Kansas City has graduated from “modest metropolis” to “most underrated” in the span of about a year.The city has long been a middle-of-the-pack kind of place that much of the country was only vaguely familiar with. But as major new civic attractions have opened here or come closer to fruition, Kansas City is reaping lots of national attention.

I love unwrapping the cellophane from a new desk calendar and looking at the thick pad of blank pages (or in my case, “Zits” cartoons) a new year represents. So many possibilities.

NEW YORK | Whatever you do, never ask a Blue Man to assume the jazz hands position. “No, no hands! They don’t do that. It’s not in their arsenal of moves,” implores Chris Wink, who co-founded Blue Man Group in the late ’80s. A photographer has cornered a trio of his cerulean creations on St. Mark’s Place in New York’s artsy East Village and is coaxing them to go into “Cabaret” mode.

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. | Here’s good news for all of us who are still collecting birthdays.

Fashionably dressed locals stroll Mink Row, along Bloor Street, Toronto’s upscale shopping district that’s akin to New York’s Madison Avenue or Chicago’s Miracle Mile. Among those blithely ignoring the winter cold: a stately woman in a Chanel coat and hat, pushing a stylish baby carriage that holds a freshly groomed Afghan hound.

For anyone craving a short winter escape without traveling far or spending a bundle — an urban change of pace, so to speak — Midwestern cities provide great options. Don’t laugh.

Last year was a very good one for the cruise industry, with a spike in passenger numbers and a flurry of ship construction. But now it’s time to look ahead to the top sailing trends for 2008. Oh, Caribbean, we shall miss you, but we’ll think of you while basking in the Mediterranean sun.

MAMOU, La. | The teenage boy is covered in mud, literally from head to toe. After wading through a flooded rice field to catch a wayward chicken, he wipes mud from his eyes.

On airplanes, do you ever wonder how the college-age girl in nondesigner jeans afforded that first-class seat? How about the ill-suited man in scuffed shoes who nabs the top-floor suite at a hotel?