The recommendation to use super-glue to stick down the
copper island pads seems to be at odds with the suggestion
that super-gluing of one's fingers can be cured with hot water.

Wouldn't the heat of soldering cause the super-glue to fail?

Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. Seems to depend on the
specific variety of cyanoacrylate glue you use, and whether you can
"get on and get off" the pad quickly when soldering. The "toughened"
cyanoacrylates, which have some rubber particles in the mix and remain
slightly flexible, might be less likely to "pop" due to thermal
stress.

I had DirtyPcbs.com make me up a set of "Manhattan-like" prototype
boards for small analog circuits. They're similar in style to a board
made with a pad cutter or core drill, but without the dust :-)

http://dirtypcbs.com/view.php?share=... 9915ee9dd2ed
http://dirtypcbs.com/view.php?share=... 929b455acecd