Mr Lai was there to greet the PCCW executive and chatted with him for half an hour but skipped the dinner.

Insiders said even the hardiest celebrity cynics at Apple Daily were quite humbled by the 'star factor' as he took a look around the news office and shook hands with everyone.

No chitchat on universal suffrage was overheard, nor was there any mention of his father. More pertinently, Lai See sources tell us it was only a casual visit - not due diligence.

playing it by the numbers

It seems 57 is a lucky number at HSBC.

Newly appointed HSBC chairman Stephen Green is 57. So was John Bond when he took over from William Purves. Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp's Vincent Cheng Hoi-chuen took over as chairman at 57, as did Raymond Or Ching-fai, who rose to chief executive at Hang Seng Bank and who is now 57.

Now Michael Geoghegan, at 52, has taken over from Mr Green as group chief executive, our money is on Peter Wong Tung-shun, who just turned 54, to eventually move upstairs.

fishy business

What's a popular game that people love to play with lousier odds than blackjack? It has to be trading warrants. A recent survey has revealed that eight out of 10 Hong Kong investors have lost money in this fast-gain, fast-loss vehicle.

The key, according to warrant expert and author Daryl Guppy, is to remember warrants are very different from stocks because their value quickly decays, to the point where it is like swimming against the tide.

'It is like buying fish - as soon as you buy it, it starts to rot. The longer you hold, the worse you get,' said Mr Guppy.

Visit podcasting.scmp.com for more advice on keeping your money safe.

unfortunate comparison

This week's China Automotive Industry Forum was a sober affair. The most distinguished speaker was Wu Jinglian, 75, one of China's top economists, who argued for more balanced growth, relying less on investment and more on education. He compared his theory to that of Nikolai Bukharin, a Soviet economist who advocated gradual collectivisation and industrialisation in the 1920s.

Bukharin's career ended tragically following a 1938 show trial after which he was executed. He was rehabilitated and posthumously re-instated as a Communist Party member in 1988.

The black comedians of the Soviet era told many stories about Bukharin, of which the best known goes as follows:

Three men are sitting in a shed in a Siberian gulag in winter and it is minus 40 degrees.

'What are you in here for?' says one.

'I supported Bukharin. And you?'

'I opposed Bukharin.'

They turned to the third and said: 'And you?'

'I am Bukharin'.

party at your peril

Celebrating its 30th anniversary, the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers has invited its members to a cocktail party tomorrow. On the return slip is this: 'I sign below to confirm my consent to follow any and all safety instructions given by the organiser(s) and/or the owner of the premises/sites and to well equip myself with necessary safety gear for participation in the event. I understand that neither the Institution nor the parties concerned would accept any liability in connection with the above events.'

A precise bunch, those engineers, but not exactly fun. Let's hope there are no nasty incidents with canapes.