Relationships

Comedian Greg Behrendt calls it "that dumb thing I said." He's referring to the phrase "He's just not that into you."

Helen Fisher thinks dating should be less about romance and more about science. "If you are describing yourself on a dating site or in the personals," she writes in "Why Him? Why Her?

They led the most powerful forces in healthcare -- the trade groups representing doctors, insurance companies, hospitals and drug makers. Any one of them could stall, if not derail, President Obama's hopes of overhauling the U.S. healthcare system. Instead, they stood with Obama before TV cameras at the White House and pledged their cooperation. For Obama, the show of unity gave momentum to perhaps his most ambitious domestic goal.

You may already know Alana Semuels from her holiday advice column on The Times' website. With Valentine's Day coming up, she debuts in print as etiquette maven Ask Alana, answering questions about romance and finance. Relationships are hard enough without the economy being in the crapper. Now that money is tight, annoying financial issues in your relationship or dating life have the potential to become huge craters that could run you off-road.

If this story turned up on daytime TV, audiences would never believe it: The reformist president of France, on the rebound from his October divorce, is about take a new wife -- an Italian tire heiress and former supermodel who looks a lot like the ex, and who dated Eric Clapton, whom she dumped for Mick Jagger when he was still married to Jerry Hall, and who later married a long-haired French intellectual nearly 10 years her junior after living with his father, nearly 20 years her senior.

The president of France did not say he was going to get married to his new love. But he did not rule it out. What President Nicolas Sarkozy did confirm Tuesday was that his relationship with Carla Bruni, a former supermodel turned folk singer, was "serious," and that if they were to marry the news media would not be involved. "There are strong chances you will learn of it once it's done," Sarkozy told nearly 600 journalists during the annual New Year's news conference at the Elysee Palace.

Just six weeks into their romance, 28-year-old Mandy Gresh and her boyfriend decided to take a mini-vacation to Quebec City. She bought airline tickets and reserved a hotel room for the weekend. Then it hit her: They'd be together four straight days. What if they got in a fight? What if a really annoying personality quirk emerged? What if they broke up before they even left? "I was like, 'Oh my god, the trip is as far away as we've been dating,' " Gresh said.

AFTER unveiling his plan for a troop increase in Iraq this month, President Bush spoke of the burden borne by America's military families -- of "the quiet sacrifices of lonely holidays and empty chairs at the dinner table." The spare, elegant phrase evoked a stoic longing worthy of an Edward Hopper painting. But real life tends to be messier than rhetoric.

Felicity Huffman is not a relationship expert, nor does she play one on TV. But that's her name on the cover of "A Practical Handbook for the Boyfriend," a cheeky mating manual hitting bookstores this week. Huffman, the Emmy-winning "Desperate Housewives" star, who wrote the book with her best friend, Patricia Wolff, are aware that men don't usually buy that kind of book.

Lonely people may have a greater risk of developing late-life dementia, researchers from Rush University Medical Center in Chicago reported this week. The study of 823 people older than 80 found that those who described themselves as lonely were twice as likely to develop the kind of dementia associated with Alzheimer's disease. Previous studies have suggested that people who are socially isolated or lack intellectual stimulation are at greater risk for Alzheimer's.