True Love

"I used to like this town. A long time ago. There were trees along Wilshire Boulevard. Beverly Hills was a country town. Westwood was bare hills and lots offering at eleven hundred dollars and no takers. Hollywood was a bunch of frame houses on the inter-urban line," Raymond Chandler wrote, in the voice of his detective hero, Philip Marlowe, in 1949. "Los Angeles was just a big dry sunny place with ugly homes and no style, but good-hearted and peaceful. It had the climate they yap about now.

Monday, Sept. 24 Heroes (9 p.m., NBC) It's a bird, it's a plane . . . it's the Petrelli brothers! Did they fly away to safety or are the two hotties dead? New York City was not attacked, but Sylar was. Is he dead? What about Matt? He was shot and was taken by ambulance. Is he dead? The Niki-Jessica arm-wrestle is over and Niki won, which means Jessica (we hope) is dead. HRG and his loving cheerleader are back together -- and they are not dead.

It's a Sunday afternoon at Sunset and Gardner. Upstairs at Toi Thai, patrons sample crispy honey duck. Downstairs at the Gardner Stages' rehearsal room, roughly the size of a parking space, an argument escalates until a recent parolee slams a fist into his ex-wife's face, then exits with an offhand "I love you." Peter, a Gulf War vet, walks in and shows a little tenderness to the bruised Agnes. A connection is made.

GLIMPSING Maggie in the lobby of Durrants Hotel in London, David is painfully smitten. Nothing unexpected about that. Nor about his following her out the entrance where the expected heart-stopping glances are exchanged; though his "muddle-headedness was such that he could only eavesdrop on his own brain as it came up with nothing but 'Hello,' which he said." Maggie, about to climb into a taxi, responds: "Actually, I can stand flirtation only in small doses. So that sufficed."

How much has the Internet influenced real estate buyers? According to the latest survey released by the National Assn. of Realtors, 80% of all buyers seeking to purchase a home did at least some searching online -- up from just 2% in 1995. "Most home buyers begin the search process online, but most often learn about the home they buy from a real estate agent," said David Lereah, the trade group's chief economist.

TRUE LOVE is like a kick in the head. No, really. It's not just that it comes out of nowhere, knocks you sideways and changes your life forever. It's statistically like a kick in the head. Most statistics are about things that usually happen or that most people share: prices, salaries, IQs, political opinions. These qualities are called "normally distributed": If you chart them, the graph they produce is that old favorite, the bell curve. Love, here as everywhere, is different.

How I loved the article about the crossword marriage proposal ["He Got His Proposal Down, and Across, to Her," by Justine Schroeder, Aug. 31]. And kudos to Rich Norris for making it happen in just that way! By the end of it I had tears in my eyes (and heart). I admired how well Ian proceeded with his plan. He sounds like a great guy with a huge imagination along with a huge amount of love for you. Congratulations to you both. My sweet and fun guy and I have been married for 53 years today.

Dan Neil's column on the demise of handwritten communication is clever, and the thought of a word-processed love letter curdles the soul ("Scribbling Rivalry," 800 Words, July 9). One can only equate processed words with processed cheese: They look like the real thing, but both are more redolent of plastic than anything resembling real flavor or emotional engagement. Carol Gwenn Beverly Hills

According to Shakespeare, the course of true love never did run smoothly -- especially for clients of Lovespring International. OK, the Bard never mentioned "Lovespring International," the zippy and largely improvised new half-hour sitcom premiering at 11 tonight on Lifetime. But the show's dysfunctional "relationship counselors" are pompous misfits right out of a farce.