What is the best age to marry?

As a couples therapist, I frequently give relationship advice about the best age, if any, to get married. While there is no magical age to get married, one is almost always better off waiting to get married, for lots of good reasons.

First, the divorce rate has been hovering at 50% for years, and is much higher the younger you get married. Teenage or early adult marriages have a divorce rate of 75%-85%, and surveys show that the older the female is at the time of her first marriage, the longer the marriage lasts.

I ask you: If you were boarding on a plane with a 50% chance of crashing, would you get on?

The reason for the high divorce rate, particularly among teens/early adults, is simple: From a basic developmental perspective, peoples’ needs and goals change over time, and at age 30 you will be a much different person than you were at 18 or 21. Also, studies indicate that the purely chemical "butterflies in the tummy" feeling one gets when in love only lasts between two to six months, if your lucky. In other words, it doesn’t last, so perhaps it’s best to be with your current love without making things more complex by getting married.

Also, while there is no perfect way to determine the potential stability of a given marriage, the following questions are vital prior to considering such a huge life change.

Prior to getting married, one has to be mature enough to realize:

-Love is not enough; the stresses of a young couple are real, and the struggle for decent jobs, housing, and health insurance are real stresses that can destroy any couple. Why rush to take on difficult adult responsibilities?

-Consider your own needs, goals, and relationship requirements. Does your partner satisfy them? It is rare for a teenage or young adult to have enough life experience to know what they really want.

-You MUST be totally emotionally, physically and financially independent from your parents. Healthy marriages require two independent individuals to make a complete whole. Young couples typically marry to get away from their parents or a negative home environment, but there are other ways to cope.

-Relationships need time to see if behavior patterns are consistently healthy. So ask, how long has this union been happy and healthy?

-Get to know yourself. What do you want in life? What do you wish to contribute to the world and how? Live purposefully, then you’ll meet others with similar world views and life visions.

by: Emily Kensington

About The Author
Emily Kensington is a couples therapist. For free relationship advice and romance tips visit http://www.hearts-and-kisses.com

Pina Colada - Little story

This is one of the most well known tropical drinks in the world. You can find this drink at Finest hotels, bars, or restaurants. But have you ever wondered, who invented this drink?
Maybe you think that the person who made the first Pina Colada must be from Caribbean, well you are all wrong. The man who responsible for it is from Spain, Europe. His name is Ricardo Garcia. He was born in Barcelona in 1914. He has two fine restaurants in Barcelona where many rich and famous often comes in.

In 1951 He work at The Hilton castellana Hotel, the first Hilton International Hotel in Madrid, Spain as a Bar Manager. In 1954, he had been moved to The San Juan, Puerto Rico, Caribe Hilton Hotel. In that hotel all guests were given complimentary drink called "Coco Loco." This was a mix of coconut juice, rum, and cream of coconut served in a fresh sliced coconut, cut fresh from the trees around the hotel. One day there was a strike to the hotel come from the coconut cutters union, and Ricardo fond him self run out of coconuts. But using his ’gift’ he saw a large supply of fresh pineapples at the hotel. He cut the top of a pineapple and poured the Coco Loco mix inside and served it with a straw. This added a hint of pineapple flavor. By that time, he had discovered something good.

Soon he was making over a thousand Pina Coladas every night. As he was transferred throughout the Hilton Chain he took his drink with him. But why the name become Pina Colada? It is because to improve the taste, he added crushed ice and strain pineapple into it. Pina Colada is the Spanish phrase for "strain pineapple." And now it become the most well known tropical drink in the world.

By :

Aries M Rizal T

The show must go on

"The show must go on." We often hear it in the back stage of the theater when one of the actor or actress didn’t show up.Usually they will fix it either by finding a new actor/actress or by changing a few scene which is not easy because they have to do it in a small range of time.But when they have done it successfully, a new star is born and all people who involved with the project will be proud and feel that they can do everything if they are wiling to do it.

This phrase can be used for all kind of activity in human life. Sometime we have a dream that really want to be built become reality, but on the way to go there, We find some obstacles blocking our way and seems impossible for us to get rid of it. Many of us usually stop and think that there is nothing we can do about it. But if we think about the phrase above "the show must go on", this is not the show we are talking about, this is our dream, our life. So, if that little show can go on, I don’t see any reason why our life can’t. If we see the obstacle, don’t just starring at it and hope that it will go away. Deal with it. If you think that is to big to be removed,ask help from your friends to remove it. If still that obstacle can not be removed, climb it. If it is too high to climb, find another way around. Maybe that way around is more far than the first one, but still you move on and stick to your track in achieving your goal, your dream. Maybe you will find another obstacle which is bigger and more complicated than before, but slowly and step by step you will learn how to deal with it.

When you arrive at the gate of your dream and you pass through it, you will realize that there is only a thin line between a dream and a reality, that line can only be seen by the people who has been through any obstacle behind. Without You knowing it, a new star is born. It is YOU. The show is ON.

By : Aries M Rizal

Histori of coffee

Many cigar smokers enjoy a stogie with a nice bottle of wine or a full glass of whiskey. Others enjoy pairing a stick with a strong beer or setting a cigar up with a sweet girl named "Brandy." Then there are those who simply think cigars and coffee are the ideal combo: move over Wheaties, there's a new breakfast of champions.

This may seem odd, coffee and cigars are so different. Yet, this is often the case when it comes to consumption. From eggs and ham to French fries and chocolate malts, from wine and cheese to peanut butter and jelly, the world is full of very different things that enhance each other.

Though it may seem to be a recent trend, the coffee and cigar match up has been brewing for years.



It is no coincidence that history saw tobacco and coffee gaining popularity at the same time: people knew from the start that cigars were good with a cup of Joe. However, seeing how we have already detailed the history of the tobacco seed (hi, Christopher Columbus), this article will talk about the history of the other. Coffee, this mug's for you.

Your Cup Runneth Over

Throughout the ages, coffee has been good to the last drop, the best part of waking up, and filled to the brim. For many of us, coffee is conducive to our morning functioning: we can't leave home without it in our system. This aside, most of us don't really know that much about coffee, other than how we take it. Not only is coffee rich in flavor and aroma, but it is also rich in past. From the cafes of centuries of yore to present-day Starbucks, where exactly has coffee bean, er, been?

Grinding Out a New Drink

The history of coffee goes all the way back to the 9th century, perhaps even further. No one is completely certain how it was discovered, making the way for several legends. The most well-known legend involves an Ethiopian goat herder named Kaldi who spotted goats eating coffee berries in the highlands of Ethiopia. He noticed that after the goats ate the berries they possessed more spunk and alertness. Kaldi followed the goats lead and ingested the berries himself: he immediately felt more energetic.

>From Ethiopia, coffee was distributed to Yemen, Egypt, Turkey and Persia. Despite its dispersal - and the opening of the first coffee house in 1457 Constantinople -coffee was not well received, at least not at first. By 1511, the rulers of the court in Mecca deemed it forbidden, believing that its stimulating effects were sinful. Coffee, however, had a great amount of fans and just 13 years later, the ban was removed by Ottoman Turkish Sultan Selim I.

In 1532, Egypt saw a similar ban as places that served coffee and warehouses filled with coffee beans were destroyed. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church also banned coffee around the 17th century, believing its consumption mirrored some sort of pagan ritual.

Coffee, as a word, is believed to have been derived from the Italian word caffe sometime around 1600. Filtered throughout the ages, the word caffe was produced using Turkish and Arabic words, words that translated to mean "the wine of the bean."

Europe of Bust

>From the Middle East, coffee made its way to 17th century Europe where it quickly gained popularity. This momentum was spearheaded by the Dutch, who started to import coffee in large quantities and grow it in Java, an island they (at the time) possessed. Coffee was not only thought of as a stimulant, but it was also thought of as everything from a medicine to a luxury.

Coffee came to the American colonies from Europe. Here, it was received with less than open arms: the colonists preferred alcohol. This opinion, however, changed when the rest of the world changed: during the American Revolutionary War.

As Americans fought British forces, the demand for coffee skyrocketed. This demand was largely do to the reduction of available tea (compounded by the 90,000 pounds thrown in the Boston Harbor). Once Americans began to replace tea with coffee, they developed a liking.

The taste buds of America looked even more favorably upon coffee during the 19th century. This was catapulted by both the War of 1812, in which access to tea was cut off temporarily, and the Civil War, where coffee reached one of its highest demands.

As the Americans were perfecting their taste for the bean, the Brazilians were perfecting the bean itself. In 1727, Brazil built the first coffee plantation and, by the early 1800's, their coffee was quickly becoming some of the best in the world. They took it from being a stimulant, to being a drink for the mouths of the masses.

Today, in America and otherwise, coffee flows like water. Not only is it produced in a variety of regions, but it is a major economic staple for many countries, particularly third world countries, and has succeeded in going from being a drink to being the center of many social gatherings. In the US alone, over six billion gallons of coffee are consumed annually. This amounts to over 22 gallons a person, leaving drinkers both awake and in need of a bathroom.


by: Jennifer Jordan
About The Author
Jennifer Jordan is an editor and staff writer for http://www.whatsknottolove.com. At home in a design firm in Denver, Colorado, she writes articles specific to the finer things in life.