THE LEFT LANE
Tales for your keiki

Advertiser Staff and News Services

We're pleased to announce that a new feature premieres tomorrow in The Advertiser. "Tell Me a Story" will present adaptations of folk tales from around the world, ready-made for reading to your keiki, each Friday. We think "Tell Me a Story" will appeal to families with young readers.

Our first story, "Summer Rain" (a tale from China), tells of a beautiful princess who once lived in a kingdom of the stars. She was known far and wide as a wonderful weaver and called the Weaving Maid.

One day, a handsome man's face mysteriously appears in her tapestry ...

Ansel draws a crowd

A photography exhibit featuring 31 Hawai'i pictures by Ansel Adams is drawing many people to the Honolulu Academy of Arts. A lecture last week was so jammed that people were turned away.

The black-and-white photos were shot in 1948 when Adams was brought to Hawai'i by the National Park Service, and in 1958 when First Hawaiian Bank hired him to shoot pictures for a book. The exhibit ends Aug. 4.

As for the Artists of Hawai'i show next door, attendance looked a bit thin compared to last year's jam-packed event.

Both shows end Aug. 4.

Slugs are eating your plants? Caffeine is the foe of sluggishness, scientists say, in more ways than one.

Slugs — and snails — avoid caffeine like poison because to them, it's exactly that.

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service in Hawai'i found that a 1- to 2-percent caffeine solution, about 10 times the level in a typical cup of coffee, kills the slimesters on contact. And it takes only a 0.01-percent solution to scare them away, the researchers reported in last week's Nature.

Scientists don't know how caffeine kills the mollusks, but they speculate that the chemical may damage their nerve cells. (Yes, they have feeling, if not feelings.)

Now we can all play Audrey Hepburn as Holly Golightly in "Breakfast at Tiffany's," with our noses pressed to the window as we lust after precious jewels.

Through August 28, Tiffany & Co. at Ala Moana Center is showcasing a special collection of gemstone and diamond rings called "American Classics." While the stones come from all over the world, the designs are all-American Tiffany.

Among the treasures are a 5.05-carat oval Burma ruby set in platinum and 18-karat gold, a 9.44-carat Kashmir sapphire set in platinum and a 10.10-carat Colombian emerald set in platinum and 18-karat gold.

You don't have to stand outside like Holly did. The exhibit is free and open to the public during regular store hours. For information, call 943-6677.