The last few times I've done these posts about things I love—and not obvious stuff like business class and Cole Porter—I've included 20 items. This time I only made to ten. Wanna make something of it?
1. Aji Ichiban. The Hong Kong–based candy store Aji Ichiban has an outpost (maybe two) in Chinatown, not far from where I live, and going there is always a treat. I usually scoop up a little of this, a little of that, and a lot of the chewy ginger Ting Ting Jahe candies from Indonesia.
2. Catalog Choice. I used to get a lot of mail-order catalogs. Then I learned about Catalog Choice, where you indicate which ones you no longer want to receive, and the companies in question mostly stop mailing them. I say "mostly" because the schmucks at Pottery Barn still send me PBteen catalogs. Hello!
3. Tearable packing tape. My first few years in the workforce—not counting my time at Baskin-Robbins, Waldenbooks, and various college jobs—I spent a lot of time fighting with those tape guns that dispensed packing tape. Guns? They were more like knives, what with the serrated edge. They were evil. And so you can imagine how overjoyed I was to discover that Scotch now makes tear-by-hand packing tape. May your children never have to know our struggle.
4. Gian Lorenzo Bernini. This is a cliché, I think, but when I first went to Rome in September and Adam and I visited the Galleria Borghese, I was astounded by the sculptures by Gian Lorenzo Bernini. Normally, sculpture of any kind doesn't move me, but these were so different, exquisitely lifelike but also way better than life. Here's a scan of a postcard I bought.
5. Not having to sign for credit-card purchases under $25. When will all stores be able to do this? I'm not a germophobe, but I don't like touching that stylus. (That's what he said!)
6. Cilantro. At the supermarket, I've been known to stick my face in a bunch of cilantro and inhale deeply. I love the smell even more than bleach.
7. Zazzle's exchange technique. As a gift for Adam, I had a T-shirt made on Zazzle, and when it arrived maybe a week before Christmas with a defect in the printing, I was convinced I'd never get a replacement in time. But the company had me take a photo of the defect and email it, and once they saw the problem, they got started on a new one. Incredibly smart customer service.
8. Tanqueray green. The film A Single Man includes this fabulous exchange, though I do wonder if no response from George would've been stronger. We hardly needed it spelled out....
Charley: Be a dear and pick up some gin for me. Tanqueray. [Dreamily] I love the color of the bottle.
George: You love what's in it.
And yet, a few days after I saw the movie, I was emailing with my friend Lisa about it, and she asked, "Do you think I like Bombay Sapphire because I prefer men with blue eyes?" You can imagine what I said to that.
9. Tor Kells. Thanks to a Google alert on my name—don't look at me like that—I discovered that someone named Bob is posting an untitled novel he appears to have written, and in that book, which is very Lord of the Rings, or maybe fan fiction based LOTR, is a country named "Tor Kells." Unfortunately, the country of Tor Kells doesn't seem to play a large role in the plot. Here are the two mentions: "The Orcs of this realm, along with their sister country of Tor Kells, had fled to the Hundred Kingdoms during the turmoil that created the Blight. [...] Since that time the two nations had made the best of a bad situation, mining the little mineral wealth of the region to allow them to arm and armor a large standing army, which they quite often hired out as mercenaries." And then: "The ambassadors from Rago Duns and Tor Kells are both hedging around whether they will hold to their neutrality pacts." My country, 'tis of me!
10. "This Bed" and "Million Dollar Bill" I never liked Alicia Keys much—she bugs—but her song "This Bed" is perfect midtempo R&B. And she also wrote the Gloria Gaynoresque "Million Dollar Bill" for Whitney Houston. I may have been wrong about Alicia. (No, she still bugs. But these two songs are fine.)