An anonymous reader who goes by the tag 'user' has been sending e-mail messages to about 40 recipients in the media and securities industries critical of the failed financial advisory firm Allen Perkins. Readers might recall the high-profile firm's fall from grace, including its departure from its Kowloon Tong mansion and the resignation of its motivational boss Elsa Pau. Attempts to expand into publishing and coffee marketing failed and, well, things went from bad to worse. Our informant tells us a group of former employees have started legal proceedings to wind up the company. Apparently, Allen Perkins has been ordered by the Labour Tribunal to pay salaries it owes - the precise claim number is LBTC1046/2002 - but it hasn't. Nothing would surprise us about Allen Perkins, a company where the mysteries have long outnumbered the hard facts. We asked 'user' what his own interest was in this bizarre episode. He (or is that she?) responded: 'While this is not directly related to me, I felt this group of poor people is being taken advantage of by their former employer and is not being helped by the Hong Kong labour protection code. Out of an insuppressible feeling of unjust, you deem it necessary to reveal to the world about this incident.' It is deemed. What a winner: 7-Eleven is one of Lai See's favourite companies. The store near our place is open all the time and sells nearly everything we need, including Heineken - the world's 82nd most valued brand last year, according to Interbrand - and Coca-Cola (ranked brand No 1). 7-Eleven must be doing something right. While other retailers struggle, it seems to go from strength to strength, regularly selling out of all its carefully selected popular products. But 7-Eleven has another amazing skill. It can see into the future! Check out the full-page advertisement 7-Eleven and many of its suppliers placed in yesterday's newspaper. Note the '2002 Yahoo! Emotive Brand' written at the top right-hand side of the page. Now Lai See readers might recall from an earlier item that the Yahoo! (whose brand ranks 59th in the world) Emotive Brand Awards are being held on Thursday. More than 50 brand awards will be handed out, but only three on our list include the phrase 'emotive brand'. They are the 'Heart Warming Brand Award', the 'Ace of Hearts Emotive Brand Award' and the 'Most Emotive Personality Brand Award'. The others have names like 'Award for the Brand Yahoo! users are most loyal to'. Yahoo! marketing sources tell us 7-Eleven has been informed it has won a prize, but does not know which one. Everyone will find out on Thursday. Oh dear! What happens if 7-Eleven wins the Yahoo Male Users' Heart Warming Brand Award instead of one of the really emotive awards? We will keep our fingers crossed. Number imperfect: A reader suggests there is a cultural reason for the Hong Kong Jockey Club's dismal record in matching its winning Mark Six numbers with Lai See's. 'The reason you are picking the other 43 numbers rather than the six winning ones is obviously because of the system you use.' He suggests we start generating our winning numbers using a system developed by number specialist Leo Fibonacci. 'Leo Fibonacci was Italian and, of course, had a different approach to numbers from your Indonesian friends.' But Sabrina Rony, the Singapore-based Indonesian number selector who made yesterday's excellent selection, has given us some information about Leo Fibonacci. Apparently, like Sabrina, he uses several different names. His original name was Leonardo Pisano, but he became better known by his nickname Fibonacci. Another name he used was Bigollo, which could mean either 'good for nothing' or 'a traveller' in the Tuscan dialect. It's all a random walk in our opinion. We will stick with Indonesia. Graphic: whee26gbz