I have a reputation as a critic—I was born prone to disappointment—but after this morning, I'm in the mood to praise. What happened this morning? I went to the post office! And I was reminded again how much I love those self-service postage machines. And my experience got me thinking about all the things that I truly love (and not obvious things like Adam, Howard, or McDonald's french fries). Herewith, in no order: 25 things that give me joy.
1. Count Basie. He's on right now. This CD is a good introduction.
2. Neutrogena shampoo. I'm like a huffer whenever I wash my hair. Then again, I adore bleach.
3. Automated Postal Centers. The machines try upselling you just like postal clerks so, but without the attitude. And you don't have to peek into the bowels of the post office, imagining what had happened if you'd spent too much of your life inhaling bleach.
4. Forever stamps. That's two for the USPS! Call it a comeback! (I'd make photo stamps #5 but I'm still miffed that my photo of Howard's butt was deemed too provocative.)
5. Photo cut-outs. I can't pass one with stopping, but then again, I've never tried.
6. Chocolate sorbet at Franny's. Normally, chocolate sorbet is a big scoop of why bother. Not this one. And soon Franny's is opening a store, Brooklyn Larder, where I can buy it by the pint—and then I can use photo cut-outs like the one above to try to look thin.
7. James Franco. How about this for a stimulus plan: Everyone gets his or her own James Franco. Why on earth are scientists cloning sheep???
8. Fresh eggs. We buy them from a farm in Connecticut, and Adam makes a carbonara that's as rich and gold as Fort Knox. It has ruined supermarket eggs for me.
9. Smartwool socks. Bring it, winter. I can take it now.
10. "Just Got Lucky" by Jo Boxers. No, not the silly underwear brand: The '80s band. Their lone hit rivals "Walking on Sunshine" for sheer perk-me-upness.
11. Grandaisy Bakery's potato pizza. My stomach growled just typing that.
12. San Pellegrino Chinotto soda. Conveniently available at Grandaisy Bakery!
13. Scotch Tear-By-Hand packing tape. Where have you been all my life?
15. This Terry Richardson photo. No, I'm not either of them.
16. Orchard Fruit. Way out in Brooklyn there's a fruit store where you have to ignore what's on display and ask what's good. They'll cut you pieces of the best peaches, melons, plums you've ever had. It's all expensive and out of season, flown in from New Zealand on private jets, no doubt, but I don't give a pit. Sometimes being good gives you the right to be bad.
17. "You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To" by Helen Merrill. My new favorite song, from my new favorite CD.
18. PugSpot.com. Where else am I going to find out if Howard is the only one with a secretion problem?
19. Carlo Mollino: Polaroids. Mollino was a famous Italian architect and designer, and after he died, a stash of erotic Polaroids was discovered: He'd evidently been inviting prostitutes and other women to his villa for a little dress-up and who knows what else. The pictures in this book are so so so sexy. (This is a rare SFW one.)
20. Out of Sight. Caught the ending again on JetBlue a few weeks ago. A classic. Three and a half stars on NetFlix? Morons.
21. "State of Play." Not sure why I NetFlixed this a while back, but I was riveted. It's a six-hour BBC miniseries from 2003. The cast alone is to die for: Bill Nighy, Kelly Macdonald, Polly Walker, James MacEvoy—and they're not even the leads. (The American movie remake comes out soon. I can guarantee that the six-hour version will be better.)
22. Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris. The best novel I've read in an eternity. I liked it so much I almost wrote to the author. Common sense prevailed.
23. My Claes Oldenburg corrugated cardboard pretzel. Adam bought it for me a few years back.
25. Matchbox 1963 Cadillac Hearse. WTF? Wednesday Addams and I are presumably the beginning and ending of the target market....
Not a New Yorker, but worry about anyone and anything that has "secretions."
Posted by: Jeanine | 09 February 2009 at 07:29 PM