Links-a-Rama

. NJ Mom on Mother Talkers has a post on some of the advice in The Rules II, the follow-up book to The Rules. I didn't use this book in my experiments, but I'm familiar with this genre of romantic advice, in which you start out basically being nice to your partner and somehow wind up at the bottom of a slippery slope, trying to scrub your brain free of the expert advice with the harsh soap of your own common sense.

. I'm pleased to hear that, like my grandparents, domestic expert Martha Stewart has a bathroom that one can get stuck in.

. In health news: Due to a thick crust of ice on top, we in Virginia can stand on the snow and entertain the ideas that 1) we're just little ole wisps of people (as our friends on Designing Women might say), or 2) like David Blaine, we can levitate. Meanwhile, in Chicago, a mellow is harshed.

. Some fun--"fun" meaning "outrageous"--stats on how the U.S. stacks up compared to other countries in terms of parental leave. If you think you're not going to hear mention of the anthropological treasure trove that is Papua New Guinea, you're wrong.

. I'm a sucker for a story of a child inadvertantly working blue.