Mexico is setting a record pace — again.

Hardly a month goes by without someone here breaking a world record, or claiming to. The world’s biggest cup of hot chocolate. Most people kissing at once. Longest carpet of flowers. Biggest group haircut.

Recently, people were flocking to the parking lot of a stadium in Mexico City to see what promoters called the World’s Biggest Nativity Scene: a faux Bethlehem covering five acres and populated with 1,000 life-size figures.

On Dec. 13 came recognition for the World’s Biggest Soccer Tournament, with 12,000 teams and a player roster larger than the population of the city of Glendale. In November, the living dead took center stage: Nearly 10,000 people smeared with fake blood lurched through Mexico City’s central plaza in what organizers said was the World’s Biggest Zombie Walk.

The record-setting phenomenon is, in part, testament to the eye-popping scale of the Mexican capital, the venue for many of the record-breaking stunts. About 20 million people jam this place. On many days, it’s a certainty that you are stuck in the World’s Most Hopeless Traffic Snarl or packed inside the World’s Hottest and Most Crowded Subway Car.

Having so much humanity available means it’s not hard to scoop up at least a few thousand for the most obscure record-setting event. In the recent zombie walk, ghoulish participants gathered to call for an end to discrimination, collect food for impoverished children and draw attention to a Mexican horror film festival.

Event organizers are gathering videos, lists of participants and other evidence to have the zombie walk registered by Guinness World Records.

The quest for world records can be a way to boost a social cause, as when 4,125 people in pink created the longest human ribbon in Mexico City in October to publicize the fight against breast cancer. Or the event can serve as a gimmick for tourism or other commerce.

Mexico City authorities have hyped some of their seasonal projects as record-setters, including the biggest ice-skating rink (344,000 square feet) and artificial Christmas tree (362 feet high and 115 feet across).

This year’s gigantic Nativity scene was mounted by a Colombian company that charges as much as $5 to enter. The village, with 57 separate scenes and looking like something out of “Life of Brian,” is done up with fake camels and palm trees and actors in robes and gladiator sandals. Robotic plastic figures depict the biblical story of the Annunciation, when the archangel Gabriel tells Mary that she is to give birth.

Adrian Lozano, the project’s media director, said the installation set the record last year in the Colombian city of Cali, but that this Mexican version is even larger.

“We wanted a big city that would provide a platform for the whole world to see,” Lozano said.

Some regard the records fixation as plain silly and say it may be a sign of a shortcoming in the Mexican makeup.

“We don’t like to compete. They are records based on the idea of not competing,” commentator Carlos Elizondo Mayer-Serra once wrote. “If we have the tallest Christmas tree in the world, it’s only because our city government decided to use our taxes to make one taller, and called in a Brazilian company to do it.”

But during a period when Mexico has suffered economic troubles and horrific drug violence, what’s a better diversion than making the world’s biggest taco (200 feet long in the city of Queretaro in November) or getting the most people to dance folkloric ballet at the same time (457 dancers in Guadalajara in September)?

Pablo Guisa, who organized the zombie walk, said most of the Mexican records, such as the mass kiss in Mexico City two years ago (39,897 people), are “pretty stupid.” Nonetheless, he said, they help take the pressure off.

“In a country with so much violence and so many crises, to be able to take people out of their reality for a moment to be part of something bigger is, in the end, a good thing … even if the effort is a bit empty,” Guisa said.

With so much record-chasing, Mexicans sometimes find that the only marks left to smash are their own. Astronomy buffs here announced this month that they had surpassed their previous record for mass moon-gazing, with more than 15,000 people peering through 2,753 telescopes.

And anyway, who doesn’t want to leave a mark?

“In the United States, they’re very perfectionist. Mexicans try, but we tend to settle for less,” said Lily Juarez, a Mexico City native who lives in San Antonio and was visiting the Nativity display.

“We say, ‘If we don’t reach it, that’s OK,’ ” she said. “But we do like to break records.”

ken [dot] ellingwood [at] latimes [dot] com

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It’s not always about location, location, location.

Despite Stacy K Floral’s off-street location in the Park Avenue neighborhood, the business has grown 30 percent over the past year through a variety of marketing efforts.

“I was a little nervous about it,” said owner Stacy K. Ercan about her retail spot behind 2 Chic Boutique on Park Avenue. “But I’m so cautious that I’ve taken baby steps in the way I’ve done everything with my business, and this was a comfortable dollar amount for me. We just had to be a little more creative about how we got people to know we’re here.”

Three months after starting renovations, the shop opened its doors in July 2010, and a month later held its grand opening during the Park Avenue Festival, where “I made my staff hustle the people, and walk back with them so they’d come in,” said Ercan. “Everyone would say, ‘Oh my gosh, I didn’t know this was here.’ I still hear that all the time. Every day.”

Signage above 2 Chic Boutique’s storefront approved by the Rochester Preservation Board helped bring in customers, as did revamping the shop’s website, starting a blog, and running a discount through a daily deals site. A promotion on Facebook created additional buzz when Ercan decided to deliver four weeks worth of free flowers to randomly chosen businesses, many that later signed up for weekly deliveries.

Ercan, whose business cards also spark comments with their feather and bead accents, said she’s in the process of getting “really fun graphics” designed for the shop’s van. In addition to being more visible during deliveries, she hopes the van will draw attention when parked streetside.

“You just have to find little things that catch people’s attention,” she added.

“So when they need something, they’ll remember you – even if you have an off-street location.”

Flanigan is a Rochester-area freelance writer.

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Friday, December 30, 2011

To the Editor:

On behalf of the Merrimack VFW Post 8641 Ladies Auxiliary, we wish to thank all those involved with our annual craft fair. All proceeds benefited the scholarship fund. Extra special thanks to Tire Town, Tri Star Hair, Merrimack Bike Shop, Lobster Boat, Merrimack Flower Shop, Bob Dee’s Hairstyling Barber, DW Diner, Itune Gift Card, Renu Spa, Budweiser Brewmaster Tour, Domino’s, Grenon Trading Co., Billy’s Famous Pizza, Georgio’s, Frank’s Place, Ponemah Farms, New England Pies, Lucky Dog Grooming, Inner Strength Martial Arts Academy, Shaw’s, DW Pizza, Out of the Woods, Depot Farm Stand and Homestead Restaurant.

Extra special thanks to Ann Marie and her family, the angels who helped with the wreaths. Also, Kurt and Deb Cameron for their enormous support and help and Kelly Provencher for the huge Tastefully Simple basket donated.

The Ladies Auxiliary Post 8641

Merrimack

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Sunday January 1, 2012

If Patriot Suites Hotel wasn’t the ugliest building in the county/universe, it wouldn’t be so bloody ironic that it’s the backdrop for a conservation debate with a humble flower shop.

Of course, the Conservation Commission has a binding deal for this site and it can’t easily unravel these things like a ball of string, while keeping teeth in the regulations that do matter. But still. At this point, one more store on the retail corridor, right before the porn shop and Guido’s, does not make a speck of difference.

This is Route 7. I haven’t bumped into any tourists or hikers in search of the fabled corner lot at Dan Fox Drive from where they can absorb nature’s bounty. And besides, Berkshire Flower Co. is totally cute right where it sits.

MITCH NASH

Lenox

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October marks the beginning of the fall gardening season.
Everything in your garden will need some attention, and flower and
vegetable gardens will be started.

Turn your attention first to fertilizing and acidifying your citrus
trees and other plants. Salt has been slowly building in the soil
each time you water and plants depleted the available nutrients to
make it through a tough summer. Acidification and fertilization
will give all your plants a much-needed boost that will be rewarded
with a flush of growth, green, and blooms. Be sure to do this task
early this month, especially for frost sensitive plants that
shouldn’t be fertilized closer to frost.

Annual flower and vegetable gardens should be prepared for planting
in much the same way. Start with the soil. Because our soils
naturally lack the organic matter, acidity and nutrients that
produce the truly tasty vegetables and prolific blooms that we
love. We recommend using soil amendments. If you are an organic
grower, amend the vegetable garden with a 1-inch layer of
acidified, nitrolized mulch, and 1 pound each per 100 square feet
of First Step, blood meal, bone meal, and greensand. Then, spade to
a depth of about 8 inches. In my opinion a less costly, faster and
more effective approach also uses a 1-inch layer of mulch, but
instead uses 1 pound each per 100 square feet of First Step and
6-24-24 fertilizer, then spade to a depth of 8 inches as
before.

If you have a dedicated area for your vegetable garden, raised or
otherwise, make furrows about 2 feet apart. Of course you can also
plant vegetables throughout your garden interspersed with your
perennial shrubs and annual flowers. Just keep in mind how much
space the plant needs and that all vegetables need eight-plus hours
of sun daily.

For annual flowers, free form or geometric designs with big
splashes of color make the most impact. Choose colors that you
like, that compliment or contract to other colors in the garden
area. Use height and leaf texture and color to add interest. The
key is to do what pleases you.

Dig holes big enough for the plant’s root ball. Carefully remove
the plant from the container and gently loosen the roots. Place the
plant in a hole, being careful not to bury the stem any deeper than
it was in the pot, and firmly pack the soil around the root ball.
Spacing between holes depends on what is being planted. Then, water
the plants thoroughly.

Watering

For ongoing watering of flowers and vegetables we prefer to use a
product called T-Tape. It is a flat plastic tube that connects
together in varying configurations that has pinholes every 6 to 12
inches. Just run the T-Tape down the middle of the vegetable bed,
right along the line of plants. Water pre-started vegetables two to
three times per week for two to three hours, making sure that the
watering rate is no greater than 2 gallons per hour. If planting
seeds, keep them moist until sprouted, watering every other day
until germinated. Once established, cut back the watering frequency
to one to two times per week. Other less efficient watering methods
like furrow irrigation and bubbler heads are also fine, but avoid
methods that overhead water, i.e. spray water onto the leaves and
flowers. This method can affect bloom set and fruit.

Vegetables

Begin planting seeds for fall vegetable crops once weather cools
under 100 degrees. Also, you have time for a repeat crop of short
season bush beans, cucumbers and summer squash if you act now. You
can plant tomatoes from starts if you cover for frost.

Fall vegetables are: asparagus, kohlrabi, beets, leeks, broccoli,
lettuce, Brussels sprouts, onions, cabbage, pak choi, carrots,
parsnip, cauliflower, peppers (short season varieties), celery,
peas, cucumber, radishes, green beans, spinach, gourds, Swiss
chard, herbs, tomatoes (short season varieties), Jicama, turnips,
and kale.

Fall flowers

You’re probably thinking there’s no way you’re going to start your
fall annuals now. After all, your summer flowers are looking so
full and lush. Rip them out! Fall flowers need to establish their
roots in warm soils. So, starting them now gets a healthy root
system developed before the cool fall and cooler winter slows their
development. Seed hollyhocks now for color next summer, nasturtiums
for big winter color, and African daisies and sweet peas. Plant
seed or plant 4-inch pots and six packs of the following flowers.
We grow the flowers here so they are acclimated to our
weather.

• Alyssum: A low growing border plant in white, pink or purple.
Full sun to light partial shade.

• Begonia: Gives masses of color in shady spots, red, pink or white
in dark leafed varieties, or a mixture of colors in green leafed
types.

• Calendula: Yellow or orange flowers with dark centers, makes
excellent cut flowers. Needs sun.

• Chrysanthemum paludosum: Miniature daisy flowers cover this low
growing annual in a cloud of white. Use for sunny borders.

• Dianthus: An array of reds, pinks, violets and white adorn these
specially selected Sweet Williams. Compact plants to about 12
inches for sun or partial shade.

• Dusty Miller: A foliage plant with silver colored leaves. Full
sun to partial shade.

• Geranium: Available in a rainbow of colors. Full sun to partial
shade.

• Linaria: Covered in mini snapdragon-shaped flowers of blue,
yellow or red. Full sun.

• Lobelia: Arizona’s favorite border plant for sun or partial
shade. Deep purple, blue, rose, lilac and mixed colors.

• Ornamental Kale: Great foliage color in predominately purple or
white. Full sun.

• Pansy and Viola: The most popular flower for fall and winter,
these hardy free blooming plants are available in a wide variety of
colors to suit any décor. Pick a sunny spot for best results.
Violas will take light shade.

• Petunia: Reds, pinks, whites, burgundy and blues. Full sun.

• Poppies and Primroses: These favorites will be ready for you when
the weather starts to turn cold. Iceland poppies for bright sunny
spots and traditional primrose for shady areas.

• Snapdragons: Taller mid-sized varieties are great for cut flowers
or colorful backgrounds. Dwarf types make fantastic borders. Either
way, you can’t go wrong with their rainbow of colors for sunny
spots.

• Stock: Harmony and Trisomic varieties are very fragrant and make
tremendous cut flowers. Midgets make excellent border plants. Full
sun.

• Gary and Sharon Petterson own Gardener’s World and Gardener’s
Eden Landscaping in Phoenix. Reach them at (602) 437-0700. For the
nursery, call (602) 437-2233 or visit www.gardenpro.net, and for
landscaping, visit www.gardenersedenaz.com.

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Examiners provide unique and original content to enhance life in your local city wherever that may be. Examiners come from all walks of life and contribute original content to entertain, inform, and inspire.

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By Radar Staff

For the second night in a row, Ashton Kutcher got his party on with stunning Demi Moore look-alike Lorene Scafaria.

Thursday night, he and the actress-director were in an Athens nightclub, along with one of Ashton’s business partners.

PHOTOS: Ashton Kutcher And Lorene Scafaria Party In Athens

While his rep insists Ashton and Lorene are “just friends,” as our pictures show, they’re friends who like to party!

With his arm around Lorene, the Two and a Half Men star tossed flowers on his gorgeous companion. She laughed just as hard, as she put a flower on Ashton’s head!

PHOTOS: Take A Peek Inside Ashton Kutcher’s Bachelor Pad

Neither Kutcher or Moore has yet filed for divorce, but Ashton has reportedly moved into a lavish estate that he’s renting for $50,000 a month, and he’s obviously sending 2011 out with a bang.

PHOTOS: Celebrity Cheaters

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• Paris Hilton Returns To Wynn Las Vegas With DJ Afrojack A Year After Being Banned
• ‘Property Brothers’ Drew and Jonathan Scott Get Their Handprints Immortalized In Marinara Sauce

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I drove into the Burn’s Cemetery in the Bangor area to pick up
the hanging planter on my parents’ grave, to change flowers for the
season. As I drove in through the gates, which are always open, I
noticed it looked different in a way I couldn’t first put a finger
on.

As my eyes closed in on my parents’ headstone, it hit me. Every
wreath, hanging basket or other adornment was stripped from the
grave sites. There were only a handful decorated for the
season.

My sister and I purchased a beautiful wrought iron hanging basket
and very expensive artificial flowers to go in that basket. The
flowers were glued into foam and that foam was glued into the
basket. The basket hung on a shepherd’s hook and was wired in two
different places so as not to fall or blow away. Our intention was
to refill that basket for the next few years.

My first thought was this was someone’s sick joke, or was it
vandalism? I tracked down the person in charge of said cemetery. I
was informed that if I had read the sign on the gate, I would’ve
known that as of Oct. 1, all adornment is disposed of for the
winter. I never saw a small town cemetery that didn’t keep that
Memorial Day adornment for the next year.

Never did it cross my mind to think some small sign posted on open
gates referred to such a thing. The person in charge informed me it
was to dispose of, in her words, the “ratty” flowers. In my mind,
the gravesite plot purchased by my parents is their property and
anything on it belongs to that family.

I can guarantee this arrangement was still intact and beautiful,
due to the fact my siblings and myself stood at this grave on Sept.
16, saying goodbye to Mom. That was two weeks before the Oct. 1
trashing of the “ratty.”

I can’t help but believe there are other individuals upset by this
rule who have placed beautiful adornment at their loved one’s
grave, not knowing the “ratty” rule, and are upset. Flowers and
containers are trashed without any use of common sense!

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I got my Christmas wish this year.

Me, the wife and the 6-year-old got locked out of our car and had to wait inside a no-heat florist shop for nearly two hours on the cusp of another New England winter. Oh, and the 6-year-old’s jacket was locked inside the car, which meant this 34-year-old’s sweater became a little boy’s jacket.

Us, some Christmas decorations, some Christmas trees, and no heat in the balmy 20-degree-or-so wind chill of a mid-December night.

Yep, this was my wish come true. Seriously.

Some call it a detour. An inconvenience. A pain in the …

You know something? I kinda thought those things, too, the moment my fingers slipped off the car door, the door didn’t budge, and I saw the keys dangling in the ignition.

Who needs delays like this in the ultimate go-go-go month of the year, right? We’ve got to get things done, and done now.

So when I called the car-towing service 45 minutes after the original call and they told me they sent their driver to the Christmas Tree Shop in Saugus when I told them I was at a Christmas tree shop (in Lynn), I’m sure I’d be granted one Howard Beale and tell them, “I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!”

But looking back a few days later, I realized what had happened, and that a wish of mine came true.

Lately, you see, I’ve been wishing that time would stand still. That 6-year-old little guy who left his jacket in the car? It’s because of him. I don’t want him to grow. I want to be his best friend forever and hold his hand in every darn parking lot, even when he’s 36.

It’s made me a sentimental wreck lately. On his fifth birthday, I cried ripping up the pizza boxes and wrote about it, saying “I’m having trouble letting go. I want to freeze-frame this existence, and never move forward.”

Less than a year later, I ran into emotional trouble again on the way home from another Christmas in Elmira, N.Y., Matthew’s mother’s hometown. “…As I drive on The Road, and our Christmas town gets farther and farther from the rearview mirror, I wonder if these moments will be just that — memories. Images trapped in time in photographs, or stories only relived in Christmases future.”

If I’m Superman, birthdays are my Kryptonite.

That’s what made this pause in time on this December night so special.

While I chatted with the car-service folks, mom and Matthew picked out the tree. Then, we just sat there in a makeshift Santa sleigh, among the gorgeous Christmas accessories, talking about what the real sleigh looks like in the North Pole.

The owner’s son turned out to be a big hit when he came from the other room and Matthew saw he was his size — and, more importantly, the kid had a soccer ball. How cool is that?

I chatted with the owner of the shop — called Steve’s Florist Greenhouses at Broadway and Jenness in Lynn — and learned about a great family patriarch who built the business from the ground up decades ago. I also learned they generously donate some proceeds of their tree sales to a local high school.

As the Christmas-rush and world of stress unfolded outside the thin greenhouse walls, inside we laughed, talked, took a few pictures and just hung out. Nothing to do. Nowhere to go. Tomorrow and the next week were not thoughts for once.

For those nearly 120 minutes, time did actually stop, like I had been asking. An early present from St. Nick, it turned out. Matthew was smiling, laughing, running around kicking a soccer ball, and, as always, asking questions. And he stayed 6 years old the whole time.

Unfortunately, this story has a sour ending. The car service man came, unlocked the car door for us, and we were on our way home.

And time began to tick again.

Dom Nicastro is a freelance writer who lives in Swampscott. E-mail him at nicastrod [at] yahoo [dot] com.

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Photo by Mike Malloy

Tropical hydrangeas put on a colorful show throughout the winter. Should we get a cold snap that bothers them, wait for spring, then cut them back to get new, fresh foliage .

Photo by University of British Columbia

University of British Columbia
Dombeya x cayeuxii, another variation of the tropical hydrangea, has even more of the hydrangea’s snowball blooming habit. These can be seen at the Ford-Edison Winter Estates in Fort Myers.

Photo by Mike Malloy

MIKE MALLOY
Dombeya burgessiae (Seminole), known as tropical hydrangea, puts on one of the best flower shows of any shrub in Florida.

The Dombeya burgessiae (Seminole) puts on one of the best flower shows of any shrub in Florida. It is sometimes called the tropical hydrangea because its flowers are similar to the hydrangeas we know from up north.

The flowers are pink to rose color and bloom from fall to spring. In fact, they’re blooming all winter here in Naples during tourist season, when the most color is desired and appreciated.

Dombeya Seminole is a large shrub growing 7 feet tall and the same size in width. It can be kept to about 5 feet tall with pruning. I usually cut my Dombeya down to about four feet after the spring bloom so it remains manageable all year.

If we happen to get cold temperatures here — which we are not, even this chillier week — it will rebound quickly and continue on its blooming way.

This shrub will grow in full sun to partial shade and will tolerate the so-called soil we have here in Florida without amending. The more sun, the fuller the shrub, with maximum flowers. It also is fairly drought-tolerant, once established.

Propagation can be done by air-layering or six inch cuttings rooted in perlite, coarse sand or peat moss.

Dombeya Seminole is truly, in my opinion, one of the showiest landscape plants we have in Naples for its color and massive blooming capabilities all winter long. It is a real show stopper, and a bonus of this already great shrub is that it will also do well in a container.

Surprise — It also serves as nectar plant to a large number of our Florida butterflies.

Keep butterflying!

Mike Malloy, Naples’ “butterfly guy,” sells butterfly nectar and larvae plants at the

More winter bloomers

Firespike (Odontonema strictum): A tropical or tender perennial that loves the sun. Bright red blooms throughout through the year.

Wild Petunia (Petunia integrifolia): Purple blooms, mounding shape in full sun; will tolerate some shade; blooms nearly all year if you remove spent flowers and keep it fertilized and watered — but not overwatered.

Johnny Jump-up (Viola cornuta): Sweet pansy-like flower that is great for containers; comes in purple and yellow. Do not overwater. Can tolerate some shade.

Flame vine (Pyrostegia venusta): In mid-January this beautiful hedge vine is nearly totally covered with orange budlike blooms and motorists on Goodlette Franke Road are treated to a massive display of them north of Golden Gate Parkway every year. They need sun and moderate water.

Many familiar plants from the North do well down here in the winter — petunias, geraniums and some kinds of impatiens — but they need to be considered annuals, because the summer sun will be harsh for them.

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