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Late Summer 2023: #2
By
Published: Aug 29, 2023
Category:
Holiday
Another batch of suggestions to amuse and comfort you while I take a few days away from Butler. This one feels lighter. Why? La Rochefoucauld: “No one can look long at the sun or death.” And no one can incessantly worry about this and that and the other thing. Enjoy these. But first… health. Because it comes first, always.
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. Expensive, but worth it — I haven’t had a cold since 2016.
Bill Bryson gets an idea: he’ll amble the 2,100-mile length of the Appalachian Trail. He asks many friends to walk with him. Only one responds: Stephen Katz, a college buddy who has gone on to abuse alcohol and drugs and is now sober, if not exactly tame..
Elizabeth Zott is the “improbable star” of a TV cooking show, “Supper at Six.” And then she’s more. Do not be the last to savor this novel. Or “discover” it on Apple TV this fall. Watch a preview.
Laurie Colwin wrote about privileged people so well you could legitimately call her our Jane Austen. Well before Nora Ephron, she threw in recipes, and in some of her perceptions, she was cousin to Woody Allen. In a time when “literary fiction” was mostly pinched and gloomy, she was the half-full glass — she even called one of her novels “Happy All the Time.”
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. J.R. Moehringer’s uncle is a bartender at Dickens, a Manhasset establishment beloved by locals who appreciate liquor in quantity— “every third drink free” — and strong opinions, served with a twist. Great memoir. Charming movie. Watch the preview, stream on Amazon Prime.
Two New York Times reporters bring Harvey Weinstein down. Their book was fine. The movie was underrated — it’s “All the President’s Men,” with women getting the scoop. Watch the preview, stream on Amazon Prime.
EMILY THE CRIMINAL
“Want to make $200 in an hour?” reads the anonymous text, and Emily (Aubrey Plaza) absolutely does. To watch the preview, click here. To stream it on Amazon Prime, click here.
Alan Arkin won a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for his hugely entertaining performance as a crusty, addicted grandfather. The dad (Greg Kinnear) is a relentlessly upbeat motivational speaker who is unable to find a publisher. The wife (Toni Collette) is so harried she’s misplaced her femininity and has become the family enabler.Their teenage son (Paul Dano) reads Nietzsche, hates everyone in his family, and has taken a vow of silence. The 7-year-old daughter (Abigail Breslin) obsessively watches televised beauty pageants and dreams of winning a kid contest, although she wears huge eyeglasses and is as round as a Weeble. Watch the trailer. Stream it on Amazon Prime.
Darryl Kerrigan and his family are good-hearted, if not overly bright, and we know this immediately because their house, which was built on toxic landfill, is just a chain-link fence from the landing strip of a large airport. All is joy until a man knocks on the door to deliver an order: a ”compulsory acquisition” with a buyout price of $70,000. Darryl decides to fight back. Watch the trailer. Stream on Amazon Prime.
FOR KIDS
A five-star movie, and not just for young children. No matter how old you are, no matter how sophisticated you may think you are, it is a fantastic film experience, an 86-minute swath of gorgeousness with a message as beautiful as its images. And the trick of it is… there’s no trick.This is a movie rooted in the very ordinary. To stream it on Amazon Prime, click here.
This 60-minute documentary profiles the world’s greatest origami artists. And not for the origami. For the artists. For the inspiration. For once, the word “mind-blowing” is an accurate description. Because if someone can take an uncut paper square and turn it into a figure so complex that collectors line up to buy it… well, we’re not talking about a little bird that flaps its wings anymore, are we? Watch the trailer.
NEW YORK CITY
It’s hard to grasp that this 43-acre park in Yonkers is just 10.8 miles and a 16-minute drive from my Manhattan apartment. This Italo-Persian creation overlooking the Hudson River is considered the most monumental private garden in America. Commissioned by Samuel Untermyer, a prominent lawyer who was reputedly the first attorney to earn a million dollars, it expressed his deepest passion: horticulture. To create the garden, he hired the Rockefellers’ architect and 60 gardeners. On his death, Yonkers took it over. Summer hours: 9 AM to 7 PM, 7 days a week. Admission: free. For directions, nearby restaurants and more, click here.
The best investment I know of in New York is a $75 membership at the Frick Madison. While the Frick we know and cherish is being restored, the collection is at the Breuer masterpiece, Madison Avenue and 75th Street. The best perk of membership: viewing hours open only to members. Recently, my friend Mary and I were almost alone in the galleries, standing two feet from masterpieces. The highlight of our visit: Rembrandt’s self-portrait. From the museum notes: “Executed during a period of constraint and adversity, at a time when Rembrandt had declared bankruptcy, and was obliged to sell his vast collections, this magisterial self-portrait… is the head of an old lion at bay, worn and melancholy, yet conscious of his strength, determined and a little defiant.’” Yes, all that. But it was his eyes that held us: what they saw and what they said. We stood, looking and talking, until we were the last people there. What a privilege! For information about membership, click here.
