Blog Posts by HowAboutWe

Erica Oyama adores "The Bachelor." The LA-based screenwriter and mother of two got hooked on the show during the first weeks after her son was born, and a passing interest soon became a full-blown obsession-and then a screenplay of her own. Ben Stiller's production company took notice, and soon the parody "Burning Love" was born. An instant success on Yahoo Screen, the web series (to be aired as 30-minute episodes on E! beginning Feb 25) is the most masterful and comprehensive "Bachelor" spoof ever done, down to every last awkward greeting, painful public rejection, and passive aggressive "Can I steal you for a minute?"

The format is familiar to anyone who's ever seen the original (meaning virtually everyone who owns a TV): hunky bachelor Mark Orlando (Ken Marino, Oyama's husband) is looking for love, and his mating pool is a group of ladies competing for his affection. Orlando nails the clueless-humorless-dullsville hunk ("I'm looking for someone who makes me laugh, and isn't afraid

By Lilit Marcus for HowAboutWe

Doing Small Things Now Will Save You From Divorce Later. Here's Why.By Kayt Sukel for HowAboutWe

You know the old saying: "Little things mean a lot."

The saying is rarely more true than when it comes to relationships: little things can actually do a great deal when it comes to upping your satisfaction with your partner.

Do you hold hands with your spouse while watching TV? It's been linked to the release of oxytocin-and improved relationship outcomes. Have you worked to add a little variation in the bedroom? It's been linked to happier marriages. Have you taken a course to learn how to communicate more effectively? Yep, you guessed it-that helps, too.

Plus: 12 Signs You're Probably Being Too Picky

But how do all these small interventions actually work? How is a few minutes of holding hands now doing so much to keep marriages from falling apart down the road?

Earlier this month, Eli Finkel, a social psychologist at Northwestern University, published a study in the journal Psychological Science suggesting that just 21 minutes a year can dramatically

Will you get stood up in your city?By Chiara Atik for HowAboutWe

New Yorkers may be cold, abrasive snobs, but at least, at least, they are half as likely to stand someone up on a first date than the heartless flakes that reside in Los Angeles. According to a new iPhone app called "Let's Date," which surveys daters within the first 15 minutes of the date, Los Angelenos get stood up 10% of the time, a little over 5% more than the rest of the country. (Let's pause here to note that if there's anyone who deserves to be stood up, and there isn't, but if there were, it would definitely be the guy or the girl who stops to take a survey on their phone to rate their date 15 minutes in.

According to HowAboutWe data, folks on the West Coast are also way more likely to go on outdoor and fitness dates - if you've got [amazing weather], flaunt [amazing weather] - than their East Coast counterparts, who are prone to spend most of their first dates at bars.

So, all of this corroborates a theory I've been quite certain of for a long

You may have heard that White Castle, the fast food chain famous for its sacks of burgers, goes all-out for Valentine's Day. More than 400 White Castles nationwide are transformed into "Love Castles," complete with tablecloths, candles, and printed menus. So what's it really like for couples spending their Valentine's Day at this most unique of burger joints? We sent reporter Justin Silverman to survey the scene at a Brooklyn Love Castle.

Writing about sex?By Chiara Atik for HowAboutWe

A new type of personal essay has emerged on blogs lately, have you noticed? It involves young, female bloggers describing their sexual encounters in graphic detail, with nearly absurd levels of emotional detachment. Cat Marnell did it for Vice. Lenina Lilic did it for Gawker, in an essay that, while not poorly written, certainly doesn't fall under the category of "daily news media and gossip." XOJane seems to have practically made it a subcategory. Describing weird sex with someone you have no affinity for is becoming a literary device.

The leitmotif of these essays is clear: look how self-aware we are of the fact that having casual sexual encounters doesn't make us feel sexy, doesn't make us feel loved, doesn't make us feel less alone. And yet we continue to do it, in an act of sexual nihilism that seems to fly in the face of our mothers' hard-fought sexual liberation. ("Sure, we can have sex whenever now. Who cares? It's meaningless.")

Plus: Guess