Robert David Sullivan 2

The high cost of flirting in a foreign land

I confess that what happened to Henry Alford in Istanbul has happened to me several times in Montreal after I thought someone was flirting with me:

We made a plan to meet on the park bench the next day at 10 a.m., and outside my hotel he shook my hand goodnight. We met on the park bench the next morning, all smiles and sheepishness. I’d folded up my bathing suit and put it in the pocket of my cargo pants; Zia smiled when I showed it to him, but then changed the topic: “Also to say about my guidance wages.”

I felt a pang in my heart and mumbled, “How much?” He said, “Normally it is $100 for the day but for you $60.”

The first time I was really disappointed. A couple of other times, I cursed myself for stupidity, since the guys were clearly younger than me by several years. The last time it happened, I was angry and told the guy so, mostly because he seemed to be almost exactly my age -- and no more than 10 pounds lighter than me.

Bay State tourism $ takes dive, but Brazil and Argentina send more visitors

The just-posted (even though it's dated as June) newsletter from the Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism has some grim numbers that help explain why Boston and other cities are itching to raise their hotel and meals taxes. The state's hotel occupancy rate for May was a weak 59.9 percent, down from 65.8 percent last year. And revenue from room occupancy taxes plunged by 21.6 percent, down from $14.3 million last May to $11.2 million this May. (Revenue was down 7.2 percent during the first five months of this year.)

From January through April, the number of people visiting Massachusetts from other countries fell by 9.3 percent compared with last year. Visitors from Great Britain fell by 22 percent, and those from Ireland slid by 14 percent. (They don't have to come here to get cool and rainy weather.) Bucking the trend, Argentina sent 12 percent more visitors, and the contingent from Brazil was up by 11 percent.