This is a wee bit o' cross promotion by the Toronto Star: It owns Harlequin Enterprises, who released a "Romance Report on guilty pleasures, whims, desires and indulgences."

That ownership stake isn't disclosed in the story. With that sin of omission documented, here's your blog junk food for today:

An excerpt:

When it comes to guilty pleasures and all things sexual, the gap between men and women just keeps growing. Or so it would seem from the Harlequin 2005 Romance Report on guilty pleasures, whims, desires and indulgences.

According to the North American survey, men are more likely to have guilty pleasures that revolve around sex. They want more sex more often, and they want their partners to be more experimental in the bedroom. They would also like to see their partners don sexy lingerie and they admit to fantasizing about having sex with someone who is off limits.

In contrast women seem to have a different set of priorities and guilty pleasures, and much of it has little to do with sex. They want their mates to pitch in with household chores, pamper them with gifts and remember to do something special for them on Valentine's Day, anniversaries and birthdays.

And their guilty pleasures revolve around eating junk food and watching junk television.

The report by the company famous for its bodice-ripping novels is based on a telephone survey of 2,015 men and women, 18 and older, in the United States and Canada.

The gender gap closes when it comes to the workplace. According to the survey, about 30 per cent of Canadian men and women say their guilty pleasure is booking off sick from their jobs or spending the day in bed. What the survey doesn't say is whether they have company or are luxuriating in bed all by themselves.

It's enough to send Toronto sex educator Cory Silverberg into a pre-Valentine's Day depression. First, he questions the premise and demographics of the survey, wondering if it really reflects the diverse views of all Canadians.

And if it does, he said, it's sad. "I guess it says that we're way more overworked than oversexed," said Silverberg, who is also a co-owner of a sex toy store on Queen Street W.