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THINK SMART Helpful tips for your everyday life

Where to rent a hybrid

Thinking of renting a hybrid? Good luck finding one. Very few companies maintain a fleet of hybrids for rent.

"There are just not enough hybrids in the marketplace for the big companies to buy and offer them," explains Paul Christensen, COO of EV Rental Cars, which does maintain a fleet, renting the cars in conjunction with Fox Rent A Car. "And these are very expensive vehicles right now."

EV's 450 all-hybrid fleet includes the Toyota Prius and Highlander, Ford Escape and Honda Civic models. Daily rates for a Honda Civic Hybrid start at around $29. However, the vehicles are available at a limited number of locations, including Phoenix, San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego, as well as San Jose, Santa Ana and Oakland, Calif.

Enterprise Rent-A-Car plans to add 160 hybrids this year, but they'll only be available in California. And Zipcar offers hourly rentals in cities like Minneapolis, New York and Boston. It has hybrids, but they're not cheap. A typical one-day Prius rental in Washington, D.C., is currently $65. Until more of these cars are produced, it's still easier to rent a gas guzzler than a hybrid in the United States.

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5 foolproof rules of parenting

It's never too late to brush up on basics. I consider these to be the bedrock principles of great parenting:

Laugh a lot. Laughter increases feel-good endorphins and lowers stress levels. The newest twist popping up is Laughter Yoga's "Laughter Clubs," which combine laughter with simple yoga poses.

Get the family moving. If yoga is not your family's thing, then enlist the kids' help in picking a physical activity everyone can enjoy. Getting your children active will go a long way toward lifelong good health.

Avoid labels. Childhood pigeonholes (like "soccer star" or "math whiz") can stick around well into adulthood.

Read to kids every night. Even 10 to 15 minutes can make a huge difference in developing language skills. Kids with a variety of reading materials at home score higher on standardized tests, so be sure to stock up on audio books, magazines, word games -- anything that will help to exercise their reading muscles.

Catch kids being good. If you pay attention and verbally compliment good behavior every day, you probably will see less of the bad. Another upside to positive reinforcement: It cuts down on sibling rivalry. More often than not, kids fight as a way of getting Mom or Dad to pay attention, not about who controls the remote for the TV.

Ann Pleshette Murphy is ABC's Good Morning America parenting expert.

Giggling can help you and your kids decrease some stress.

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Vitamin E saves lives

A new National Cancer Institute study of 29,000 older male smokers followed for 19 years finds that, contrary to recent headlines, vitamin E is a lifesaver.

Men with the highest blood levels of vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol) were 18% less apt to die from any cause than those with the lowest blood vitamin E. Specifically, high blood levels of E cut risk of dying from prostate cancer 32%, lung cancer 21%, ischemic (blood clot) stroke 37%, hemorrhagic (bleeding) stroke 35% and respiratory disease 42%.

The "optimal" dose of vitamin E is unknown and would vary with individuals, says Oregon State University expert Maret Traber. Up to 1,500 IU of vitamin E a day is considered safe for adults.

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High-yield savings online

The average savings account is paying about 0.54%, but you can beat that with the help of your computer. "Banks offering high yields are using the Internet to market to a national audience," says Greg McBride, of Bankrate.com. "Now, all consumers can get access to the best rates." Below are three examples with low minimums and no fees. (For more listings, including favorable rates on CDs, go to bankrate.com and click on "compare rates.")