smart girl having a number of boyfriends
Yeh hai hamara suraksha chakra - Colgate.

For those lost in love
Har shaam ka sathi main aur mera - Bagpiper Whisky.

For a guy ‘r gal who hasn’t yet found one
Dhoondte rehe jayo ge - Surf Excel


Propose Day | Propose Day 8 February SMS | Propose Day Messages | Messages For Propose Day | Propose Day 8 February Messages | Propose Day Text Messages | Propose Day 8 February Text Messages | SMS For Propose Day
===========================
If Roses were Black and violets were brown,
my love for you would never be found
but roses r red and violets are blue,
all I want to say is I LUV U!
“Happy Propose Day”
===========================
The sweetest way to propose:
“Excuse me, do you have a band aid,
because i scrapped my knee
when i fell in love with you.”
Cho Chweet..
“Happy Propose Day”
===========================

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Poe's Valentines: Romance (1829)

Romance (1829)
"Romance" first appeared as "Preface" in the 1829 collection Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane, and Minor Poems then, in 1831, as "Introduction" in Poems By Edgar A. Poe. It took the title "Romance" in the February 25, 1843 issue of the Philadelphia Saturday Museum. The early versions made some allusion to alcohol with lines like, "drunkenness of the soul" and "the glories of the bowl." In the poem, the speaker refers to some exotic bird that has been with him his whole life. He also says, "I could not love except where Death / Was mingling his with Beauty's breath," a line often termed autobiographical as many of the women in Poe's love life were ill (an early love Jane Stanard died of tuberculosis, as did his wife Virginia; also, his later love Sarah Helen Whitman had a weak heart, etc.).

Romance
by
Edgar Allan Poe

Romance, who loves to nod and sing,
With drowsy head and folded wing,
Among the green leaves as they shake
Far down within some shadowy lake,
To me a painted paroquet
Hath been—a most familiar bird—
Taught me my alphabet to say—
To lisp my very earliest word
While in the wild wood I did lie,
A child—with a most knowing eye.

Succeeding years, too wild for song,
Then roll'd like tropic storms along,
Where, tho' the garish lights that fly
Dying along the troubled sky,
Lay bare, thro' vistas thunder-riven,
The blackness of the general Heaven,
That very blackness yet doth fling
Light on the lightning's silver wing.

For, being an idle boy lang syne,
Who read Anacreon, and drank wine,
I early found Anacreon rhymes
Were almost passionate sometimes-
And by strange alchemy of brain
His pleasures always turn'd to pain-
His naivete to wild desire-
His wit to love-his wine to fire-
And so, being young and dipt in folly
I fell in love with melancholy,
And used to throw my earthly jest
And quiet all away in jest-
I could not love except where Death
Was mingling his with Beauty's breath-
Or Hymen, Time, and Destiny
Were stalking between her and me.

O, then the eternal Condor years
So shook the very Heavens on high,
With tumult as they thunder'd by;
I had no time for idle cares,
Thro' gazing on the unquiet sky!

Or if an hour with calmer wing
Its down did on my spirit fling,
That little hour with lyre and rhyme
To while away-forbidden thing!
My heart half fear'd to be a crime
Unless it trembled with the string.

But now my soul hath too much room-
Gone are the glory and the gloom-
The black hath mellow'd into grey,
And all the fires are fading away.

My draught of passion hath been deep-
I revell'd, and I now would sleep-
And after-drunkenness of the soul
Succeeds the glories of the bowl-
An idle longing night and day
To dream my very life away.

But dreams-of those who dream as I,
Aspiringly, are damned, and die:
Yet should I swear I mean alone,
By notes so very shrilly blown,
To break upon Time's monotone,
While yet my vapid joy and grief
Are tintless of the yellow leaf-
Why not an imp the greybeard hath,
Will shake his shadow in my path-
And even the greybeard will o'erlook
Connivingly my dreaming-book.

Brittany Murphy - Acting

Acting

Murphy landed her first job in Hollywood when she was age 14, starring as Brenda Drexell in the series Drexell's Class. She then went on to play Molly Morgan in the short-lived The Torkelsons spinoff Almost Home. Murphy also guest-starred on several television series, including Parker Lewis Can't Lose, Blossom and Frasier. She also had recurring roles on Sister, Sister; Party of Five and Boy Meets World.

Murphy starred in several films, including Clueless (1995); Girl, Interrupted (1999); Drop Dead Gorgeous (1999); Don't Say a Word (2001); the TV adaption of the novel The Devil's Arithmetic (2001); 8 Mile (2002) and Uptown Girls (2003) as well as many lesser-known films, such as Spun (2002). In 2004, she starred in the romantic comedy Little Black Book, and the critically acclaimed Sin City (2005). She starred in two Edward Burns films: Sidewalks of New York (2001) and The Groomsmen (2006). Film critic Roger Ebert acclaimed her acting talent, giving good reviews to several of her films and comparing her to Lucille Ball. In 2009, she was cast in the Lifetime TV movie, Tribute, as the main character, Cilla. She was set to appear in the Sylvester Stallone film, The Expendables, which will be released in 2010.

Murphy was also a voice actor. She voiced the character Luanne Platter on the FOX animated sitcom King of the Hill for the entirety of the show's run beginning in 1997. She also provided the voice for Gloria the penguin in the 2006 feature Happy Feet.

She was nominated for an Annie Award for voice acting in the King of the Hill episode "Movin' On Up."

Murphy completed her last film, the thriller/drama Abandoned, in June 2009. The film is scheduled for release in 2010.

In November 2009, Murphy left the production of the The Caller, which was being filmed in Puerto Rico, and was replaced by Rachelle Lefevre. Murphy denied media reports that she had been fired from the project after being difficult on set, and cited "creative differences".

-- wiki

Freeway (1996)

Freeway (1996) is a satirical, darkly comic thriller film starring Kiefer Sutherland, Reese Witherspoon and Brooke Shields, and written and directed by Matthew Bright.[1]

The plot of this film has a resemblance of the fairy tale, Little Red Riding Hood.

Plot

Vanessa Lutz is a poor, illiterate teenage girl living in the slums of Los Angeles. After her mother, Ramona, is arrested in a prostitution sting, she runs away with a stolen car from her social worker guardian to stay with her grandmother in Stockton. Along the way, Vanessa stops to see her boyfriend and classmate Chopper Wood, a local gang member to tell him about her excursion and he gives her a gun for protection. Minutes after Vanessa leaves Chopper, he is killed in a drive-by shooting by rival gang members. A little later, Bob Wolverton, a serial killer and rapist known as "the I-5 killer", picks her up after her car breaks down, and promises to take her to her grandmother's house. (The scenes that take place on the northbound I-5 freeway were filmed on Interstate 5.)

Over the long drive, Bob manipulates Vanessa into confessing to him the details of her painfully dysfunctional life, including a prostitute mother and a sexually abusive stepfather. (At one point, Vanessa shows Bob a photo she keeps in her wallet of her biological father. The photo used is actually a picture of mass murderer Richard Speck.) That evening, Bob eventually reveals his true nature and tries to kill Vanessa when she refuses to talk to him. The tables are turned, however, as Vanessa eventually pulls out her gun and shoots him several times before escaping.

Vanessa is quickly arrested and questioned by two detectives, named Mike and Garnet, who write her off as a carjacker, even though she insists Bob had tried to kill her and had told her about his other murders. Bob survives, but the bullet wounds have left him severely handicapped, costing him an eye and disfiguring his face. Vanessa is put on trial, with everyone believing (at first) that Bob is the innocent victim he claims to be since he has no police record, while Vanessa has a large one for various offenses ranging from shoplifting, to assault and battery. Vanessa goes to prison, while Bob and his socialite wife Mimi, who knows nothing of his crimes, are treated like heroes.

Scared at first, Vanessa eventually makes friends in prison, including a heroin-addicted lesbian named Rhonda (Brittany Murphy), and a brutal Hispanic gang leader, named Mesquita. Undaunted, Vanessa plots to escape and continue her journey to visit her grandmother. With a little of Rhonda's help, Vanessa constructs a crude knife from a toothbrush as a weapon. The following evening, while Vanessa and Mesquita are being transferred to a new maximum security prison, Mesquita helps Vanessa with her escape by subduing and killing the prison guards assigned to escort them. After their escape, Vanessa and Mesquita part ways as Mesquita goes off to be reunited with her gang, and Vanessa continues her journey to her grandmother's house.

Meanwhile, detectives Mike and Garnet reexamine the evidence, and begin to suspect that Vanessa was telling the truth about Bob Wolverton being a serial killer. They then search Wolverton's home, where they find violent pornography in the locked shed adjacent to the house. Confronted at last with what her husband really is, Wolverton's wife commits suicide, after mumbling disbelief that he had hidden child pornography from her. Arriving home at just that moment to find police cars outside his house, Wolverton panics and flees to Vanessa's grandmother's house. (In his earlier encounter with Vanessa, he had apparently obtained a photo of the grandmother, with her address written on the back.)

While posing as a prostitute, Vanessa steals a car from a prospective customer, and drives to her grandmother's house, which is actually a trailer in a run-down trailer park (lacking the reed basket that she had with her earlier in the story). Vanessa finds her grandmother dead and Wolverton waiting for her with a gun. After a vicious struggle, Vanessa kills Wolverton by strangling him to death. Detectives Mike and Garnet arrive and seemingly wait outside during the struggle. They eventually enter the trailer to find Wolverton and Vanessa's grandmother both dead, and an exhausted and emotionaly broken Vanessa beside herself who puts up her hands and surrenders to the two detectives. However, the detectives appear to exonerate Vanessa when they both begin laughing, and Vanessa follows suit.

Cast

Kiefer Sutherland – Bob Wolverton
Reese Witherspoon – Vanessa Lutz
Wolfgang Bodison – Detective Mike Breer
Dan Hedaya – Detective Garnet Wallace
Amanda Plummer – Ramona Lutz
Brooke Shields – Mimi Wolverton
Michael T. Weiss – Larry
Bokeem Woodbine – Chopper Wood
Guillermo Díaz – Flacco
Brittany Murphy – Rhonda
Alanna Ubach – Mesquita
Susan Barnes – Mrs. Cullins
Conchata Ferrell – Mrs. Sheets
Tara Subkoff – Sharon
Julie Araskog – Prosecutor
Lorna Raver – Judge
Paul Perri – Cop #1

Critical Reaction

The film was received positively by most critics, who lauded the film's hard-edged satire and performances.

Film critic Roger Ebert gave Freeway three and a half stars out of four and stated, "like it or hate it (or both), you have to admire its skill, and the over-the-top virtuosity of Reese Witherspoon and Kiefer Sutherland."

Joe Baltake of the Sacramento Bee gave Freeway four stars out of four and called it "a wild, audacious drive-in attraction that takes the 'high' from 'highbrow' and the 'low' from 'lowdown' and shakes them up".

Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle gave Freeway four stars out of four and said that it was "rude in the way the truth is rude -- only funnier".

It received "Two Thumbs Up" on Siskel & Ebert. Ebert stated that Witherspoon's performance was "great" and said "Kiefer Sutherland balances it with a truly inspired villain". He also said how the film was "filled with fine acting". He ended by describing it as "compulsively watchable" and noted that Witherspoon's performance promised an exciting career. Gene Siskel agreed completely with Ebert and commented on how the performances it hits the right notes. The only flaw they noted about the film was that it was "too cute" sometimes, but stated that it was a "good film".

Censorship History

The film originally received an NC-17 rating from the MPAA due to graphic language.[2] It was trimmed to obtain an R rating, with the censored version being released theatrically and on VHS/DVD.

The US R-rated version of Freeway was initially refused classification by the Australian OFLC. Two scenes were removed - explicit sexually abusive dialogue between Bob and Vanessa during the car trip on the I-5, and a cutaway shot of Vanessa's dead grandmother towards the end of the film - before the film was classified R18+.

The UK (Region-2) 18 certificate version of Freeway is only 98 minutes long versus the 102 minute US (Region-1) R-rated version.

References

1.^ "Freeway". IMDb. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116361/. Retrieved 2008-11-30.
2.^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116361/alternateversions

-- wiki

Celebrity Grave: Composer Jimmy Van Heusen 1913-1990 RIP

 

Jimmy Van Heusen (January 26, 1913 - February 7, 1990), was an American composer. He wrote songs for films and television and won four Academy Awards for Best Original Song, and an Emmy.

 

Life and career

Born Edward Chester Babcock in Syracuse, New York, he began writing music while at high school. He renamed himself at age 16, after the famous shirt makers, Phillips-Van Heusen, to use as his on-air name during a local radio show.

Studying at Cazenovia Seminary and Syracuse University, he became friends with Jerry Arlen, the younger brother of Harold Arlen. With the elder Arlen's help, Van Heusen wrote songs for the Cotton Club revue, including "Harlem Hospitality."

He then became a staff pianist for some of the Tin Pan Alley publishers, and wrote "It's the Dreamer in Me" (1938) with lyrics by Tommy Dorsey.

Collaborating with lyricist Eddie DeLange, on songs such as "Heaven Can Wait", "So Help Me", and "Darn That Dream", his work became more prolific, writing over 60 songs in 1940 alone. It was in 1940 that he teamed up with the lyricist Johnny Burke. Burke and Van Heusen moved to Hollywood writing for stage musicals and films throughout the '40s and early '50s, winning an Academy Award for Best Original Song for "Swinging on a Star" (1944). Their songs were also featured in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1949).

He was also also a pilot of some accomplishment; he worked, using his birth name, as a part-time test pilot for Lockheed Corporation in World War II.

Van Heusen then teamed up with lyricist Sammy Cahn. Their three Academy Awards for Best Song were won for "All the Way" (1957) from The Joker Is Wild, "High Hopes" (1959) from A Hole in the Head, and "Call Me Irresponsible" (1963) from Papa's Delicate Condition. Their songs were also featured in Rear Window (1954) and Ocean's Eleven (1960).

Cahn and Van Heusen also wrote "Love and Marriage" (1955), "To Love and Be Loved", "Come Fly with Me", "Only the Lonely", and "Come Dance with Me" with many of their compositions being the title songs for Frank Sinatra's albums of the late 50's.

Van Heusen wrote the music for two Broadway musicals: Skyscraper (1965) and Walking Happy (1966).

He became an inductee of the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1971.

Van Heusen composed over 800 plus songs of which 50 songs became standards. Van Heusen songs are featured in over one hundred eighty films.

Van Heusen retired in the late 1970s, and died in Rancho Mirage, California in 1990, at the age of 77. He was close friends throughout life with Frank Sinatra. He is buried in the Sinatra family burial plot in Desert Memorial Park. His grave marker reads Swinging On A Star.

Academy Awards

Van Heusen was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Song 14 times in 12 different years (in both 1945 and 1964 he was nominated for two songs), and won 4 times: in 1944, 1957, 1959, and 1963.

Academy Award Winners

"Swinging on a Star" (1944) (lyrics by Johnny Burke) for Going My Way
"All the Way" (1957) (lyrics by Sammy Cahn) for The Joker Is Wild
"High Hopes" (1959) (lyrics by Sammy Cahn) for A Hole in the Head
"Call Me Irresponsible" (1963) (lyrics by Sammy Cahn) for Papa's Delicate Condition

Academy Award nominees

1945 – "Sleighride In July" (lyrics by Johnny Burke) from the film Belle Of The Yukon.
1945 – "Aren't You Glad You're You" (lyrics by Johnny Burke) from the film Bells of St. Mary's.
1955 – "(Love Is) The Tender Trap" (lyrics by Sammy Cahn) introduced by Frank Sinatra in the film The Tender Trap.
1958 – "To Love and Be Loved"(lyrics by Sammy Cahn) for the film Some Came Running.
1960 – "The Second Time Around" (lyrics by Sammy Cahn) for the film High Time.
1961 – "Pocketful of Miracles" (lyrics by Sammy Cahn) for the film Pocketful of Miracles.
1964 – "Where Love Has Gone" (lyrics by Sammy Cahn) for the film Where Love Has Gone.
1964 – "My Kind of Town" (lyrics by Sammy Cahnfor the film Robin and the 7 Hoods.
1967 – "Thoroughly Modern Millie" (lyrics by Sammy Cahn) for the film Thoroughly Modern Millie.
1968 – "Star" (lyrics by Sammy Cahn) for the film Star!.

 

Emmy Award

He won one Emmy Award for Best Musical Contribution, for the song "Love and Marriage"(1955) (lyrics by Sammy Cahn), written for the 1955 television production of Our Town.

Other Awards

He was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1965 for Best Musical Score Written for a Motion Picture or TV show "Robin and the Seven Hoods"

He was nominated three times for a Golden Globe Award.

1965 – "Where Love Has Gone" (lyrics by Sammy Cahn) for the film Where Love Has Gone
1968 – "Thoroughly Modern Millie" (lyrics by Sammy Cahn) for the film Thoroughly Modern Millie.
1969 – "Star" (lyrics by Sammy Cahn) for the film Star!.

Trivia

Bob Hope's character in The Road to Hong Kong (1962) is named Chester Babcock, in reference to Van Heusen's birth name.

Nikki Hornsby's parents were good friends of Jimmy Van Heusen from the 50s through to the 1970s influencing Nikki Hornsby's own career in music at an early age.

Songs

with lyricist Sammy Cahn

"All My Tomorrows"
"All the Way"
"Call Me Irresponsible"
"Come Dance with Me"
"Come Fly with Me"
"Everybody Has The Right To Be Wrong!"
"High Hopes"
"I'll Only Think Of Her When I Miss Her"
"Last Dance"
"Love and Marriage"
"(Love Is) The Tender Trap"
"My Kind of Town
"Only the Lonely"
"Ring-A-Ding-Ding"
"The Second Time Around"
"The Secret of Christmas"
"September of My Years"
"Sleigh Ride In July"
"There's Love and There's Love and There's Love"
"To Love And Be Loved"
"Where Love Has Gone"
" Who Was That lady?"

 

with others

"All This and Heaven Too" (lyrics by Eddie DeLange)
"Aren't You Glad You're You?" (lyrics by Johnny Burke)
"But Beautiful" (lyrics by Johnny Burke)
"Busy Doing Nothing" (lyrics by Johnny Burke)
"Darn That Dream" (lyrics by Eddie DeLange)
"Deep In A Dream" (lyrics by Eddie DeLange)
"Far Away" (lyrics by David Kapp)
"Going My Way" (lyrics by Johnny Burke)
"Heaven Can Wait" (lyrics by Eddie DeLange)
"Here's That Rainy Day" (from Carnival in Flanders, lyrics by Johnny Burke)
"I Could Have Told You" (lyrics by Carl Sigman)
"I Thought About You"(lyrics by Johnny Mercer)
"Imagination" (lyrics by Johnny Burke)
"It Could Happen to You" (lyrics by Johnny Burke)
"It's Always You" (lyrics by Johnny Burke)
"It's The Dreamer In Me" (lyrics by Jimmy Dorsey)
"Like Someone in Love" (lyrics by Johnny Burke)
"Moonlight Becomes You" (lyrics by Johnny Burke)
"Nancy (With the Laughing Face)" (lyrics by Phil Silvers)
"Not As A Stranger" (lyrics by Buddy Kaye)
"Oh! You Crazy Moon" (lyrics by Johnny Burke)
"Personality" (lyrics by Johnny Burke)
"Polka Dots and Moonbeams" (lyrics by Johnny Burke)
"Shake Down The Stars" (lyrics by Eddie DeLange)
"So Help Me" (lyrics by Eddie DeLange)
"Sunday, Monday, Or Always" (lyrics by Johnny Burke)
"Swinging On A Star" (lyrics by Johnny Burke)

References

Wilfred Sheed (2007). "The House That George Built", "Jimmy Van Heusen: On The Radio With Bing and Frank" Pages 225-251.
Berry, David Carson (2000). “The Popular Songwriter as Composer: Mannerisms and Design in the Music of Jimmy Van Heusen,” Indiana Theory Review 21, 1-51.
Alec Wilder (1990). "American Popular Song", "The Great Craftsmen: Jimmy Van Heusen" Pages 442-451.

-- wiki

The Olympics and Social Housing in Vancouver

For those interested in how we got to where we are today with respect to housing initiatives in the DTES, may I suggest you check out a June 2007 Report to Council from the Housing Department <http://vancouver.ca/ctyclerk/cclerk/20070628/documents/pe7.pdf>

This document includes the report of the Inner City Inclusive Housing Table which makes very interesting reading in light of the current situation related to the homeless. I think it is significant that in a survey of 600 people, the largest number suggested that addressing homelessness would be the most important lasting legacy of the 2010 games.

While I appreciate that many people truly believe protests and shaming the government are the way to get results, I would suggest that it was the quiet behind the scene negotiations involving Geoff Plant, Ken Dobell, Judy Rogers, Don Fairbairn, the Premier and Coleman that resulted in what took place over the subsequent two and half years.

And yes, the coming Olympics was the significant catalyst for these actions.

So while we may differ on our assessments of the value of protests, I would still welcome thoughts on some of the other initiatives I and others are proposing…especially relocating people from the SRO’s into existing apartments, with support services, similar to the Toronto StreetoHome program, freeing up SRO units for the homeless…(I understand a similar approach is being taken with respect to the allocation of the 200 social housing units in Woodwards)…

Also more efforts to help some people get into the workforce; more reunification initiatives to connect some people with friends and family back where they came from…

And the need for a new coordinating entity to bring together the various governments, including the federal government, key community organizations, housing and service providers…

We need to re-think how we are housing lower income people. While many people heap accolades on Woodwards and its 200 units of social housing, I would note that we spent years trying to get away from such large social housing projects.

Instead, I would prefer to see us follow a number of different approaches…

We should limit the size of new purpose built social housing projects to no more than 50 to 60 units, and then make them available to only those in greatest need. I suspect that many of you don’t know this, BUT MANY PEOPLE MOVING INTO EXPENSIVE NEW SOCIAL HOUSING ARE NOT NECESSARILY LOW INCOME PEOPLE….. BY DESIGN!

That’s right, the goal as noted in the above referenced report is to mix people from different socio-economic backgrounds, with some CORE NEED, some paying LOWER END OF MARKET RENT, and some paying market rent.

This is the approach being proposed for many of the larger, new projects including OLYMPIC VILLAGE SOCIAL HOUSING. That’s right, the proposed 250 units of social housing were not intended just for the ‘core need’ poor…a significant percentage were intended for market renters.

LET ME REPEAT THIS….THE 250 UNITS OF SOCIAL HOUSING AT THE OLYMPIC VILLAGE WERE NEVER INTENDED JUST FOR THE HOMELESS AND ‘CORE NEED’ POOR (namely those in the lowest income quintile). A significant percentage were to be offered at market rent.

While some people have argued all 250 should be for the homeless and very low income households, housing experts around the world know that is absolutely the wrong way to go.

I was around CMHC and BC Housing when the initial decisions were made to create mixed income non-market housing projects. This approach worked at the time, because the units were not so expensive and there was ample federal money to fund the projects.

But now that Federal money is essentially non-existent, and provincial and municipal money is scarce, and projects are so expensive, we all need to question whether the expensive units in the proposed new tower at Broadway and Fraser, the Olympic Village and other current projects should be offered to market renters, (in addition to the lower income households) just to ensure a broader socio-economic mix in these larger projects.

Recently, my daughter wanted to buy her first car. She started looking at used cars, but then her mother said perhaps she should get something more reliable, and before we knew it we were looking at new cars…eventually she settled on a relatively new, but used car. What’s my point?

Why are we often putting the lowest income people in the most expensive new housing? This brings me to the StreetoHome Program. In Toronto over 2200 people were housed in a relatively short period of time by making use of existing rental housing, rather than always building new projects. While some argue this approach can’t work here since our vacancy rate is so low, I disagree. Every month there are an increasing number of rental units coming on the market and they could be leased and provided to people moving out of SRO’s, WITH THE NECESSARY SUPPORT SERVICES. Similarly, there are units for sale that could be purchased for significantly less than what it is costing us to build new. We should be buying some of these units, and not just in DTES….why not in Burnaby or Port Moody, and Langley and Coquitlam.

Thirdly, there are many basement suites and rooms in peoples homes that are not being used. With careful placement and monitoring, I believe it is possible to house some people in this accommodation. Now, I can appreciate that one immediately starts to think about the terrible things that could go wrong….but many things could go right too. It’s worth trying, as yet another alternative.

Monte Paulson, an investigative journalist with a particular interest in housing believes we just need to spend a billion dollars a year on new projects to house all the homeless; however, for a number of reasons, our society does not support this approach. Furthermore, from my experience, such expenditures would not necessarily be value for money. I believe that if we could be satisfied that we were getting value for money spent, there would be a greater public appetite for such expenditures. And I also believe that the Feds could be brought back into the picture (just as they have agreed to fund the demonstration program for the mentally ill across Canada.)

Poe's Valentines: A Valentine (1846)

A Valentine (1846)

First published in the New York Evening Mirror's February 21, 1846 issue, "A Valentine" was written specifically for Frances Sargent Osgood, whose name is hidden within the lines of the poem. In its first publication, it had the title "To Her Whose Name Is Written Below." To find the name, take the first letter of the first line, then the second letter of the second line, then the third letter of the third line, and so on. Before its publication, it was presented at a private literary salon at the home of Anne Lynch Botta on February 14, 1846. Though Poe was not in attendance, it was a very public revelation of his affection for Osgood.

A Valentine
by
Edgar Allan Poe

1. For her this rhyme is penned, whose luminous eyes,
2. Brightly expressive as the twins of Leda,
Shall find her own sweet name, that nestling lies
3. Upon the page, enwrapped from every reader.
Search narrowly the lines! — they hold a treasure
4. Divine — a talisman — an amulet
That must be worn at heart. Search well the measure-
5. The words — the syllables! Do not forget
The trivialest point, or you may lose your labor
6. And yet there is in this no Gordian knot
Which one might not undo without a sabre,
7. If one could merely comprehend the plot.
Enwritten upon the leaf where now are peering
8. Eyes scintillating soul, there lie perdus
Three eloquent words oft uttered in the hearing
9. Of poets, by poets — as the name is a poet's, too,
Its letters, although naturally lying
10. Like the knight Pinto-Mendez Ferdinando —
Still form a synonym for Truth — Cease trying!
11. You will not read the riddle, though you do the best you can do.