Valentine's Day: Pink is the New Orange; Irvine Love; Plus, Geeks, Allergics, Harold and Maude

Paris, which is the City of Love, has the 986-foot-tall Eiffel Tower. Orange County, which is the County of Theme Parks, has the 312-foot-tall Supreme Scream coaster at Knott's Berry Farm. But nights during this season of love, Supreme Scream glows pink.

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The spectacle that can be seen from miles away is not only in honor of Valentine's Day but Knott's for the Cure, the Buena Park attraction's second annual partnership with Susan G. Komen Orange County, which fights breast cancer.

Besides Supreme Scream, Calico Mine Ride, the Camp Snoopy waterfall and the Knott's Main Gate area are bathed in pink light nightly through March 27.

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Irvine is the sixth best city to spend Valentine's Day in, according to a national study that takes into account restaurant meal costs, the number of attractions and the number of florists per capita.

Consumer site WalletHub.com commissioned 2015's Best and Worst Cities for Valentine's Day, which is topped by San Francisco.

Riverside is No. 24, Long Beach is No. 35, Anaheim is No. 39 and Santa Ana is No. 48.

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Forget farmers, folks over 50 and people of your own (or a different) race. Actually, really forget sites like FarmersOnly.com because of the hay-fever threat. That's because sisters Arianne Schreer and Alexis Pizzurro have developed a new dating app that fellow sufferers will be happy to wave a wet hankie at: Allergic Attraction.

“Most do not know that dating with allergies has many dangers and can be extremely difficult especially for college students,” explains an Allergic Attraction PR monkey. “So Alexis and Ari made a site for young adults that is changing the allergy world.”

The pitch for coverage also included this: “With Valentine's Day right around the corner, love is in the air!” So is pollen, she shoulda added.

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You know how I really do hate to make assumptions like this, but surely there is a great amount of crossover between the allergic and geek worlds. So why not take the date you met on Allergic Attraction to Laguna Hills Mall Valentine's Day for the Winter Oomba Tournment (WOOT)?

Oomba is a gaming-centric start-up company out of Irvine that provides users tools and resources to manage, plan and play in tournaments of any kind, anywhere. Attractions at WOOT, which is free and runs from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday, include the first Southern California Settlers of Catan qualifier of 2015, eSports tournaments, break-dancing competitions and crazy combat juggling.

Besides tournament opponents, there will be appearances by professional gamer Justin Wong, YouTube star Olga Kay and rock-paper-scissors champion Master Roshambollah, who obviously knows what you know now: Oomba set the official world record in 2014 for the largest rock-paper-scissors tournament.

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Geeked allergics will want to set their inhaler phasers at stun against the mist of dried flowers and grass clippings flowing through the air so they can join us Valentine's Night in Long Beach's historic Sunnyside Cemetery.

That's where we'll be watching Hal Ashby's 1971 cult classic Harold and Maude. Starring Bud Cort (so young you won't recognize him) and the late Ruth Gordon (stealing yet another picture), the dark comedy is about a young man who is really into death striking up a romance with an old woman overflowing with spunk–and this was years before anyone developed an app to bring together such couples. (“You don't have to be lonely with GreatGrammysOnly.com.”)

This is the fifth year Long Beach Cinematheque–led fearlessly by Frida Cinema of Santa Ana's Logan Crow–has presented a Harold and Maude Valentine's screening. Gates open at 6:30 p.m. Saturday with music at 7:30 and the flick at 8. The cemetery is at 1095 E. Willow St., Long Beach, tickets are 12 bucks and parking is limited inside but there is plenty outside the gates. More details on Facebook; tickets are HERE.

Email: mc****@oc******.com. Twitter: @MatthewTCoker. Follow OC Weekly on Twitter @ocweekly or on Facebook!

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