What do you do after pretending to clear the streets of illegal vendors, setting up the largest skating rink in the world, turning your tropical city into a Santa-infused Christmas wonderland, and handing out Viagra to aging, but indigent, Lotharios?
If you are Marcelo Luis Ebrard Casaubón, the mayor of Mexico City, North America's largest city, you try to break the world's record for the most people kissing at one time -- in one place.
The city's goal was to attract 35,000 people to the late site of the skating rink, Mexico City's Zócalo, on Valentine's Day to show Mexico City's "warmth and love." Plus attendees were to get a free concert to boot. What better way to celebrate Valentine's Day.
[Update: According to the official monitors, a world record was established. 39,897 people showed up to show their mutual affection. The fact that the number is odd -- and not even -- indicates that at least one lonely soul was willing to kiss solo. There are alternative readings, but this is a family blog.]
Of course, politicians do not simply put on these extravaganzas for no reason other than the very goodness of their souls. Bread and circuses (or busses and erections, in this case) come with a cost.
Mayor Ebrard knows exactly what he is doing. Regional elections are due in July. And the mayor needs to position himself as a more rational alternative to his PRD rival for the presidency, Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
But, whatever the politicians do, we can still wish one another a belated el Día del Amor y la Amistad -- even if I kissed none of you in Mexico City yesterday.
If you are Marcelo Luis Ebrard Casaubón, the mayor of Mexico City, North America's largest city, you try to break the world's record for the most people kissing at one time -- in one place.
The city's goal was to attract 35,000 people to the late site of the skating rink, Mexico City's Zócalo, on Valentine's Day to show Mexico City's "warmth and love." Plus attendees were to get a free concert to boot. What better way to celebrate Valentine's Day.
[Update: According to the official monitors, a world record was established. 39,897 people showed up to show their mutual affection. The fact that the number is odd -- and not even -- indicates that at least one lonely soul was willing to kiss solo. There are alternative readings, but this is a family blog.]
Of course, politicians do not simply put on these extravaganzas for no reason other than the very goodness of their souls. Bread and circuses (or busses and erections, in this case) come with a cost.
Mayor Ebrard knows exactly what he is doing. Regional elections are due in July. And the mayor needs to position himself as a more rational alternative to his PRD rival for the presidency, Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
But, whatever the politicians do, we can still wish one another a belated el Día del Amor y la Amistad -- even if I kissed none of you in Mexico City yesterday.
