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Father’s Day 2023: Cheap and Cheerful
By
Published: Jun 07, 2023
Category:
Holiday
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“The poor can never be made to suffer enough.” Jimmy Breslin told me that two decades ago. The reverse has become equally true: The rich can never be rich enough. Which leaves those of us in the middle watching prices go higher and corporate profits and executive compensation soar and workers sent packing with as small a send-off as possible…..and for all we know, there will be be dancing in corner offices next year if a bot can do our jobs. In conversations, I hold back. More and more, I hear myself say, “I don’t know.” I’m tempted to add one more line: “Nobody knows.” Actually, I do think I know one thing: When you can’t see to the end of the block…. conserve resources. And here’s Father’s Day, when we want to do something nice for stressed-out Dad. Here’s what I’m doing: I’ll tell my daughter to make a small donation to Food Bank for New York City. And then maybe a small, inexpensive gift, like that “World’s Best Grandpa” mug she gave me a few years ago. As you’ll note from this gift list, almost everything is cheap and cheerful. The real gift is the note you write. The real gift is a hug. The real gift is “I love you.”
HEALTH
Lypo-spheric Vitamin C Most of the Vitamin C in pills or capsules never reaches the bloodstream. Estimates of its absorption rate are less than 50%. Lypo-Spheric Vitamin C has a 90% absorption rate.
Manuka Honey Manuka honey comes from New Zealand, where it’s made by bees that feed on the nectar of the manuka tree. Their honey is dark and thick. And it’s good for you: it contains substances that stimulate production of cytokine, the proteins involved in strengthening the body’s immune system and helping it fight off pathogens and diseases.
Memory Foam Back Support Cushion Years at a desk take their toll on a back. This back cushion helps turn back the clock.
THINGS
Timex Easy Reader Watch In mid-conversation, a major Hollywood personage grabbed my arm, held it next to his. The same watch. Classic styling, functionally beautiful. It’s $10,000 cheaper than a watch that looks and works no better. $32.
Zojirushi Stainless Steel Vacuum Insulated Mug Hot stays hot. Cold stays cold.
Smart Snark: Anne Taintor coffee mugs & more 14 oz. ceramic gloss finish coffee mugs, Like: “She Was Comforted By The Knowledge That They Were Helpless Without Her” and “Parenting… When Messing Up Your Own Life Just Isn’t Enough.”
Moleskine Notebooks A leather-like cover, an elastic band, an inner pocket. The paper is acid-free. This will last.
BOOKS
Trust. I like short books. This is 400 pages. I read it twice. Because this novel deals with the human cost of money — of wealth. It’s told from several angles that will have you reaching for a pen, so you can mark them and come back to think about them. And did I say it won the Pulitzer Prize?
Frank Costello: A Novel. Marlon Brando modeled his voice in “The Godfather” on him. His partners-in-crime included Meyer Lansky, Lucky Luciano, and Bugsy Siegel. This is his story… as he’d tell it.
Viva la Repartee: Clever Comebacks and Witty Retorts It sharpens the mind to read several hundred pages of great repartee —– which Mark Twain defined as “something we think of twenty minutes too late.
LUXURY
La Chatelaine Shea Butter Bar Soap These 100% pure vegetable soaps are made in Provence using ethically sourced natural and organic ingredients.
COFFEE
The Head Butler Great Coffee Kit Mayorga Dark Roast Cubano coffee. A professional coffee grinder. A Melita carafe. A friend said, “I’ve never had better coffee.” This is why.
Nespresso Milk Frother Foam the milk you add to coffee? A homemade latte — a luxury that quickly becomes a necessity.
BOOKS
The Tender Bar A boy needs a father. If he doesn’t have one, he needs some kind of man in his life. Or men, because it can indeed take a village. And the movie is very much worth streaming.
Epictetus Marcus Aurelius (121-180 AD) studied at the feet of Epictetus (55-135 AD). One man was an emperor, the other a former slave who lived simply and wrote not a word. Guess who was wiser.
SPORTS
Levels of the Game This account of a single match between Arthur Ashe and Clark Graebner in the semifinals at the U.S. Open in Forest Hills is the best book ever written about tennis.
Go Like Hell: Ford, Ferrari, and Their Battle for Speed and Glory at Le Mans An American-built car had not won a major European race since 1921. Ford would have to build the most technologically advanced racing car in history.
Johnny U The greatest football player of the first half of the twentieth century. He had a job to do, and it was his responsibility to get it done. He never failed.
THRILLERS
Night Life David Taylor writes rings around most of the others.
STREAMING
Winter’s Bone Set in the Ozarks. It launched Jennifer Lawrence, who was justifiably nominated for an Academy Award. The film feels almost like a Greek tragedy — or an American Western.
At Eternity’s Gate Julian Schnabel’s best film, largely because it’s his most personal — about Van Gogh.
MUSIC
Mulatu Astatke Mulatu Astatke writes music, arranges it, and plays piano, organ, vibes and percussion. He’s from Ethiopia. Think: exotic, space-changing, hypnotic.
Keith Jarrett: The Koln Concert 66 legendary minutes improvisation. Jarrett takes a simple figure and explores it, then starts again, a strategy that requires enormous courage and thinking at super-computer speed if the pianist hopes to avoid cliche.
Astral Weeks. Van Morrison made this breakthrough CD in 1968. It took just four days, cost less than $25,000, promptly went on best-ever lists.
