Swizzle Dazzlers

In the old days, a swizzle stick was aimed at a cherry or an olive and logically used to stir a gin and tonic. But in trendy bars today, as the price of some drinks hovers around five bucks, plastic swizzlers are almost as elaborate as the frozen daiquiris and blue margaritas they garnish. In Los Angeles, New York and Miami, the new adornments come shaped as inch-wide blue whales, 4-in.-long marlins or, even better, mermaids, pink elephants, giraffes, lizards and dinosaurs -- all to be fondled, chewed and traded.

John Alexander, manager of Houlihan's in Long Beach, Calif., notes that clients collect the plastic creatures and "often hang them from their glasses or from their ears." Why so? Possibly the desperate need for new conversational gambits in singles bars. "What kind of a dinosaur is that?" sure beats "What's your sign?"