1.   Celebrity status offers many lures, but for him, laughter always took second place to loyalty.

2.   Derek Harper might have retired last offseason had the Lakers not offered the lure of an NBA championship.

3.   The higher-priced discounters are offering nonprice lures, too.

4.   The lowest unemployment level in a quarter century has forced retailers to offer extraordinary lures to attract part-time help.

5.   The marquee names are gone, plucked away by other suitors who offered the lure of an NBA championship.

6.   Web companies that need instant branding but have little cash on hand can offer the lure of stock options and potential market riches.

7.   Why bother with the ways of Graham and Dodd, the classic value-hunters, when Wall Street was offering investors the lure of new investing metrics?

8.   Iraqi Oil Minister Amer Rashid called on Russian oil firms on Tuesday to step up their activities in Iraq, offering the lure of billions of dollars in contracts.