Did you learn most of what you know about relationships from your parents? And is that good or bad?

If the latter, at least we’ve always had fantasy families to lean on: the Huxtables, the Wilders, the late great Joyce Summers. So please enjoy, at Babble.com, this list of — and homage to — the 25 Best Fictional Parents.

Science Daily: “New research by psychologists at the University at Buffalo and Miami University, Ohio, indicates that illusionary relationships with the characters and personalities on favorite TV shows can provide people with feelings of belonging, even in the face of low self esteem or after being rejected by friends or family members.”

I could have told you that. (But I told Liz Lemon instead.)

…and go vote!

Yes, this is a Breakup Girl issue.  Voting is participating, reminding us that we are part of — and have a stake in — something larger than ourselves. This can be a comfort if we are single and/or smarting, as well as a reminder that who we are and what we consider important has an impact on others: whether those in our Palm Pilots, or those in power.

Plus, you can always meet someone while you’re waiting in line.

Bonus! If you’ve already voted, here’s your toy surprise: a BG-relevant — and patriotic — video from super-FOBG Rob Paravonian…

Here, your weekly installment of Ask Lynn, the advice column penned by BG’s alter ego at MSN.com (powered by Match.com). This week, Deafened By Silence shouts out, wondering how long she should put up with her boyfriend’s seemingly random implementation of the silent treatment. “I am concerned that this passive-aggressive behavior will continue and ruin our relationship,” she writes. See what Lynn has to say, and then come back here to speak up!

You’re both in the Fantastic Four. Does that mean you’ll make a Fantastic Pair? Not necessarily!

Check out the Top Five Worst Superhero Marriages and Top Five Least Romantic Comics Couples as rated by the comic sites and ComicBookResources.com and Comixology.com. In most ways, these couples’ differences are more human than super-human: their various love Kryptonites include commitment-phobia, age differences, cheating spouses, skeptical friends, the slacker/striver dynamic, manipulation (in this case, of the four elements). Let’s just hope BG and The Lone Loner never make these lists!

Apparently it’s not just wine that gets better with age. According to a study by Yang Yang, a University of Chicago sociologist, the happiest Americans are the oldest Americans — and one thing those happy seniors are not is lonely. Yang believes that’s because older people have, in general, learned to be more content with what they have than younger folks.

As a case in point, Florida’s Highlands Today featured Lou and Dottie Mingacci, who have been married 62 years. Lou’s Wednesday morning Bingo outings represent his rare moments of separation from his beloved, the World War II vet tells the paper. When asked what keeps him happy, Mingacci quickly replies: his wife.

Isn’t it nice to have something to look forward to?

For those of you in a re-relationship like mine, it turns out we are not the freaks our friends try to make us out to be. In fact there’s an entire subset of relationships — with their own TV role models, of course — that have risen from the very ashes of their own breakups. (Again, and again, and again.)

According to a recent article in the Contra Costa Times, the cycle of breaking up and making up with the same person — you know, in the inimitable words of Charlene: “That man you fought with this morning, the same one you’re going to make love to tonight” — has a lot to do with our biological makeup, our fears of being alone, and, in some “extreme” cases, an addiction to the “I love, I mean hate, I mean LOVE you” drama.

Lisa Gray, a marriage and family therapist, says: “[These couples] get addicted to that up and down of emotion. The more quiet, stable love is not really cultivated as something to be respected. Just watch the common TV shows. These loud breakups-and-get-back-togethers are what get the attention.”

If that’s the case, I, for one, would be perfectly happy to spend the rest of my life never getting any attention ever again. Quiet, stable love, where are you?