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HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE 2020: Life Preservers
By
Published: Nov 30, 2020
Category:
Holiday
THIS HOLIDAY IN BUTLER
The 2020 Holiday Gift Guide: Life Preservers
The 2020 Holiday Gift Guide: Gifts for Kids
The 2020 Holiday Gift Guide: Books and Movies
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Cynthia McFadden delivered a lovely message the other night for kids who are worried that Santa won’t come because of COVID. Not so, she reports. Santa’s immune from COVID. “According to Fauci,” he won’t be stranded with a mountain of undelivered toys at the North Pole.
That’s a lovely message for kids in families like ours. It’s a brutal reminder of what the holidays won’t be for American children who will be getting the 2020 equivalent of lumps of coal on Christmas. They have a more urgent Christmas wish: relief from what the media describes as “food insecurity” — bluntly: hunger.
Last year, 35 million Americans suffered from food insecurity. November 2020: 50 million. One in every six Americans. One in every four households. (Thanks to the most heartless government outside of China, that number will surely increase on New Year’s Eve, when emergency unemployment benefits and a moratorium on evictions and student debt payments all expire.)
Of the 50 million Americans likely to have pizza for Christmas dinner, 17 million are children. I’ll spare you the “Christmas Carol” imagery and the “how can this happen in the richest country in the world?” rant. But as I curated this year’s holiday gift list, I thought about those kids who are invisible because they are mostly Black and Brown, almost all poor. And I made two decisions.
1) Almost everything on this year’s holiday list is inexpensive. I like luxury as much as the next person — after watching “The Crown,” I dreamed about a Bentley — but I eliminated that category. And I’ll do Books and Movies and Music and Kids later. This pared-down list is to emphasize Essentials.
2) Almost everything on this year’s holiday is inexpensive because I hope you will use some of the money you don’t spend to donate to a food bank or a non-political charity. To encourage you: if you contribute, please forward the email confirmation of your donation to me (HeadButlerNYC@AOL.com) and I will make a donation to your cause in your honor.
Two thoughts:
Bertolt Brecht: “First feed the face, then talk right and wrong.”
Shantideva:
All the joy the world contains
Has come through wishing happiness for others.
All the misery the world contains
Has come from wanting pleasure for oneself.
This year’s theme is Life Preservers. My personal plan is to use the technology and vitamins on this list to make it more likely that I’ll be here in 2021. My holiday wish for you is that you’ll be here too.
LIFE PRESERVERS
Lypo-Spheric Vitamin C
Most of the Vitamin C in pills or capsules — that is, Vitamin C in the form you probably take — never reaches the bloodstream. Estimates of its absorption rate are less than 50%. Lypo-Spheric Vitamin C has a 90% absorption rate. Result: I haven’t had a cold in ears.
Pulse Oximeter
It measures two things: your oxygen level and your pulse. Forget your pulse — the oxygen level is what you need to know. You want it to be between 94 and 99. If it goes below 90, you may — repeat: may — be experiencing the early stages of the virus. But if it’s fine and you’ll feel just slightly ill, you do nobody any favors if you rush to the hospital. Maybe just.. call your doctor.
Forehead Thermometer
I no longer saunter in to restaurants, doctor’s offices, or any other COVID-aware establishment. At the entrance, I get my temperature checked. (And then I fill out a questionnaire.) The device: a forehead thermometer. It’s not a bad idea to have one at home. The forehead thermometer isn’t definitive proof of illness, but it’s an excellent early warning system.
Masks
They’re like second nature now. To buy a pack of 15 disposable masks from Amazon, click here. To buy high quality masks with a filter pocket from Alice Glass, a Butler reader and theatre artist in Berkeley, click here.
Vitamin D
Data from 16 clinical trials involving 7,400 people show that taking vitamin D supplements reduces the risk of experiencing at least one respiratory infection including influenza and pneumonia by a third with positive benefits seen within 3 weeks. [To buy Vitamin D3 Enhanced with Coconut Oil from Amazon, click here. To buy Vitamin D3 in Fruit Flavored Gummies from Amazon, click here.]
SELF-CARE
Light Therapy
If you are medicated for depression — or even tend toward depression — you are a candidate for Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). A good light therapy device delivers 10,000 lux. You sit a few feet away from it first thing in the morning for 20 minutes or so — like while you check your mail or do whatever while you have breakfast. That’s it. You won’t tan. You should be.. brighter inside.
Egyptian Magic
Burns, scrapes, skin irritations, diaper rash, sunburns, eczema, psoriasis — it’s the go-to cream for every external problem..The ingredients are olive oil, bees wax, honey, bee pollen, royal jelly and bee propolis. Yes, you could whip it up yourself. But you couldn’t improve on the original.
Weighted Blanket
The idea is simple: if you sleep under a heavier blanket, you feel comforted. Cuddled. Even returned to the womb. And… you sleep.
Tree Lotion CBD Cream
Many CBD products are fake. Or over-hyped. Tree Lotion makes quality CBD creams: “We have created unique proprietary blends using the most powerful and effective organic essential oils in the world combined with pure hemp derived CBD, tested and free of pesticides.” Not sure what to order? Write Melanie at Tree Lotion: treelotioninc@gmail.com. Put “Head Butler sent me” in the subject line, and describe your problem/situation. Tree Lotion offers a 30% discount for Head Butler readers in December. Type HOLIDAY into “Referral Form” at checkout.
Clarins Beauty Flash Balm
I saw testimonial after testimonial for its use as a base for makeup and as a home facial (apply, let sit 10-15 minutes, rinse or tissue off.) This is the ultimate endorsement: “It’s like eight hours of sleep in a tube.”
STOCKING STUFFERS
Timex Easy Reader Watch
Esquire: “The simple retro face looks cooler than some watches that cost six times as much.” Under $30.
Zojirushi Stainless Steel Vacuum Insulated Mug
The only thermos to buy. Hot stays hot, cold stays cold. And the taste of the beverage doesn’t change.
iPhone Charger Cables
A pack of 4. Two are 3’ long, two are ‘6’ long. $10.59. At an airport, you pay $20 for just one.
Nam Prik Asian Chili Hot Sauce
Graduate from Sriracha. Nam Prik is an Asian chili sauce that’s both spicy and sweet. Nam Prik (pronounced: nam-preek, literally “fluid chili”) delivers fire and flavor, adding personality to eggs, Mexican food, Asian dishes, meat and chicken entrees.
Proraso Shaving Cream
Proraso was formulated by a venerable company in Florence in 1948. The ingredients remain unchanged. All natural, of course.
Palomino Blackwing Pencils
John Steinbeck wrote with a Blackwing. Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim and Quincy Jones used Blackwings for scores. They are “the best pencil ever made.”
Moleskine Notebooks
The leather-like cover takes more wear than you’ll ever give it. The elastic band is useful. There’s an inner pocket. The spine is sewn, not glued..
Louise Fili: Brilliant pencils, gift cards, and more
Louise Fili takes Italian design of an earlier era — say, 1920-1960 — and creates dazzling, affordable, functional objects: pencils, gift cards and treasure boxes.
Anne Taintor Coffee Mugs & More
Retro advertising images with snarky captions. “If It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere Can I Go Home Now,” “Why Yes, I Am Overqualified,” “The Paleo Diet…. Isn’t That What Killed The Dinosaurs,” and “Martinis…they’re not just for breakfast anymore.”
Viva la Repartee: Clever Comebacks and Witty Retorts
it’s exhausting to be witty on cue. On the other hand, it sharpens the mind to read several hundred pages of great repartee — which Mark Twain defined as “something we think of twenty four hours too late.”
Thymes Frasier Fir Candle
The Thymes Frasier Fir candle in a dark green glass won’t quite convince you that there’s a fir tree in the corner, but it proposes the idea.
Diptyque candles
It takes 1,300 roses to make ONE gram of pure rose oil used in a Diptyque. This candle lasts so long it’s like a bottle of Dom Perignon that keeps refilling itself while your back is turned.
