Overnight Briefing & General Reality Check

Valentine's Trivia:

--We spent over $1 billion on Valentine's Day candy last year, making it the fourth most popular holiday for candy sales behind Halloween, Easter and Christmas. By the way, those stupid little candy hearts with printed messages like "Hug Me" or "True Blue" first appeared in the 1800's and were called "Conversational Lozenges."
--Feb 14 is the second-largest greeting card holiday after Christmas. About 163 million cards are exchanged (not counting those packaged valentines exchanged by schoolkids).
--You want gifts? About a third of us buy jewelry. Most popular gift --six in 10 buy chocolate (see below).
--Let's talk flowers. The two weeks preceding Valentine's Day account for nearly 13 percent of florists' sales each year. It comes out to nearly $40 million for that three-week period, a spending increase over 300 percent more for flowers than we spent in the entire month of January. Then again, lots of vendors jack up prices by as much as 90 percent since they know people will pay on Valentine's Day. A dozen red roses will cost you anywhere from $50 to $90 in some parts of the country.
Size does matter:
--Only 50 percent of men shop knowing the difference between a size 2 and a size 12. Which may account for why lingerie accounts for just 3 percent of the gifts given on February 14. Flowers (32 percent) and candy (20 percent) are much more popular presents.
--PS: I love me: 11 percent of love letters and 20 percent of the flowers received on Valentine's Day are sent by people... to themselves.

Going all the way on Valentine's Day:

Wanna get married in Las Vegas? You'll need $35 in cash and IDs for the license (the Clark County Courthouse is open 24 hours Friday and Saturday), and you both must be at least 18 or older and no closer of kin than second cousins. Once you get the license, it's good for a year but there's no waiting period and no blood test. And there's 64 wedding chapels at last count! Some of the semi-famous wedding sites include:
--Viva Las Vegas Wedding Chapel (features live webcasts of weddings as they're happening), $75 up to $14-thousand.
--Little White Wedding Chapel (open 24/7, featuring drive-thru weddings); $55-$799, although a 'drive-thru' costs $40.
Editor's note: Most of the casinos also offer wedding packages beginning at around $650.

Chinese New Year:

Happy Chinese New Year, and welcome to 4708 in the Chinese calendar --the Year of the Tiger-- which begins Sunday. In Chinese: Gung Hay Fat Choy!
Quotable: "Wow! I'm still writing Ox on my checks!" (anon)

Famous people born in the Year of the Tiger:

SHERYL CROW, TOM CRUISE, LEONARDO DiCAPRIO, EMILY DICKINSON, DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER, QUEEN ELIZABETH II, JAY LENO, HUGH HEFNER, WILLIAM HURT, DYLAN THOMAS, KARL MARX, MARILYN MONROE, MARCO POLO, BEATRIX POTTER, DEMI MOORE, LIONEL RITCHIE, KENNY ROGERS and JON STEWART.

Food and the Chinese New Year:

On New Year's Eve, vast amounts of traditional foods are prepared for family and friends, as well as the ancestors. Probably more food is consumed during the New Year celebrations than any other time of the year.
All the food has other meanings; for instance, wonton and dumplings represent ancient Chinese money and eating them is supposed to help in amassing fortunes and wealth in the coming year. Chicken and fish are homonyms for lucky and having enough to spare. Eating fried food means you will have a hot and exciting life; sweet foods mean your life will be sweet and happy. Orange is for good luck.