Tomorrow is St. Patrick’s Day, and in reviewing my postings going back to the inception of this website, I was surprised to find that I have neither done a St. Patrick’s Day feature nor attended the St. Patrick’s Day parade.

More surprising was that the very first posting of this website was on March 17, 2006, on Vesuvio Bakery, a New York City icon (closed and reopened as Birdbath Neighborhood Green Bakery). How absolutely bizarre that until today, I never realized that 1) the anniversary date of New York Daily Photo was St. Patrick’s Day and 2) the choice of the distinctive green exterior of Vesuvio Bakery for my very first posting was never intended, but entirely accidental. In six years, no comment was ever made about the green color of the bakery’s exterior and use of the photo on St. Patrick’s Day.

My company also decided to pay tribute this year on our business blog. Our social networking consultant has, on occasion, been theming our product line for various holidays. The bottom photo is his interpretation of the classic Irish shamrock created entirely by selecting green colored juggling props from our product line. Our thanks to Kyle Petersen for his design and execution.

Although my understanding has always been that my ancestry was entirely French, my first name is Brian, one of the most popular names in Ireland. The choice was never adequately explained by my mother – there was some rumor of a strain of Irish lineage. Perhaps the rather fortuitous occurrences surrounding the inception of this website on St. Patrick’s Day, the serendipitous choice of Vesuvio with its bright green facade, and the reopening with Green in the bakery name is somehow all related to the Luck of the Irish 🙂

Posts on St. Patrick’s Day: Little in the Middle, Shrine to Kitsch

Part 3 of 3, Back Inside the Box (see Part 1 and Part 2 here)

She thanked me and appeared to be pleased, but my heart sank. Regardless of her reaction and appreciation, I knew immediately that I had made a Big, Big Mistake. Additionally, I sensed that she may even had hoped that the smaller box was a more traditional gift, but alas, adding insult to injury, my second gift was a wall mount bracket, neither chocolates nor lingerie. I had made many errors in judgement, and one was classic – buying for yourself, not the recipient. There was no avoiding the obvious – this gift was strictly a GUY THING. Nothing more, nothing less. Which woman really wants electronic hardware for Valentine’s Day? What the hell was I thinking?

Worse, I even had written stories which she had read and we had discussed, one that very morning, demonstrating my insights regarding gift giving to women on this special day and that a smart man should be thinking inside, not outside, the box, with flowers, chocolates, etc.

I endeavored to install the TV half-heartedly. I was getting very poor quality from an analog box. A call to a Verizon tech was not encouraging – he actually recommended keeping the old TV, something he had done himself. A digital box would be large on a small kitchen table, and the TV was already oversized for the area. I was disgusted with the whole situation. I would leave it a few days, but on my next visit, I would likely pack it up. The TV was going back.

On my next visit to her home, I reflected on my foolishness, i.e. thinking outside the box on Valentine’s Day. As I approached the Ariemma Garden Center, it occurred to me that stopping would be an opportunity to investigate their flowers, and, if they appeared to be of reasonable quality, perhaps I would pick up a bouquet of roses as a belated gift. Better late than never.

I met the owner’s son, Mike Ariemma, who informed me that his father had been in business for over 30 years. I discussed his rose quality openly. He assured me that these were fresh cut within days, flown directly from Ecuador. I learned that over the years there has been a tremendous shift and that Colombia and Ecuador now accounted for roughly 90% of all roses sold to the United States.

Mike did not sell his product at all. He encouraged me to peer into his cooler, where I found bouquets of roses. The quality spoke for itself – the flowers looked great, the buds were tight. This place had all the earmarks of the classic, no frills, no nonsense, New York City business where the focus was strictly on service or the product. A place where Content is King and the savvy shopper can have quality and price. Mike assured me that red roses of identical quality and source could sell in Manhattan for $30 – $40, where the Sirens of Convenience can often propel pricing of products to stratospheric levels. So, for $9.99, I was armed with a dozen red roses.

I arrived at my girlfriend’s home. My belated gift came as a surprise and was heartily received. I discussed my adventure with the Ariemma family, choosing to reveal my source, regardless of the fact that she would know the price. Actually, her appreciation was not diminished by the $9.99 economy pricing – she praised me for a good purchase.

Remarkably, the flowers held up well, corroborating Mike’s claim as to their freshness. The top photo shows nine of the remaining roses over one week later. I made a subsequent visit to Ariemma’s to thank Mike, tell him of my blog and story idea, and to get a few more photos.

I learned a useful lesson, particularly that thinking outside the box can be a Big, Big Mistake. But all’s well that ends well, particularly when a TV and Valentine’s Day gift thinking are both safely Back Inside the Box …

Part 2 of 3 (see Part 1 here)

It was Valentine’s Day, and I loaded my car, very excited to make the presentation of what would assuredly come as an unexpected gift. I had not yet, however, made a decision whether to supplement the TV with flowers. I realized that my options were now very limited, and barring a purchase of inexpensive flowers from a green grocer, it was too late, particularly in Manhattan, to buy quality roses from a flower shop. From my story that morning:

It was Valentine’s Day in Manhattan many years ago, and I, like the others, had waited until THE LAST MINUTE. We had made the enormous mistake of attempting to buy flowers from a flower shop during the closing hours on Valentine’s Day.

Certainly, I reasoned, a brand new flat screen TV is a more than adequate gift for Valentine’s Day. Nonetheless, I had been ruminating from the inception of this gift idea over the prudence of giving no flowers on such a holiday. But there was an option.

My journey through the outer boroughs to my girlfriend’s house takes me by this roadside vendor of flowers. It is a classic New York City juxtaposition – where else will you find a sign for roses at the astonishing price of $9.99 per dozen tacked to a barbed wire fence? I had seen this sign dozens of times, which always prompted me to reflect on the danger of purchasing discounted flowers, an observation which I discussed in my story, Happy Valentine’s Day, that very morning:

Any astute woman will know quality and where such flowers were purchased.

As I traveled the last leg of my drive, I agonized over stopping at the $9.99 dealer, Ariemma’s Garden Center. Here was the dilemma: Should I forgo the flowers, relying on the magnitude of the gift I had already purchased? Or should I buy flowers and cover my bases? However, there was risk buying these flowers. What if she discerns that they are CHEAP, and worse, that she recognizes or deduces that they were purchased at the last minute near her home as an afterthought? It could appear desperate, thoughtless and cheap, as well as undermine everything I had done.

Plus, with only blocks to go, I was anxious to get to her home, so, still a little conflicted, I passed the garden center and forged ahead. I arrived and pulled up, locking all my doors, even in her driveway. This was a New York City reflex for me when parking anywhere, perhaps stronger than the classic physiological knee-jerk reflex itself. The automatic response was permanently etched in my mind from the days of rampant vandalism in the city and No Radio signs.

The TV box was large, and rather than wrap it, I had decided to leave it in the original B&H shopping bag, a bit lazy on my part. I entered her home empty-handed, made an announcement that I had come bearing gifts, went back to my car and returned with the TV, a wall mount bracket and a handmade card. Voilà. Happy Valentine’s Day! Was she elated? Her reaction will be revealed in Part 3, where you will learn whether or not I had pleased her or made a Big, Big Mistake…

Part 1 of 3, Thinking Outside the Box

How very fortunate one is in life to have both good and very useful insights. Even better is to articulate these insights online on one’s website and have them validated by your readers. Best is to be a man, have insights regarding women and gifts of flowers and chocolates, and have those insights validated by women around the world. And what more opportune time to use these insights than on Valentine’s Day, now assured as to exactly what should be done?

However, as I wrote on December 7, 2007 in Foolish Crash, “there are different kinds of fools.”  In that story, I discussed a specific type of fool, one who neglects simple, prudent computer procedures that everyone knows well and suffers severely. I was that fool.

But my foolishness comes in different flavors. I am also the type of person who, armed with insight, goes ahead and ignores it in order to look more clever and less cliched than the masses, like in buying a much more useful (aka unromantic) gift on Valentine’s Day.

Valentine’s Day is not the time to be creative or try thinking outside the box, particularly outside a box of chocolates or a box (or bouquet) of long-stemmed roses. Regardless of any novel gift ideas, at least one box you give should hold the type of gift which most women hold dear on such a day. But I thought I could break the rules and march to the beat of a different box-giver. Big, Big Mistake.

My girlfriend, in the opinion of a technophile, badly needed an upgrade for a TV located in her kitchen. Outdated technology is common in many households, particularly by those who put other interests first. This was a perfect opportunity to give a much-needed gift of lasting value. But virtually every woman alive who celebrates Valentine’s Day, regardless of what she may say, has an expectation. And that expectation was clearly outlined in my story Happy Valentine’s Day.

But I was undeterred by my own better judgement and was unflagging in my desire to think outside the box. And what better place than New York City to find a gift, traditional or not? So it was, that on Sunday, February 12, 2012, two days before Valentine’s Day, I made a pilgrimage to B&H Photo to purchase an LCD HDTV and wall mount, in spite of my instincts as to the proper gift to give a woman on this most romantic of holidays.

My fate was not yet sealed – after all, flowers were still an option as an additional gift. If I elected to supplement the TV, my girlfriend would have the discretion of deciding which gift was primary and which was the icing on the cake. All bases would be covered, both the romantic and the practical.

Tomorrow, in Part 2, we will see the decision I made, the gifts I gave, her reaction, and whether or not I made a Big, Big Mistake 🙂