THE LEFT LANE
Shamrocks fight MD

The association, in partnership with businesses around Hawai'i, is asking Islanders to invest $1 or $5 in green or gold shamrocks to be displayed in stores on St. Paddy's Day. All proceeds go to summer camps for children and adults with neuromuscular diseases, as well as clinics, support groups and the purchase of assistance equipment.

Stores participating in the Shamrocks Against Dystrophy effort include Longs Drugs, Kentucky Fried Chicken and Kinko's. Look for shamrocks at checkout counters. Information: 548-0588.

New tropical drinks

With bartenders serving up cosmopolitans by the dozens, and thanks in no small part to the women on HBO's "Sex and the City" series, who favor tropical drinks, it was only a matter of time before liquor companies began to roll out new flavors.

Jim Beam Brands is the latest. For the first time since 1995, it is adding a new flavor to its DeKuyper Liqueur line, rolling out DeKuyper Tropical Pineapple Liqueur.

Sacrifices for sex

You gotta wonder when a press release from K-Y liquid lubricant arrives on your desk. Do the words "Study Findings," followed by the heading "Eternally Great Sex" amount to breaking news that must be told?

Maybe you want to know anyway. Apparently, some people would do just about anything for great sex. So says a nationwide survey K-Y conducted through Harris Interactive in a telephone poll of more than 1,000 couples.

One in four (25 percent) said they would give up a perfect body in exchange for eternally ground-moving sex, the study found.

Only 4 percent said they would give up their homes, successful career or money for flawless lovemaking. But one in 10 said they would give up a kidney if a genie would grant them a lifetime of great sex.

Give up a kidney? "Hey," the press release points out, "you only need one, anyway."