SMART BOX STEPS

Had an interesting change-of-pace day yesterday courtesy of Smart Box, an eight year-old French firm that is coming to the US. Smart Box is in the business of selling gift experiences–instead of buying a friend a scarf or a tie or the usual boring thing as a present, you can buy him or her an interesting experience–sky diving or kayaking, staying at a bed-and-breakfast, eating a gourmet meal, getting a spa treatment, and so on. The thing comes in a box–hence the company name–which contains a voucher and a catalog that lists about a hundred different offerings. There are six categories of gifts–gourmet, adventure, and so on–and the experiences inside vary according to taste and region. I think these things might catch on–I could see giving them, and I’d be happy to receive them, too.

Anyway, to promote the brand, the company threw a scavenger hunt yesterday in six cities–New York, Paris, London, Berlin, Sydney and Tokyo, and I got to participate in the New York phase. I was put on a team (one of six, which were set in nominal competition with one another) with Ryan St. Germain, a fundraiser from Fordham U., and bloggers Christopher Scott and Wendy Stetson, captained by the handsome Luxembourger Guillaume Jaillet. We started off at The Empire State Building where we were subjected to the New York Ride, one motion film rides I dislike so much (sorry). After that it was up to a dance studio on Eighth Avenue near 55th, where were received salsa lessons. I sort of scoffed at this idea, since there is very little I don’t know about salsa, not excepting peach, mango and tomatillo, but apparently these people thought that needed to spend some time learning to dance (salsa dancing lessons being among the smart box offerings), and we never got to the chip part. But it was fun–that’s me at right, titoing my puente off (what are you going to believe, me or the misleading and possibly doctored photographic evidence?) I did learn that there are no words in salsa for the words `four’ and `eight’, and that all the lyrics to salsa songs go “One, two, three. . . five, six, seven” endlessly repeated. I loved our instructor, above, a small pretty woman who spoke English with a salsa accent and who conducted her class with the same immigrant ferocity that settled the prairies and built the transcontinental railroad. She invited me to be her partner during one instruction by pointing her finger at me across the room and in a premptory tone saying “You!” in a way I had not heard spoken since Sister Theodore asked me to carry her bag in sixth grade. Fun!

After that we taxied over to Ariston, a florist shop on East 44th Street just east of Lex. There we were quickly introduced to some of the principles of flower arranging–no counting was one of the first things I noticed. The groups were assigned to make flower displays that resembled flags of the Six Nations of the Scavanger Hunt. I don’t know if my group was lucky or if it received some “special” consideration, but we had to make the flag of France, and as you undoubtedly know, le bleu, blanc and rouge is a lot simpler to make than The Union Jack, for instance.

Once that was finished, we taxied over to Times Square where we were sent speeding through the Ripley’s Believe It or Not tourist trap, where we were called up to answer six questions about the exhibits. Fortunately my teammates were fast and clever, and thanks entirely to them, we captured second place (see the triumphant Wendy, Chris and Ryan, left), good for one of the adventure smart boxes. My sixteen year-old daughter Cara opened it immediately upon my arrival home, and pronounced herself ready to enjoy about 15 of the activities. Smart Boxers, you have to be happy about that reaction!