Cool Time at the Carnival

Hello everyone from beautiful (and COLD) Quebec City, Canada. Today there's a nice light snow falling, and it may hit 25 degrees if we are lucky. That's appropriate, because I am here visiting some friends who are working on the Québec Winter Carnival. It’s a family-friendly celebration of art, culture, sports, and entertainment to which tourists from around the world are invited. My kind of event!

A while back, I lived here in Quebec City for about a year, so it is wonderful to get back and see this place and see my wonderful friends here again. When I moved here--let's just say as a "much younger person"--there were really only two big festivals per year.

During the time I was here, the community decided to actively promote festivals as an economic development strategy. The outcome is amazing! The city now boasts more than 30 festivals per year. A sampling of these events can be found here.


I hear that you have had your share of "wintry mix" of snow and ice in the last couple of days in Raytown. Stay warm!

A Christmas Card "imPRESSes" Me

I make a point to be here in the USA each year for a special observance on the King Day Weekend. I look forward to sharing more about this event next year. I hope that many of you will have the opportunity to join me in an extremely meaningful use of a “day off” on MLK Day, 2008.

Of course, because I am home now, one of the wonderful things I get to do is catch up on all the beautiful correspondence I‘ve received, and respond to as many people as possible. Even in a world where e-mail follows me around the globe, there are some benefits to papers and pictures that friends handle and write on that you can pick up and touch and even see smear marks sometimes! Some people like carrying and using cash for their transactions. I like receiving cards and letters. So, keep them coming!

My good friends Bob and Ana sent me this wonderful holiday card! It was literally “right off the press”, as they produce these wonderful papers right in North Kansas City. (I keep thinking I need to work a little harder to bring their company, Skylab Letterpress, to Raytown. I think this would be a brilliant fit with the Applied Technology niche that we are developing.) Anyhoo, the texture on this card is perfectly exquisite! When you receive a card from Skylab Letterpress, you’ve truly got something in your hand that was “crafted”, not something that was nonchalantly “produced”. As soon as Ben and Sarah open the coffee shop, I am certain that we will have some of their great papers around from time to time. As a writer, I can tell you first hand that they are inspiring.

By the way, now that I have shared this card with you, I feel somewhat obligated to elaborate on the Stockholm story. As you might imagine, I am a diehard soccer fan. What do you expect from a guy whose father is from Italy and whose mother is from Costa Rica? And once every 4 years, I get to experience the privilege of attending the FIFA World Cup games. It’s a great opportunity to keep in touch with some of the wonderful people around the world I’ve met. Think of it as a month long international homecoming where you get to hang out with wonderful people, do business, and watch the 48 best soccer teams in the world play to the finish. Now, that’s truly a “World Series” of “Super Bowl” proportions.

So, the USA Team didn’t turn in their best effort, and went home after their first round this time. Still, the USA was able to shock the Italian Team to a 1-1 tie match. Then, the Italians went on to win the entire tournament. So, that says something for the USA Team. By the way, the 2010 Tournament will be hosted by South Africa. Anyone care to join me?

So, what about Stockholm, the capital of Sweden? Not to give a geography lesson here, but Stockholm is located a short 3 ½ hour trip by air from Nuremburg, Germany (including the brief layover in Copenhagen, Denmark). I was in Stockholm in between the rounds of World Cup play. One of my favorite café mochas is served up at a cozy little restaurant called Petite Östermalmstorg, which has been an inspiration for the upcoming coffee shop. (Check it out at: http://www.petite.se/ompetite.html).

It was there I had the opportunity to meet Bob and Ana. There were also some American Embassy guards who were out for an evening of fun and great food. About 9 PM, some of the USA Team showed up, enjoying some well deserved rest. Apparently some of the team was a bit dehydrated from their exhausting 2-1 loss to Ghana. So, when a couple of them got ill, the guards from the Embassy were able to get them right back to see the Embassy Doctor. I hope you guys are back to normal now!

I see that my New England Patriots are about to kick off against the San Diego Chargers, so at the risk of ending this session abruptly, I must sign off. I wish Marty Schottenheimer all the luck of the world—next year. Go Patriots!

Happy New Year from South Boston

Happy New Year everyone!

Once again, it was great to be in New York City and join the 1 million folks in Time’s Square for the traditional New Year’s countdown. At Mayor Bloomberg’s invitation, I was privileged to pull the switch that dropped more than 3.5 million tons of confetti on the crowd—a new world’s record. Just where do you locate 3.5 million tons of confetti Marcos, you ask? That’s a great question. Unfortunately, the answer will have to wait for another day.
Following the festivities, I walked the short few blocks to Penn Station and caught the 3:15 red eye train to Boston. I love that train. It’s quiet, and gives me a 4 ½ hour snooze that’s much cheaper than a night in a Manhattan hotel. I love arriving in Boston at dawn. The skyline is beautiful in the pink-orange haze. It's small compared to other world class cities. But, it's always home.

Then, it was on to my old stomping grounds, South Boston, which was recently put on the map by several blockbuster movies, including Mystic River. Also, Good Will Hunting, which was written by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, and featured them as well as Robin Williams. OK—right here I have to take the blame for any small breakdowns in any of these 3 “Southie” dialects. They were nothing but professional. It was a learning process for me as I worked with them. Maybe a little too much Italian in my tongue still?

When I arrived in “Southie”, I hooked up with three of my childhood friends, and got reunited with my pet monkey Fez. We enjoyed a leisurely orange cranberry scone and washed down with a creamy macchiato at a cozy family-owned coffee shop that I practically grew up in. In fact, it really was the inspiration for Benetti’s Coffee Experience. Along with Ben and Sarah’s contagious passion, of course.

So, then it was off to the L Street Bathhouse, home of the L Street Brownies. Legend has it that this is the 2nd oldest cold water swim club in the US, with members taking a dip in the Dorchester Bay every day of the year, rain or shine, since 1902. On New Year’s Day, the event turns into a quaint Homecoming experience, with several hundred in attendance. I am more than happy to participate whenever the opportunity presents itself.

Rumor even has it that John F Kennedy participated as a teenager more than once. Although, it’s not clear whether it was with or without his family’s blessing. Fortunately for us today it was a balmy 48 degrees Fahrenheit. Here is a picture of me and my 3 friends doing our best Uncle Sam impersonations. Can you pick me out?

It has been known to be in sub-zero temperatures for this annual ritual. Some of the club members in their nineties insist that in the year 1918, it was an arctic 30 degrees below zero, and supposedly they had to borrow an axe from the Fire Station to break through the ice on the Bay and get to the water. They say they were only in the water for 10 seconds, but they didn’t just poke their toes in—they dove in head first! I think that’s highly unlikely. Anyhoo, we were only in the water for 10 minutes this year. I wasn’t disappointed when we agreed to get back to shore and warm up. You can learn more about the L Street Brownies here.

I am looking forward to a wonderful 2007. So, I am sharing my prayer for 2007 for each of you, my dear friends, which is attributed to St. Francis of Assisi:

Lord, make us instruments of your peace: where there is hatred, let us sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy.

O divine Master, grant that we may not so much seek to be consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen