“Come see us before we come see you.”

That’s what the US attorneys say to anyone associated with Sam Bankman-Fried’s massive crypto-caper. Or is it anyone associated with Donald Trump whose legal affairs merit their own 11,000-word listing in Wikipedia? Or is it the people of Ukraine speaking to Vladimir Putin? Or Brazilians to Jair Bolsonaro?

 

The point is, this was a good year for the good guys and a bad year for the bad guys. For all of us who thought not just the earth but the people who live on it were doomed, this is wonderful news to end the year on. And especially in Canada where the weather may be horrid, but its residents, institutions, and prospects are good and lucky, and some are even great.

 

Meanwhile:

 

1. What to wear in the coldest city on earth. Yakutsk, Siberia, like its 355,000 Yakutians,  isn’t what you think. Think fur.

 

2. Forbidden words. It’s one thing that some British maternity wards want to replace “mother” with “birth parent.” But it was a shock last month that Stanford put the word “American” on its list of harmful language. Why? Because “American” often refers to people from the United States only, thereby insinuating that the US is the most important country in the Americas (which is actually made up of 42 countries). They suggest using “US citizen” instead.

 

Here also, the worst opening sentences of the past year.

 

3. I walk New York. Matt Green did, every single block.

 

4. World champeen resume-padders. Given you can check out someone’s background just by googling them, you’d think guys would not say they went to Harvard if they didn’t and would not put the word “Sir” in front of their names if the King hadn’t conferred that title. But resume-padding is epidemic these days. Check out Republican Congressman George Santos, and schmoozer Anthony Ritossas and his pal Manuel Freire-Garabal. Really, would you ever hire this man?

 

5. Most touching TV ad, most action-packed trailer. If you thought this year’s Mission Impossible was extreme, here’s 2023’s, and if you thought all scotch ads were traditional, sip this.

 

Oh, and a wonderful hard-times Christmas spot for Tesco, the British supermarket, which drew 5,000 complaints for the 5-second segment of Santa passing through Border Services by flashing his proof of vaccination. “The objections came from anti-vaxxers, who cited the scene as being “coercive and encouraging medical discrimination.”

 

But the best ad campaign of the year goes to BC’s southern Gulf Islands for nothing.

 

6. Perpetual broths. Including soups that simmer for decades.

 

7. A new writer of important things. New to me, at least, is Bartosz Ciechanowski, the British video-game programmer and clarifier of how cameras work, mechanical watches work, and sound works. Speaking of sound, it’s not just animals and plants that are growing extinct, it’s sounds.

 

8. Who are your relatives? Everyone on earth, it seems. There’s you and me and our 7,999,999,998 cousins. So it’s hard to win the fight for significance, especially when you see where we Earthlings  stand in the universe.

 

9. Best of the year. First, audiobooks. Next, advice. Finally, living longer and more.

 

10. It’s so much fun to stay young. No matter how old you are or what year it turns into.

 

***************

 

It’s only going to get colder and snowier. Time to engineer your escape.

 

If you know about our trips, they don’t involve lying on a beach for a week, but doing adventurous things with fascinating people.

 

So from January 22 – 29, 2023, we’ll be aboard the 100-guest National Geographic Quest with 50 of our friends as it sails through the Panama Canal and up the west coast of Costa Rica.

 

 

This is with Lindblad Expeditions and we’ve been on two of their luxury adventure cruises before, to Antarctica and the Spanish-Portuguese coast. On board and on shore, we were in the hands of the most experienced experts and crew on earth. One evening during “Recap” with cocktails and appetizers in hand, we saw “The Monster of the Day” that our expedition divers filmed from the ocean floor. Oh, and it’s one thing to kayak on Georgian Bay; it’s another to kayak on the Antarctic Ocean. For one, it’s safer in the Antarctic because the Lindblad people are so on top of it.

 

All to say, we’ve come to expect the best in comfort, dining, adventure and safety from Lindblad, a view confirmed by Condé Nast Traveler, who last year declared them to be the #1 Small Ship Cruise Line in the world.

 

Our 8-day trip starts when we land in Panama City, Panama, and ends in San José, Costa Rica. The cost is from $6,479 USD per person, depending on what level of cabin you choose (this includes a special savings for our group of 5% off the standard rates). Airfare, of course, is extra.

 

So – a good deal on a great break in a hot place with nice people in the hands of the best in the business. As founder Sven Lindblad said: “Think of us as a conduit to exhilaration.”

 

You may already know RamsayTravels does group travel for people who don’t do group travel. People like you. So as we all sit and freeze this winter, think about what you could be doing, and where you’d like to be (and with whom) in January and join us.

 

So please spend some time with the links above. Then, if you like what you see but you have questions, please e-mail or call me at bob@ramsayinc.com, or 416-822-3452.

 

If you’re planning on joining please act soon. And if you want more information, here’s the webinar we hosted recently that will give you more details of the trip. To book your cabin, please call the Lindblad folks directly at1-888-773-9007 or email them at groups@expeditions.com.

 

One last thought: now that we can lift our heads on a different world, isn’t it time to plan what you may have promised yourself you’d do?

 

If not now, when?

 

If not you and your family, who?

 

www.RamsayTravels.com