What the Heck? John Heckathorn

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Young Valentines breakfast at Tiffany's

Young love: What did you do for your Sweetie for Valentine's Day? Waldorf School senior, Christopher Matar, 17, duped his sweetie, Waldorf junior Quincy Adamo, into going with him early into Waikiki, where, thanks to a package bought at a charity auction, Tiffany's let him in the back entrance.

Inside waiting was a sleepy Tiffany's staff and Chef Chai Chaowasaree ("I don't usually get up this early," said Chai).

For the lovebirds, Chef Chai whipped up a Breakfast at Tiffany's: fresh berries with yogurt, a loco moco with Kobe beef filet mignon and crab meat fried rice, followed by a white chocolate truffle in raspberry sauce. For the last course, Chai presented Adamo with something covered in a silver dome he had to borrow from La Mer.

What was under the dome? An 18-carat yellow gold "feathers" pendant on a 20-inch snake chain. Adamo looked pleased.

What did you do for Valentine's? Just asking.

Taking things a bit too literally: On Valentine's Day, I got a fax from the Queen's Medical Center. Its title: "How to Mend a Broken Heart." Its subject: An upcoming lecture on "The Latest in Heart Valve Surgery" by Dr. Michael Dang.

Quiz time: See how fast you can answer these four questions. 1) Who was the favorite wife of King Kamehameha the Great? 2) Exactly how many bytes are in a kilobyte? 3) For which team did Sid Fernandez play two games in 1983? 4) Name one of the two former presidents to whom Elvis Presley is distantly related.

Know the answers? If so, you were a good candidate for QuizBowl, an innovative fund-raiser for College Connections, a nonprofit that helps Hawaii kids get into college.

Last Saturday, 28 teams -- co-workers, families, friends -- paid up to $2,500 to wrack their brains for answers, first in a lightning multiple-choice test, then, if they survived that round, a head-to-head buzz-in competition.

Ho'ala Greevy's PauSpam team tried to intimidate the competition by buying its own trophy and placing it prominently on their table. But they were outdone by a team put together by Joe Stewart of Kobayashi Sugita Goda, which included two other lawyers, Brendan Bailey and Mason Martin, and paralegal Martha Urann.

Urann was something of a ringer. She'd been a "Jeopardy" champ, taken $5,000 of Ben Stein's money and won $14,000 on a short-lived game show called "Rodeo Drive."

The answers: 1) Ka'ahumanu, 2) 1,024, 3) the Los Angeles Dodgers, and 4) believe it or not, Elvis was distantly related to both Abraham Lincoln and Jimmy Carter.

Gung hee fat choy: The Lexuses were lined up down Beretania last Saturday night to valet park at C.S. Wo. The Wo family throws the most upscale Chinese New Year in town, complete with calligraphers to inscribe your New Year's wishes on red paper and models from Neiman Marcus wearing silk clothes and jade jewelry so expensive it required an armed guard.

The big attractions seemed to be the wine bar and the amazing food. For instance, Kelvin Ro of Diamond Head Market celebrated the Year of the Boar by roasting two whole pigs, served with bao and plum sauce.

Food was served right in the middle of the furniture showroom. People with full plates and glasses plopped down on the couches.

Ran into a Wo brother, Bennett. "Don't you worry about people spilling?" I asked. "We try not to. Puts a damper on things," said Bennett. But, he added, "You'll notice we didn't serve any red wine."

Seventy's the new 50: Since it was a transparent attempt by the Legislature to deny Linda Lingle the opportunity to appoint judges, last fall the voters refused to lift the mandatory retirement requirement for 70-year-old state judges.

Of course, it was patently unfair to some older, but highly capable judicial minds. One of the first judges forced out will be the Intermediate Court of Appeals' Jim Burns, who turns 70 on April 19.

What's next? Burns may work on the Hawaii campaign of his golf buddy, Barack Obama. In fact, his staff has made some "Obama-Burns 2008" banners for the office. Burns is dubious about ending up as Obama's running mate. "I'm not sure the St. Louis-Punahou thing would work out," he says.

Polishing the Apple: First in line at the Apple Store opening last Saturday in Kahala Mall was Dean Masai of the state's Energy Division, who arrived at 3 a.m. Following him was UH senior Matthew Chow, who somehow got his mother to stand in line early for him. Third was UH grad student Matthew Satterthwaite, a laggard who showed up at 5 a.m.

Why? The Apple Store was giving away T-shirts and a chance to win a new MacBook. But really it was a gathering of the faithful. In line were Heather and Justin Sloan. Justin wore an "I'm a PC" sign. Heather's sign said, "I'm with Stupid."

At 10 a.m., store employees lined up, cheered and high-fived the first entrants. The line to get in stretched all the way back to the theaters. The new Apple Store's manager, Donovan Benton, has worked retail here for years, mainly in clothing. "Do you like this better?" I asked.

"Are you kidding?" said Benton. "This is way fun."

Don't like this item? KSMY-S. The rules prohibit "objectionable" personalized license plates, so my hat's off to the driver of the black Mini who slipped the plate KSMY-S past the city's Motor Vehicle Department. Especially since these days, KSMY-S seems to be the attitude of every other driver on the streets of Honolulu.