Dear J:

You wrote:

On the recent married page our local newspaper reports: “The couple now lives in New York City.” Should not the verb be “live” since the subject is plural? Am I correct?

This reflects a difference of usage between British and American English. The British would normally write it the way that you suggest for the reason that you give. Americans would consider the subject singular because it is a collective noun and there is only one couple. If there were more than one couple, then the verb would be “live,” e.g. “At the end of ‘As You Like It,’ four couples are married.”

We note this difference in news reports. When someone from the U.K. is speaking, we hear, “The legislature are”; but if someone from the U.S. is being quoted, we hear, “The legislature is.”

For what it is worth, this is the only significant difference between American and British grammar in the strictest sense of the word.