A Valentine's dance | The Honolulu Advertiser

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A Valentine's dance | The Honolulu Advertiser | Hawaii's Newspaper

Posted on: Tuesday, February 4, 2003

THE LEFT LANE
A Valentine's dance

Advertiser staff and news services

A Valentine's dance

The broken hearts club is at it again. Coates & Frey, the law firm that specializes in divorces and has a bandaged broken heart as a logo, has rented out the Ocean Club at Restaurant Row Feb. 7 for another "Heal the Hearts" Valentine's Day Ball.

This is the fourth year Brad Coates and Greg Frey are playing host to former clients, marriage counselors and other courthouse types at the by-invitation-only soiree. Highlights are sure to include dancing lawyers and possible love connections among the lovelorn. The dress code? "Collared shirts for men. Wear your heart on your sleeve."

It's, like, almost real

You can kiss, but you can't "go all the way." You can shop but you have to buy money first. And you can talk, talk, talk. The creators of a new three-dimensional universe "There" (www.there.com) hope this will appeal to people — especially women — who want to socialize in cyberspace in a very real way — without any actual messy human contact.

"There" is designed to run over dial-up Internet access, but it does require special software, which is mailed to dial-up users after they register. Membership will be free until "There" officially launches in the fall, after which a monthly fee (probably $10) will be charged. Users assume a customizable cartoon-like identity called an avatar and communicate with text that appears in bubbles over their heads. People with broadband access can talk through microphones and listen to shared music and sound effects.

It is not a game, said Tom Melcher, chief executive of There Inc. It's an "online getaway" with no defined objectives. OK, we get it: slacker heaven.

A pal for lonely kids

Linda Bremner knows the power of being a secret admirer. In 1980, when her 8-year-old son, Andy, was diagnosed with cancer, he was overwhelmed with get-well greetings. But the mail trickled off, and she began to write her son "secret pal" letters to lift his spirits. Although he discovered she was his secret pal, she continued to write him until he died in 1984.

After his death, she found a shoe box of his letters, as well as names and addresses of kids he had met at a camp for cancer patients, which inspired her to start an organization to help sick children feel a little less lonely. Love Letters Inc., an Illinois charity, sends more than 5,000 pieces of mail a month to children who have long-term or catastrophic illnesses. See www.lovelettersinc.org or phone (630) 620-1970.

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