THE LEFT LANE
Iz featured in People

Being cool costs less

The folks at Heineken are happy (of course) to report that young adults will have more money (for beer, we're assuming) this summer, thanks to the declining cost of being cool.

The third annual Heineken IN DEX, a national survey of Americans in their 20s, found that the cost of 11 key summer products and activities has fallen from $5,026 in 2001 to $2,091 this year.

The survey cites declining international travel as a major reason for the drop.

In other areas of study, this year's hot "tech toy," the digital camera (about $350), is cheaper than last year's smart phone (about $425). Twenty-somethings also are saving money with their choices of Ray Ban High Street Metal sunglasses ($90) vs. Oakley Titanium ($275). The cost for Heineken beer, study authors kindly note, remains steady.

If you know someone who is a new father, or about to become one, here's a Father's Day present that will help them wrestle with the all-important issue of how to be the best possible dad.

It's a not-quite-tongue-in-cheek little paperback called "101 Secrets a Good Dad Knows" by Walder Browder and Sue Ellin Browder (Rutledge Hill Press, $9.99).

This book is far more useful, multi-layered and engrossing than most Dad's Day releases. Every chapter is a detailed how-to (from how to oil a bicycle to how to get your boomerang to come back) and comes with extras such as sayings and adages ("A big guy never hurts a little guy") and "Dadfacts" (how a horse talks) and "Dadtips" (how to give a cat a pill).

It really is the kind of stuff that good dads know.

Witches brewing

Author Anne Rice, best known for her books detailing the lives and times of painfully hip vampires, is lining her wallet with money from another supernatural force — witches — thanks to NBC.

The peacock network has bought the television rights to Rice's witching trilogy, consisting of "The Witching Hour," "Lasher" and "Taltos," to be made into a 12-hour series. The "Witching Hour" books chronicle the lives and times of several generations of a family of witches, the Mayfairs.

Air dates will be announced later.