The New York Times Magazine recently sat down with the Obamas to discuss the State of the Union—the union between Michelle and Barack that is. In this extensive interview with the president and the first lady, writer Jodi Kantor tries to capture the strengths and weakness of the "first marriage." And regardless of which side of the political spectrum you fall on, we believe the Obamas have got a couple of timeless, bi-partisan policies when it comes to keeping a relationship healthy.  4 Obama-Inspired Date Ideas

1. Personalize Your Nicknames. Barack likes to call Michelle, "Flotus," short … Read More

Ted Kennedy's posthumous memoir True Compass is scheduled to hit shelves on September 14, and the content may be enough to clear up some of the stigma surrounding Kennedy's reputation. Celebrity Love: Ted Kennedy's Romantic History

In the book, Kennedy attempts to extinguish one of the most infamous stories about his past. In 1969 after a party with campaign staff in Martha's Vineyard, he drunkenly drove a car into a lake and killed the car's passenger, 28-year-old Mary Jo Kopechne. The incident has gone down in history being referred to as "Chappaquiddick," the name of the … Read More

Here's to hoping this isn't a new type of breakup.

From NYTimes.com comes a story about a couple who were engaged to be married but ultimately decided against it. The hitch is that they still own two abodes together—an apartment in NYC and a lake house in the country—which means navigating who pays what on their two mortgages and divvying up weekends at their once-cozy vacation home.

Now, we realize times are tough during the recession, but if we had to cohabit with our ex, well, let's just say only one of us would come of it … Read More

Love Bytes: Five must-click sex, love and relationship links.

What to say when you're fine with being single, but your family is not. [Betty Confidential]

I had recently returned from a family reunion. I went there ecstatic to see everyone and proud to perform a show and tell of my accomplishments: new job, new race time and, most importantly, my new four-inch heels. None of this, however, seemed important in the mind of my relatives. My Great Uncle Larry interrupted my long winded accomplishment spiel to say, "Heidi I am just so disappointed that you don't have a nice man to … Read More

Sweet Jesus, more dynamite from the New York Times. The paper of record laments the receding of plot in modern porn. While the action is as puerile and bone-tastic as ever (probably more so considering our increasing tolerance, and appetite, for the weird stuff*), the artistic sentiment is going the way of the dodo. 

Dialogue has gone from laughable to entirely absent. Drama has followed pubic hair out on the first train to Bolivian**. And the cinematic realism stops at the fact that it's just two (or more) real people who are really f*cking.

The advent of the interweb … Read More

Earlier this week, New York Times columnist, Ross Douthat, wrote an op-ed piece about how feminism has made women increasingly unhappy over the last 30 years. Despite being wealthier, healthier and better educated than they were a generation ago, women in post-feminist America aren't as happy as they used to be. He suggested this may have something to do with the number of women "stuck raising kids alone," a "depressing" lifestyle that's much more common among women in the lower socioeconomic class. This hardly explains why so many wealthy women in East Hampton are so miserable, though, … Read More

According to a new study cited in The New York Times, infidelity is on the rise. The study also concluded that young women are closing the gap on what has largely been thought of as bad behavior for men—apparently, nearly as many women are cheating on their partners and spouses. This did not surprise me in the slightest—a large number of women I know in my age group have cheated on boyfriends. So why do women cheat? What are the circumstances that led to their infidelity? And how did they feel about it in the aftermath? After the jump, 13 … Read More

When enmeshed in the search for love, it can be difficult to determine whether it should be something we find or something that we decide to do. Many people experience the romantic love story. But a lot of couples find love to be something more learned and practiced. For people who are still hunting, it's difficult to decide whether to view it as a noun or a verb.

Louise Rafkin has been interviewing couples and telling their love stories in a weekly column in the San Francisco Chronicle for the past couple years. As someone who is still searching for … Read More

In Bad Mother, author Ayelet Waldman encourages women to aspire to be "not bad" mothers and resist the pressure to meet the extremely high standards of success that society has for women and motherhood. Waldman wants women to stop trying so hard and just be. She argues that mothers can and should be honest, flawed, and, yes, selfish sometimes—your ability to care for your children will not suffer. Discuss: Which is harder: marriage or motherhood?

Waldman's book is a welcome change from the usual motherhood self-help nonsense that lines the shelves at Barnes & Noble. The book … Read More

By now you're probably familiar with the idea that there exists a special kinship between rich men and attractive women. In fact, there appears to be a preternatural attraction between wealthy, older fellows and jaunty, nubile broads.

This weekend's New York Times Magazine explores the interweb destination SeekingArrangement.com. The site's raisin d-tree (it's Latin, or so I heard through the grapevine) is to provide a safe place for PYTs* to shake their little behinds for the moneyed menfolk (per the Times article, one quarter of the people on the site are trolling for dudes and about … Read More