April 9, 2021

Usually this newsletter goes out on Thursdays, but sometimes Friday beats me to the punch. So what! And on that note, bon weekend!

1.

Last Sunday, while mutually gushing over the revitalizing warmer weather, my friend Jason turned to me and trilled, “Now I just need the lights to go back on Broadwaaaaaay, and I’ll be a happy man.” We’re still about five or six months out from curtains officially raising, but this recent round-up of current and upcoming cultural performances, from Shakespeare in the Park (it’s back!) to socially-distant dance parties courtesy of David Byrne, will make Jason and any other theater and dance lover kick up their heels with joy.

2.

Breaking news! In case you didn’t already know it from personal experience, The New York Times is reporting that we’ve hit a pandemic wall. Gotta love the Times for that on-the-pulse news coverage. (Or another way to consider it: everyone gets a burnout pass, even newsrooms.) All that sarcasm aside, there’s a lot of truth and validating information in this piece.

3.

In preparation for an upcoming interview, I’ve been listening to the Driven Minds podcast, in which host Gigi Sagansky converses with her subjects—high-profile, seriously accomplished individuals across various industries and fields, from producer Brian Gazer to multi-hyphenates like Tyra Banks, and Arianna Huffington—about their careers and personal lives through the lens of anxiety and other mental struggles. Every conversation is surprising, inspiring, relatable, and will open your eyes to how many of us are facing some of the same challenges. Sagansky flings the door wide open on those stigmas.

4.

YOLO: I bought way too many of these clever, adjustable fridge organizers to fit in my Frigidaire, but I don’t regret it. I’m still steaming mad, however, over a last-minute, impulse purchase at my local bodega. The clerk had already run my credit card when I realized these low-sugar sour gummy bears set me back $5 bucks! They’re delicious, and I savored each 18-cent one of them, but next time I’ll stick to cotton candy grapes. Health-food masochists, consider yourselves warned.

5.

Can’t. Stop. Double-dipping. Once again, it’s liquid smoke and nutritional yeast to the rescue.

SUPPLEMENTAL READING Some things I wrote recently: a look at several of the newfangled, post-pandemic “touchless” services at spas across the country; and a more in-depth, firsthand take on the one-year tattoo.

Does anyone need a fridge organizer?

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