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A reader from SFO discovers the Handsomest Man on a Friday

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Rare footage of Havana, Cuba in the 1950's. For more videos, visit our site:  www.CasaDelCarajo.com Here, captured on film, is the drama, passion, intrigue, and opulence of a legendary city during its heyday-before the Castro dictatorship obliterated it. Travel back in time to a bygone era, where glamour, elegance, and class once ruled. Every so often I receive a nice email from someone in the world who's stumbled across The Handsomest Man in Cuba  either on Amazon, in a local library or on a friend's bookshelf. They've usually enjoyed it (except for this reader ) and in some cases, have taken it to Cuba with them, visited the many Cubans I listed in my book, and in one case,  actually hunted down the Handsomest Man . Today's email was from Eric in San Francisco who just happened to be looking at Cuba and Bike Fridays and apparently couldn't believe his luck on finding a book that married the two together: Hi Lynette. Just read The Hand

Baring my fake Loubs: How to spot a pair of counterfeit Christian Louboutin shoes

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These shoes are made for exploiting ... thanks for ABC News for this terrific shot of a man with a mission. THE BIG news story of the day was not the GFC or the horrors in Syria, but the seizure of 20,000 pairs of fake Christian Louboutin (loo-boo-tan) shoes. In this  ABC News story you can see footage of a surly blue uniformed LA customs official handling a pair of screaming pink 6" heel pumps with rubber gloves and pronouncing them fit for the bonfire. I Googled "spot fake Louboutin" and watched a bunch of hastily-shot home videos and blog posts laboriously pointing out the differences between the real deal and the counterfeit.  So I thought I'd add my own to the mix. Because ... Note the ridges on the soles of these fakes - actually quite thoughtful, as stepping onto carpet in the real thing is akin to ice skating.  ... I own a pair of fake Louboutins! (I think). Now, I didn't set out to support fakesters. But I spotted a pair of ridiculous

the tikit on Trial in NYC: Getting a folder past New York's toughest gatekeepers

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Patience , one of two lions guarding the the Beaux-arts building of the NY Public Library, knows that it's only a matter of time before folders may pass into the library unscathed ... My somewhat ballsy Tikit on Trial experiment spanning 2007-2010, which   tested whether I could ever so politely sashay my way into office buildings with marble front desks and starched uniformed gatekeepers - is now archived off the Bike Friday website. The links below are copies saved by that giant, silent hoarder of everything ever blogged, the Wayback Machine. The articles are mostly intact - but for a quick pictorial tour, check out the Photo Gallery and YouTube movies. 0.  Summary  (archived) 1. The experiment  (archived) 2. The results  (archived) 3. Photo gallery  (current) 4. The movies  (current) In a nutshell, it was an experiment to see how the the  tikit , the Bike Friday commuter folding bike, fared as a piece of personal transportation in

The Evergreen Cemetery: Where Asimov whistled while the Chinese boiled

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All in a day's work: Former gravedigger and now cemetery historian Donato Daddario demonstrates the key that releases the two rosette-shaped screws and releases the marble faceplate from a compartment. "THE boiler would come by with his two big cauldrons, disinter (dig up) the bodies and boil 'em up to remove any remaining meat. He'd then chop up the body at the joints, box up the bones and they'd be loaded on a ship bound for China ..." In case we needed a better visual, the ebullient Donato Daddario whacks a cleaver-shaped hand against his elbow and knee. "We used to say, they used the broth to make chop suey!" We happened to stumble across Donato during a personal tour of the  Evergreens Cemetery  led by distinguished historian and über sailer  John Rousemaniere , author of   Green Oasis in Brooklyn: The Evergreens Cemetery 1849-2008   Heading over the Brooklyn Bridge with galpals Pamela Talese and Cathy Eatock (from downun

A sunscreen story from Downunder

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Remember, a few years ago, when they told women to start wearing sunscreen daily, or end up a wrinkled old prune ?  It was the era of PABA , or para-amio benzoic acid. This was the most common sunscreen ingredient at the time, at least Downunder. Sometime later, it fell out of favor due to allergic reactions.  I was one of those unfortunate "reactionaries."  I remember putting Hamilton Sunscreen on my face - a popular pharmacy brand - and within a few days my cheeks started itching. Then it got worse - little fluid filled bumps and a redness that spread across my face.  The usual thing we do, of course, is try all manner of salves and lotions in our medicine cabinet "just to see what will happen." It usually it makes it worse. It's like trying to experiment with putting too many fruits in a smoothie or ingredients in a soup and ending up with something ashen-gray in hue with a "something not quite anything" flavor. A dermatol

Damien Hirst Spot Challenge: The dottiest scavenger hunt ever

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I popped up in Athens to face a phalanx of police riot shields. In LA, Stephen Spielberg's mother showed me her wall of fame to her son (it's on the way to the restroom). Then there was Occupy London ... and the $10/night Kung Fu hostel in Hong Kong with its Changi prison aesthetics and crazed woman who refused to budge from my bunk bed … SPOT PLANKING: One of the funnest things you can do in Geneva at the Gagosian Geneva gallery. Thanks to Johan @Gogo for being a great sport! My latest escapade was a complete departure from anything I've done before - the Damien Hirst Spot Challenge - a kind of global scavenger hunt where you had to dash around visiting 11 galleries showing his Spot Paintings (NY-LA-London-Paris-Geneva-Rome-Athens-HK), and as a reward, receive a print personally dedicated to you by the older YBA himself. It was one of the stressful and exhilarating adventures I've ever undertaken. The full spot-by-spot journey is thrashed out on my art s

NEW VIDEO: Booking it along the Amazon with PACTOUR

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90 SECOND TRAILER (Vimeo) Watch in VIMEO 90 SECOND TRAILER (YouTube) WATCH on YouTube DVD Sleeve. Click on image to read it.  UPDATE: A DVD of this tour is available Feb 2012 from Lon Haldeman, haldeman@pactour.com (Original 2004 DVD : 16,000 Feet on a Friday ) Currently, this DVD is an important fundraiser and not sold as a separate item, but given as a gift for donations of $100 or more. Donations for these Peru Projects (administered by FPC Global Outreach) are always welcome and appreciated. As you can see, they are put to good and immediate use! To donate, contact Lon Haldeman, haldeman@pactour.com   ABOUT THIS TOUR | LON'S BLOG Delivering books to remote schools along the Amazon. I'M JUST BACK from my second expedition in Peru with cycling legend and tireless philanthropist  Lon Haldeman of PACTOUR . The 17-day, non-stop itinerary involved several charitable projects:  a shopping trip for a home for abused and homeless girls;  deliver