Derivatives in drag; Silicone Valley; Sex ed cafe

[Bapopik at AOL.COM]

   Greetings from Hong Kong, the "City of Life" (whatever that means).
   This is from the ESSENTIAL HONG KONG TRAVEL GUIDE, pg. v:

   There will be parties all around the city on New Year's Eve.  Trendy Lan Kwai Fong on Hong Kong Island will celebrate with a _Millennium Bug Party_.  The narrow streets wil be crawling with giant spiders, roaches, ants and insects and special menus on 31 December will feature tanalising dishes such as "Legs Benedict" (See ADS-L archives for Eggs Benedict--ed.) and "Beetlejuice."
  (...) If you're on Hong Kong Island, join the Apple Countdown at Times Square...

  FWIW, those double-decker tour bus folks at Apple Tours have just this month relocated to "Big Apple Corner" at Broadway and West 54th Street.  Not that I get any money out of it!

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DERIVATIVES IN DRAG

  An interesting article on this was in the FINANCIAL TIMES (London), Weekend edition Dec. 18-19, 1999, Pg. 22, cols. 1-7:

_A fashion for "derivatives in drag"_
FUNDAMENTALS Lawrence Richter Quinn
   Financial risk management tools, dubbed "derivatives in drag," are being developed to help investors detect and prepare for volatility by pinpointing which global corporations best manage earnings volatility quarterly and year-over-year.
   The new tools, introduced by property-casualty insurers over the past two or three years, are coming into vogue with CFOs, CEOs and boards of directors.
   These programmes, also known as "holistic risk," "enterprise risk" and "insuritisation risk" management, may help companies manage earnings volatility over periods as long as three to five years.

   This is great!  Now we can have our financial tools sing Ethel Merman doing "Blow, Gabriel, Blow."

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SILICONE VALLEY

  When I first heard this term a few years ago, I didn't think it was used that much.  This is from the "North America Today" section of the SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST, 20 December 1999, pg. 16, cols. 1-8:

_Silicone Valley busting out as mainstream films feel the pinch_
   (...)  More than 200 X-rated films a week, a five-fold increase over the past five years, are being shot in northern Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley, which locals nicknamed Silicone Valley.
  About 20,000 people are believed to work full-time in the porn industry, turning out films in a few days.

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SEX EDUCATION CAFE

  There's the cyber cafe--now the sex ed cafe?  And to think that Travelers Medical Advisory told me to stay away from Asian women!
  From the SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST, 20 December 1999, pg. 14, cols. 1-8:

_Ground-breaking cafe puts sex and Aids education high on the menu_
     Soaring HIV infection and an abortion rate reckoned to be among the highest in the world have prompted health authorities in Hanoi to break with prudish tradition and open the city's first sex education cafe.
    The opening of the Window of Love cafe, set up with German funding under the auspices of the National Aids Committee, follows a similar initiative in more liberal Ho Chi Minh City and will be used as a model for more establishments mooted for several provinces hard-hit by Vietnam's worsening HIV epidemic.

   I'll check it out.
   "EXCUSE ME!  DO YOU SERVE 'SEX ON THE BEACH' HERE?"