Are Premium Bonds Worth It?

Premium bonds are becoming more popular everyday. Millions of people are investing in these bonds and some are questioning if they are really worth it. Premium bonds were introduced in 1956 as a way to get the public to invest into the British Government. This was set up like a lottery so that the common man could save and at the same time have a chance to winning millions of pounds. Nearly twenty million people, a third of the population now owns at least one premium bond. Investors can buy these bonds directly from the post office or they can purchase from the National Savings and Investment firms.

Since interest rates are falling, premium bonds are seen as a safe way to invest and at the same time have the thrill of winning one of the over million and a half cash prizes awarded each month. Fifteen percent of the prize money is used for high cash prizes and another fifteen percent is used for medium cash prizes. The remaining seventy percent of the money was used to award lower prizes that are as high as fifty pounds. A fifty pound prize on a one bond is almost a 500 percent return. Right now you have a 1 in 21,000 chance to win, but with the bonds becoming more popular, those odds may be greater in the future.

You have to buy at least one hundred pounds to invest in premium bonds and you can only have thirty thousand pounds in an account. The bonds are backed and protected by the national treasury. Anyone who invests can be assured that when they decide to pull out their funds, the money will be there. Anyone can invest as long as you are sixteen. Many parents buy premium bonds as a way to pay for their children’s college. Young investors can learn the value of savings and at the same time get the chance to win enough money to set them up for life.

Unlike lottery tickets, the same bond can win over and over. The more you invest, the more times you will have a chance to win. The winnings are tax-free and you can even reinvest the money you win until you reach the thirty thousand pound limit. It has been reported that the odds in winning has declined in the last ten years. It is a matter of statistics that the more bonds that are bought the lower the chance that your bond number will be picked.

The odds are still better than the American lottery because you don’t have to buy a different ticket each time. You can find out if your bond number is picked by looking at the National Saving and Invest website. Here they list all the winning numbers and all you have to do is call or contact them for you to claim your prize. It is recorded that the National Saving and Invest firm has over five hundred thousand unclaimed prizes that they are holding for claimers.

You’re Not Rich Because Your Life Is A Mini Drama

I realized that a major reason why people are broke is because it’s wayyyyy more fun…Yeah I said it…it’s more fun. I mean really, when you have money you already know the outcome; the outcome is whatever you want it to be…really not much creative effort there.What can I create if I already know what I will get? It’s like playing the lotto and knowing you will win…what’s the fun in that?

The fun in playing the lotto is not so much whether you win or lose but how you feel and the emotions that flow over you from the point where you decide to buy a ticket until the drawing takes place. The fun is to buy the ticket, hope you will win, think about all the wonderful things you will do with the money and sit in front of the TV with your heart in your hands as the numbers roll…the anticipation, the excitement…the drama. Will I win or not?…stay tuned to find out.

I realized that one of the reasons people are and remain poor is that it makes them feel alive. This is the key to a lot of life…This is the key to your entire life! Yeah we’ve all heard that the key to life and what people will do anything for is to survive, but if you break down survival what is it? – Knowing and realizing that you are ALIVE…

How do we know that we are alive when we feel that we basically live pretty boring lives? Well enter stage right our mini dramas that constantly remind us that we are alive. Throughout history man has struggled to survive…animals trying to kill us and we had to go out to hunt…but now fast forward several hundred years and most of us live away from deadly creatures, and the only hunting we do is in our grocery aisles, and so we have had to be a little more creative.

We no longer have the stories to tell of how we escaped a deadly tiger and killed it for food so what’s left?…For us to create these little story lines that show how difficult our life truly is and how we have conquered it. It’s more fun to NOT know how you will survive for the next week; it’s more fun to wonder where the money will come from to buy gas, pay the rent and then to figure out ‘Hey, I’ve got a solution!’ It’s more fun to be in pain and anguish because you cannot afford something…Most people believe that having money is boring. What do rich people do all day?…shop, lunch and then spend the rest of their life bored silly…

Don’t believe me?…Let’s analyse this: When you are broke and you need $40 to buy gas you now have to think ‘How will I get to work with no gas? How will I get money to buy gas?’
There is a problem, and you can now become your own superhero, saving the day by figuring out ‘Hey, I’ll borrow some money from my friend Jo Doe to solve the problem.’

‘I’m a genius’ you think, then you have to go ask Jo and then wait for an answer, then you have back-up plans in case Jo says no…You feel embarrassed to borrow gas money, pain that you can’t afford the gas, anxiety about whether you will get the money, fear about running out of gas. Let’s look at another situation. Your rent is due…you have no money. You don’t answer your phone – can’t risk the landlord getting you on the phone…you hear footsteps…’Oh my god maybe he’s coming!’ You are filled with paralyzing fear, anxiety, dread…what if we get put out on the street, we will have no place to sleep…everyone will know I am broke…Loads of emotions to keep reminding you how alive you truly are…

…but when you have money, the problem is already solved, isn’t it? Have no gas? Go to the gas station, pull out your wallet and pay for the gas. No problem! No emotion. Rent due? Write a check, pay the landlord. No emotion, no problems. No paid advertisers (we will come to that in a minute). No struggle, no solution to find…pretty darn boring don’t you think?

Most of us have spent 99% of our lives fixing problems, finding solutions. We can’t let a simple thing like being rich mess with a good thing, now can we?! You keep wanting to find solutions to show the creative genius that is you. After all, you must be alive or else you couldn’t have lived through no money for groceries. You couldn’t have lived through the gas drama and just like a soap opera…you never know what will happen next, so stay tuned for tomorrow’s show to see if you will have enough food, money, clothes, gas or if you’ll even survive…

This article is excerpted from the book ‘You’re Not Rich Because Your Life is a Min Drama’ by Ophelia Nicholson.

Money Can Not Buy You Happiness

I am sure there will be many people who read this article and will think I am rather mad. Quite frankly I do not care. In this article I write about what in my humble opinion are the most importants things in life, health and happiness.

All that most of my friends talk about is money:

What car do you drive?

How much is your house worth?

How much do you earn?

How much did your suit cost?

Where are you going on holiday this year?

I find all of this very boring and think that they are rather sad. They seem to be in some sort of competition and they are basically obsessed about money.

I will give you an example of one such friend, his name is John. He never seems to talk about anything else and is always looking into get rich quick schemes. He is also in a lottery syndicate, of which there are about fifty members. Each member pays around ten pounds in per week. John likes to go out socialising on a Saturday night, however soon gets itchy feet at the time of the lottery draw. A few minutes later he will go to the toilet where he will then phone his girlfriend. He takes with him to the toilet a piece of paper with his numbers on and a little pen. After his girlfriend has told him which numbers were drawn, John will then then spend around twenty minutes checking his numbers, and then re-checking to see if he has any winning lines.

Eventually he returns to the group who seem very keen (apart from me) to find out how much he has won/lost. To date he has only won small amounts, however is convinced that one day he will become a millionaire. He will then start talking about the lottery, asking other people what they would buy if they were lucky enough to ever win. At this point I become very bored and start to wish I had stayed at home and watched the football.

For me the two most important things in life are health and happiness. These are two things which money can not buy. A few years ago, my dad was taken ill. He was in a real bad way and had to spend around five months in hospital. Him being ill was a huge shock to me as he was only fifty-seven. I feared the worst, even though I was trying my hardest to think and stay positive. I remember thinking, if I gave those doctors everything I own in the world, it still would not help him. I felt powerless and at that moment realised that money is only paper.

Happiness is the same, I remember at the age of twenty-one having lots of money and had been surprised that I was depressed at the same time. At other times I have had next to no money and have been extremely happy.

Fun & Unique Baby Shower Favors

A baby shower is often the highlight of an expectant mother’s pregnancy. Planning a baby shower requires some thought and consideration for the expectant mother’s special event. Baby shower favors are among the items that must be considered when planning a shower.
Baby shower favors do not have to be complicated to make an impressionable impact on visitors. Most people are happy enough to come to the shower just to visit the mom to be in all her pregnant glory. Baby shower favors however can provide a memento of the unique event and offer a simple way to thank guests for visiting and celebrating the mother’s time of joy.
Baby shower favors come in every size, shape and form. Some simple gift ideas include the following:
Candles
Miniature boxes of chocolates or candy
Bath and body items
Pictures
Gift baskets
Lotto tickets
Movie tickets
Keep in mind that to make any party even more fun and eventful, baby shower favors that coincide with the “theme” of the party are even more fun to pass out. For example, if the expectant mother is carrying twins, and the theme of the shower revolves around multiples, it might be possible to offer baby shower gifts that coincide with this idea. Some ideas in this situation might involve the following:
Double Bubble
“Twix” Candy Bars
2 pairs of anything
Identical picture frames
Manicure and pedicure set
Pair of coffee spoons
One neat idea for baby shower favors is to have each guest bring a “white elephant gift”. The idea of white elephant gifts typically surfaces during Christmas time, when guests are invited to bring a “mock” gift to a party for exchange. This may include silly items such as used household appliances, a roll of toilet paper or an open box of Oreo cookies. Guests are encouraged to wrap the gifts, then each member of the party can select a number and draw gifts. Using white elephant gifts as party favors is a great way to share laughter and joy in a shower situation.

The Threat of Spam and Basic Preventative Measures

Everyone who uses the internet has more than likely been targets of spam at one time or another. At first they are easy to dismiss for internet experienced persons, however for the inexperienced user of the internet, the messages contained can sometimes be intimidating and in some instances lead to trouble (I will come onto a personal example later).

Spam can take several forms; email and search engine spam are just two, but the one we will concentrate on in this article, and also the one you will, and have most likely encountered, is via email.

Spam is defined as unsolicited bulk mail, much of which is caught in your “bulk” or “trash” folder found in your email service provider control panel. You have probably often seen a mass of these types of emails in you bulk folders when checking for email that you actually have consented to receive, as many emails are caught by spam filters even though they should not. The majority of spam you may receive will be of a sexual or gambling nature, however over the past few months I have noticed an ever-increasing number of scam emails asking for sensitive information, claiming to be someone they are not.

Paypal and eBay scams are a prime example of these types of emails known as “phishing scam emails”. The email will be along the lines of:

“We have noticed an irregularity in your account details and require you to update them immediately. Failure to do so will result in the permanent closure of your account”

You can see how these emails can be pretty alarming to an inexperienced internet user who may only occasionally use the internet to sell or buy items on eBay for example. Some of the emails will look very convincing, and will use the images and symbols of the respective company, however be very cautious and take heed to the following important point:

If you are unsure of the legitimacy of the email, do not follow any link contained within the email to an external website. Instead, type the website address that you know is correct into your browser directly, so that you are safe in the knowledge that you are not using a fraudulent website.

Failure to do this may result in your account being hijacked by the scammer; it’s as easy as this. You follow the link in the email to a website claiming to be, and also looking very much like one where you have an account. The website will ask you to input your username and password to access your account and voila, you will have now sent this information to the scammer, allowing them access to your account containing sensitive information about you.

Another type of email scam that has been very popular is where you are notified to be the very lucky winner of a lottery, even though you have never entered the lottery in the location claiming your success! This is where the example of a personal experience comes in. Many people reading this will be thinking “I’ll never fall for one of these scams”, however the unfortunate reality is that many people will do so. An elderly relative of mine received one of these lottery scams from Spain, and then insisted on following up with the email scam, even though they had never even entered the lottery draw. The only stumbling block was that the bank account details required, needed to be sent by fax, which she couldn’t do, and despite the frustration that this caused I of course refused to help send it.

There are measures that you can take to help avoid being targeted by spammers; a few have been mentioned here. However, in addition never reply to a scam email as it will notify them that the email address is live and also that you have read the email, leading to further spam.

Of course there are many other threats from spam that are not discussed here, such as viruses and trojans being sent via email attachments. More details on spam can be found here: www.spam-blocker-online.com.

The NBA Draft

Association’s (NBA) thirty teams (29 in the United States and one in Canada) can select young players who wish to join the league. These players usually come from college level, but in recent drafts a greater number of international and high school players have been drafted. As of the 2006 NBA Draft high school players gain eligibility for draft selection one year after their graduating class has finished high school, but only if they also are at least 19 years of age as of the end of the calendar year of the draft.

The NBA draft is currently divided into two rounds, with thirty picks per round. The order of selections is based on several rules. The first picks of the draft belong to the fourteen teams that did not enter the playoffs in that year’s season. These teams participate in a lottery to determine the order of the first three picks. Each team is assigned a number of chances based upon season standings to ‘win’ the lottery. After these three teams have been determined, the remaining picks are given out based on regular season record with the worst teams getting the highest remaining picks. This lottery assures each team can drop no more than 3 positions from its projected draft position. The lottery also prevents teams from throwing the season to ensure a top draft pick.

The next sixteen spots in the draft are reserved for the teams that made it into that season’s playoffs. The order of these sixteen teams’ selection is determined by their regular-season win-loss record, going from worst to best. Therefore, the team with the best record selects last. The team with the best record is not necessarily the champion; for example, in the 2004 NBA Draft, the last pick did not go to the 2004 NBA champion Detroit Pistons, but rather to the Indiana Pacers (this is unlike the NFL Draft, in which the Super Bowl champion always draws the final selection of the first round).

The order of selections in the second round are also based upon season standings, with the worst team picking first and the best picking last. There is no lottery for the second round. Teams are allowed to trade future draft picks (first and second round) as they would current players.

League rules prohibit a team from trading away their own future first-round picks in consecutive years. This rule was created partially as a reaction to the practices of the Cleveland Cavaliers in the early 1980s. Ted Stepien, who owned the team from 1980 to 1983, made a series of trades for players of questionable value that cost the team several years of first-round picks. The trades nearly destroyed the franchise; the NBA pressured Stepien into selling out, and in order to get a solid local owner (Gordon Gund), the league had to sweeten the deal by giving the Cavaliers several future bonus draft picks.

All U.S. players are automatically eligible upon the end of their college eligibility. Through 2005, U.S. players were also allowed to declare eligibility for the draft at any time between high school graduation and the completion of college eligibility. International players could declare eligibility in the calendar year of their 18th birthday, or later.

Starting with the 2006 NBA Draft, the eligibility rules have changed:

• All players, regardless of nationality, must be at least 19 years old during the calendar year of the draft.

• A U.S. player must also be at least one year removed from the graduation of his high school class.
This age limit for draftees is part of the new collective bargaining agreement between the league and its players union.

The NBA has established two draft declaration dates. All players who wish to be drafted, and are not automatically eligible, must declare their eligibility on or before the first declaration date.

After this date, prospective draftees may attend NBA pre-draft camps and individual team workouts to show off their skills and obtain feedback regarding their draft positions. A player may withdraw his name from consideration from the draft at any time before the final declaration date, which is one week before the draft. A player who declares for the draft will lose his college eligibility, even if he is not drafted, if any of the following is true:

• The player signs with an agent.

• The player has declared for and withdrawn from the draft in any previous year.

When a player is selected in the first round of the draft, the team that selected him is required to sign him to at least a one-year contract. Players selected in the second round are “owned” by the team for three years, but the teams are not required to sign them.

Players chosen earlier in the draft are generally regarded as better prospects than those selected later, but there is always a level of uncertainty around the selections. Past drafts are filled with examples of late-pick superstars and early-pick busts. Perhaps the most famous example of the uncertainty of the draft came in 1986, when Karl Malone was selected by the Utah Jazz with the thirteenth pick, but went on to become the second-leading scorer in NBA history and win multiple MVP awards. His teammate, John Stockton, was selected sixteenth the year before, but went on to become the all-time NBA leader in assists and steals.

Lottery Winners Lose It All

You have heard it time and again. Lottery Winners lose it all and trust fund babies waste their parent’s hard earned cash. In fact, up to 80% of the lottery winners in this country file bankruptcy within five years. Most of us say,” That would never happen to me. You would have to be really dumb to lose all that money.” Yet the very reason that these individuals let their money run through their fingers is the very reason that most of us are still working pay check to paycheck.
It is a lacking mindset that is responsible for our financial difficulties. They believe: 1) I don’t deserve this 2) I feel guilty because it happened to me and not ___________ 3) This can’t be real 4) etc…
Those with money that work their way up from the bottom or build the wealth they have easily, have the one thing that most of us lack – a million dollar mind set. All wealth begins with it and all wealth is maintained by cultivating this feeling of prosperity.
Their beliefs are: 1) I am wealthy. 2) If I lost it all tommorow, I could make it back easily. 3) I deserve to be wealthy
I would bet that most of us could compile a list of hundreds of things that we “want.” That sense of wanting means that we feel that we do not have these things. When we replace this wanting feeling with the sense of already having wealth, amazing things start to occur within our brains. We begin to come up with ways of having wealth instead of merely wishing and wanting it.
How do we create this million dollar mindset?
1) Think about being wealthy and write down any thoughts that come up.
Write down the objections that already play in your mind. Write down the excuses like” It takes money to make money.” And write down all the things that you wish you could have if only…
2) Release on those thoughts. Let them go and keep letting them go until the negative emotions go away with them.
3) Replace negative thoughts with positive ones.
4) Fill your mind with the images of what you want and picture yourself already having them.
5) See yourself as you will be. Feel what you will feel. Add audio and even the things that you will smell when you reach that state. ex. the type of perfume you might wear, the sound of bankers begging to give you loans, the feel of silk upon your skin, etc…
6) Keep releasing your negative emotions and thoughts until you have what you have been wanting all these years.
7) Act upon the incredible ideas that your subconscious shares with you fearlessly.

3 Reasons Why Most People Fail To Achieve Their Business Goals

New Year’s resolutions are launched with good intentions by the tens of millions every December. And somewhere along the way – usually in January – most of them become an afterthought. The mere topic of New Year’s resolutions only gets pulled up again in December, when planning (yet again) for the next year.

But a business goal is a horse of a different color.

Because business goals directly tie-in to one’s finances – which in turn affects how we live – we pursue them more aggressively. That’s the good news.

However in that pursuit lies several pitfalls. Pitfalls that are well hidden from the naked eye. Pitfalls that only reveal themselves once we begin our business goal achievement quest.

What are those pitfalls exactly? Here are three that strike most entrepreneurs at the least favorable moments:

1) You fell for the infamous “You are LIMITLESS” mantra.
Bestselling spiritual/self-help author Wayne Dyer often reminds his followers, “We are spiritual beings having a human experience.”

And even though the soul may be free as vast as the universe – we are still confined to an overcoat of skin and bones and gravity. And it is this temporary overcoat that causes very real limitations.

I mean let’s face it, there can only be one American Idol in 2008 (or Canadian Idol or whatever Idol for the part of the world you live in). There’s one President, one Queen, one gold medalist slalom skier, one winner of the Best Actor on Academy Awards night.

And even though you may deeply yearn, affirm and visualize holding one these positions, you might not ever end up there.

A good friend of mine had an uncle who owned a horse ranch. He was a masterful rider and dreamt of becoming a famous jockey. But at the age of 16 he was almost 6 feet tall. Which is apparently too tall to become a jockey.

We – as human beings – all have limits. Limits caused by financial circumstances, family obligations, time constraints, lack of knowledge, lack of skill, age restrictions, height restrictions, and so on.

The thing is, limitations should never be viewed as stop signs. On the contrary, they allow us to confidently move in directions that work with our natural talents, abilities and lifestyles. Limitations allow us to see how we can improve ourselves.

So acknowledge your limitations. (It’s okay!) And if you can’t beat ’em, be confident and wise enough to work around ’em.

2) You didn’t anticipate the potential problems along the way – or the residuals of success.
As I write this article the jackpot for the New York state lottery is at $115 million dollars. Manhattan office workers file into the deli’s during their lunch hour to stand on those lottery lines, and fantasize amongst each other about winning.

From the middle class viewpoint, a big lottery win looks absolutely delicious. But Dr. Steven J. Danish, professor of psychology at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, paints a very different picture.

According to “Windfall not always a blessing, psychologists say,”
“Danish has counseled lottery winners for more than 12 years, and almost all his patients have had serious problems after collecting their winnings. After the initial shock passes, a sense of guilt often arrives, along with the hoards of people asking for money. Giving or leaving money to family — including mysterious, long-lost relatives — is often the biggest source of stress, he said.”

But this phenomena isn’t limited to lottery winners. It happens to entrepreneurs as well.

Yes, your eyes always have to be peeled for the potholes in the road. But you must also consider the problems that come with extreme success.

For example, will you have enough inventory if a positive review of your product generates a flood of 10,000 orders? How will you manage your time fulfilling orders? Do you have a babysitter lined up for business emergencies?

Don’t focus on failure. Do create a mindset of preparedness.

3) You focus a lot of energy on past mistakes, instead of learning from them and moving on.
A very dear friend whom I’ve known for 15 years has been wanting to start his own business for as long as I’ve known him. Early in our friendship he and his sister-in-law decided to do some kind of venture together. The venture flopped. He lost $4K, while she lost almost nothing.

Over a decade later, he still talks about how much he wants to go into business for himself. But the memory of losing that $4K re-plays itself over and over in his mind. It’s the reason why he commutes to a government job every day, instead of taking the plunge and starting his own business.

Sadly enough, he rationalizes his inability to move forward by saying that he’d rather be 100% sure that he’s doing the right thing, instead of going in with a half-baked idea.

My outlook as a seasoned entrepreneur is a little different. Nothing in life is 100% guaranteed. The best-laid plans can be thwarted in the blink of an eye. The best you can do is learn from the past (not LIVE in the past) and move on.

Washington State Bans Online Gambling

In the ongoing battle of Internet poker and online casino gambling, the state of Washington passed a law banning online gambling making it illegal for any resident inside of the state to participate in online casino play.

If you are a resident in the state of Washington, and you are caught in the act of online wagering, you could face a penalty of up to 10 years in prison. The legislation, Senate Bill 6613, has turned online gambling into a Class C Felony. This severe type of felony is generally reserved for the prosecution of sex offenders who fail to register with the state.

Poker players across the state are angry, confused, and even slightly offended about the passage of the legislation. The state of Washington has 65 casinos and card rooms spread across the state, and even a state lottery, yet online gambling has been axed. There is much confusion and debate revolving around the fact that the state has both brick and mortar casinos and a state lottery.

Things seemed to move very quickly when the bill was put on the fast track and sent up to the governor, Democrat Christine Gregoire. The House received the bill on February 16th, and a mere few weeks later, it was passed by a vote of 93 to 5, and put into effect. In addition to banning online wagering, the bill also put a halt to the effort to allow the state lottery to be offered online.

Overturning the legislation probably won’t be easy. To overturn the bill and get the law changed would require a 60% majority vote by both houses of the state legislature, which would not be easy. Both residents and onlookers from other states feel that the ban of online gambling is a ban on freedom of choice and is an insult to poker players everywhere.

The issue of banning online gambling has been floating around Congress for a while now, but it seems that Congress decided that these types of decisions are better suited for government control on the state level, as opposed to the national level. In the past several weeks, a handful of well respected professional poker players have gone before Congress and stated their arguments in terms of supporting online gambling for any American who wishes to participate, whether it be for recreation or on a more serious level.

The thought of online poker players in the state of Washington receiving the same punishment as sex offenders is extremely offensive, not to mention absurd, and it’s causing a stir in the online poker community. There are plans in action to attempt to overturn the legislation, but, as of now, the bill has been passed.

The Origin Of Giving Valentine’s Day Cards

Traditionally, mid-February was a Roman time to meet and court prospective mates. The Lupercian lottery (under penalty of mortal sin), Roman young men did institute the custom of offering women they admired and wished to court handwritten greetings of affection on February 14. The cards acquired St. Valentine’s name.

As Christianity spread, so did the Valentine’s Day card. The earliest extant card was sent in 1415 by Charles, duke of Orleans, to his wife while he was a prisoner in the Tower of London. It is now in the British Museum.

In the sixteenth century, St. Francis de Sales, bishop of Geneva, attempted to expunge the custom of cards and reinstate the lottery of saints’ names. He felt that Christians had become wayward and needed models to emulate. However, this lottery was less successful and shorter-lived than Pope Gelasius’s. And rather than disappearing, cards proliferated and became more decorative.

Cupid, the naked cherub armed with arrows dipped in love potion, beame a popular valentine image. He was associated with the holiday because in Roman mythology he is the son of Venus, goddess of love and beauty.

By the seventeenth century, handmade cards were oversized and elaborate, while store-bought ones were smaller and costly. In 1797, a British publisher issued ‘The Young Man’s Valentine Writer’, which contained scores of suggested sentimental verses for the young lover unable to compose his own.

Printers had already begun producing a limited number of cards with verses and sketches, called “mechanical valentines,” and a reduction in postal rates in the next century ushered in the less personal but easier practice of mailing valentines. That, in turn, made it possible for the first time to exchange cards anonymously, which is taken as the reason for the sudden appearance of racy verse in an era otherwise prudishly Victorian.

The burgeoning number of obscene valentines caused several countries to ban the practice of exchanging cards. In Chicago, for instance, late in the nineteenth century, the post office rejected some twenty-five thousand cards on the ground that they were not fit to be carried through the U.S. mail.

The first American publisher of valentines was printer and artist Esther Howland. Her elaborate lace cards of the 1870s cost from five to ten dollars, with some selling for as much as thirty-five dollars. Since that time, the valentine card business has flourished. With the exception of Christmas, Americans exchange more cards on Valentine’s Day than at any other time of the year. Just thinking about it brings memories of red construction paper, and little boxes of heart candies that say ‘Be Mine’!