Need to know: 5 must-haves for new puppy parents

On October 28, 2019, our lives changed forever when we met our eight-week-old puppy for the first time and flew him home. Despite having read all the blogs and puppy proofing our Manhattan apartment, there were a few surprised we never could have anticipated. Equally, there were a few tools and tips we absolutely couldn’t have done without. I was so surprised by the lack of “lists” for new puppy parents — and so, dear reader (especially if you plan to put a bow on a new Fido this holiday season) — here is your foolproof list of puppy must-haves:

1. FURBO
I’ve seen dozens of advertisements for “nanny” puppy cameras, and hesitated before shelling out about $100 for a Furbo, one of the more prominent brands with top reviews on Amazon and the added benefits of livestreaming video, interactive voice and sound — and here’s the kicker, projectile treats — so you can ask him to sit, and then toss him a treat and tell him “good boy!” Keep an eye out for great deals on one during the holidays.

2. CHEWY.COM
Chewy is not just another online retailer. I have been repeatedly blown away not just by their broad selection and thorough product reviews, but also (and especially) the top-notch customer service. Not only do they respond immediately, but they’re understanding enough (in my experience) to accommodate even a customer mistake with a full no-questions-asked refund. All your previous orders are archived for quick re-ordering (or repeat delivery at the frequency of your choice, if you prefer) which is inevitable as you discover your pup’s favorite products. Bonus, they also have a hilarious and engaging social media team, worth following on instagram @chewy.

3. MR. SLOTH (or a Mr. Sloth equivalent)
My brother gave our puppy this long legged sloth as a gift when he was young, and it quickly became his (and our) favorite toy. Especially for smaller dogs, a toy that’s easy for mom and dad to dangle while reading the paper or sipping your morning coffee becomes a morning necessity (and doubles as a cuddly tug-of-war as needed). Ours is similar to this one from TJMaxx, under $10.

4. A PUPPY COCOON
Dog beds are great and all, but a washable puppy cocoon is essential in the winter months (can you say, bed and blanket in one?) and extremely helpful before your puppy learns to control his messes. At under $20 and easy to find, we love this version from Walgreens.

5. NYLABONE CHEWS
Like a toddler, when he’s young, your pup’s teeth can be a pain. Ours loves these chew toys from Nylabone, and there are packaged “puppy starter kit” options, this one from Petco, so you can upgrade to the appropriate toy for each stage of his development. Lucky for us, this set of puppy keys (pictured) was his first toy on his flight home.

These are @warrenbuffettdoodle and our 5 favorites — which are yours? Share suggestions in the comments! xx

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Last Chance: Delacroix at the Met

This morning we braved the pouring rain and skulked past blocks-long lines to enjoy the most comprehensive retrospective of Delacroix’s work to visit North America (pro tip: line cutting is major perk for all Met members).

Revolutionary French painter Eugène Delacroix (1798–1863) came of age after the fall of Napoleon and is renowned as one of the greatest artists of his time. While he is a household figure in France, this exhibit combines and illuminates his many talents and influences; in addition to over 800 paintings and thousands of drawings, the collection features thousands of pages of his journals and ties common threads between his artwork and serious literary preoccupation/inspiration.

Below are a few of my favorite works from the collection. Check them out yourself between now and January 6 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Jeune tigre jouant avec sa mère — a young tiger playing with its mother. 

My favorite painting (and among the least violent of the animal set
(of which there were quite a few)

This page features the first known formulation of what would become a credo for Delacroix—that painting is a bridge between artist and viewer, with material advantages over literature:
“When I have done a fine painting, I have not expressed any thoughts. That’s what they say. How simple-minded they are!… A writer says almost everything in order to be understood; painting builds a kind of mysterious bridge between the soul of the characters and that of the spectator.”

A glowing recommendation from Picasso “That bastard. He’s really good.”

Want to learn more? Listen to The Met’s conversation with Ashler Miller on the exhibit:

https://soundcloud.com/metmuseum/delacroix-audio

Fitness Review: Post-Christmas Pulse at Exhale Barre

Today I met a friend at Exhale Barre (Flatiron) for the first time, for a post-Christmas workout. The studio is pristine and conveniently located near the flatiron building, madison square park and several east and west subway lines, so I was excited to discover a new workout that rivals Physique 57 (my favorite!) in a Physique-location-desert.

Overall: Attentive staff, clean studio, tough workout: I give it 8/10

Pros:
– Bonus points for friendliness, from the front-desk staff to our instructor, Rachael, everyone at Exhale was kind, warm, and energetic
– The studio was super clean; while I brought a change of clothes and was heading home afterwards, I would have been totally comfortable in their locker rooms and showers
– The barre studio has a beautiful hard wood floor instead of a worn carpet (why don’t more studios do this?!)
– Equipment was in great shape (especially appreciated the high quality foam/rubber mats

Lows:
– Class was only 45 minutes, which was enough for a workout but would have been even better for a bit longer
– This location didn’t have an Exhale spa
…guess we’ll have to go back!

Learn more and sign up for classes here: https://www.exhalespa.com/locations/new-york/flatiron

See: To Kill a Mockingbird

I have always been impartial to musical theater, though a series of more serious plays have caught my attention from time to time (in recent years – The Curious Incident, Hand to God, The Cripple of Inishmaan) so when my husband scored preview tickets to see Aaron Sorkin’s To Kill a Mockingbird, it was a no brainer.

We all read Harper Lee’s novel in high school, but Sorkin’s version featuring Jeff Daniels as Atticus Finch brings new life to the story you thought you knew, in an age when we have all been forced to rethink the storyline’s important undertones about racism, abuse, sexual assault and standing up for what’s right. 

“PLAYBILL SYNOPSIS: Atticus Finch, a lawyer in the Depression-era South, defends a black man against an undeserved rape charge, and his children against prejudice.”

It’s a must see, and a refresher on the nobility and importance of bringing access to justice equally to all people. As a daughter/sister/granddaughter/niece of lawyers, my family never understood my lack of desire to attend law school, and leaving the Schubert after Sorkin’s To Kill a Mockingbird is the closest I’ve come to wanting to take the LSAT in my life. 

For Tickets: http://www.playbill.com/production/to-kill-a-mockingbird-2018-2019

Trees on Demand: Holiday Hack for Busy New Yorkers

While the holidays signify time with friends and family, gifts, relaxation and thankfulness, for some, they also represent an even busier period of take-out meals, skipped workouts, and gifts delivered within the Amazon Prime Now two-hour window.

Help me help you:

This year our tree came from the St. Nicholas of Firs, NYC Trees. For slightly more than your average six-footer, two muscular dudes will drop off your tree within an evening time window, set up the stand, fill it with water, and even add a Santa-themed skirt. We were worried our tree would be less handsome or shapely than one we picked out ourselves, but couldn’t have been more wrong or less pleased.

Trees on-demand

NYC Trees: https://nyctrees.com/

Prices start at 109 and include delivery, stand and setup

Removal starts at $60

Holiday Spirit: Nutella Cafe

Today we checked out the less than a month old Nutella Cafe which had a line down the block — no surprise since according to Eater Over 100 People Reportedly Lined Up for the recent grand opening hoping for a taste, “including bloggers and influencers” (oh hey).

Fortunately, my suave and sharp husband found a way to surpass the line and I’m here to share so you too can enjoy without the wait.

Long story short, it’s worth checking out (especially if you skip the line) and a great destination to take visiting family during the holiday season.

Three tips to make the most of your visit:

• Don’t jump in line! Approach the front door like you own it, and you’ll be directed inside to sample anything from the same menu of those who jumped in line and never bothered to inquire.
• What can you expect? Everything you imagined made from nutella (crepes, croissants, and ice cream) and many items you didn’t but wish you had (popsicles, pastries, french toast).
• Get your items to go. The cafe is nothing special to look at and the sooner you leave with your gelato, the better (it’s the best).
• Hit the Union Square market while you’re nearby. You’ll find everything you need – from last-minute gifts for them to “self-care” gifts for you.
• The kicker… Spend $35 and you get a free jar of nutella.

Nerds Delight Continues: The Secret Science Club

For weeks I’ve been on the Secret Science Club mailing list in nerdy anticipation of their next event and my introduction to the underground awesomeculture I always suspected somewhere… like a spectacular back-room-wood-and-leather-barn-like-Brooklyn-bar-space.

Well, yesterday I braved the hailstorm (via the southbound R train) and sure enough I found them… lined up down the street outside of The Bell House, nerd flags waving in the post torrential downpour winds, just beside mine.

Last night Featured Duncan Watts, mathematical sociologist, social network expert, and author of Everything Is Obvious (*Once You Know the Answer). Watts, who also currently conducts research for Microsoft, challenged our societal default to common sense, reacquainting us with the scientific method and a strong reminder for skepticism– we should question everything, and test over and over again until the data proves us (theory) right.

While much of Watts’ presentation hit chords of personal bias– from his own research of Yahoo’s dating site preferences (apparently what users say they want v. what they actually want proves Avenue Q’s theory that “everyone’s a little bit racist) to questioning leadership in the workplace– do we inflate the credentials of the best looking man in the room? Was George Washington the default pundit for our Nation’s forefathers because he was always the tallest guy in the room?

Interesting things to consider (from Watts):

-“We can skip from day to day and observation to observation, perpetually replacing the chaos of reality with the soothing fiction of our explanations”

-Watts’ theory centers around the idea that we draw lots of conclusions about factors that led up to an event… after the event. And that it would be just as easy to draw conclusions why the OPPOSITE outcome had come true. (Example: reasons why the financial crisis happened… if the economy were booming, we could have also found reasons pointing to why).

-Avoid “halos” or generalizing people with a certain characteristic. Just because most of the senior leaders at your company are tall, handsome men in suits, don’t assume someone tall in a suit has leadership qualities.

-Do the hard work– don’t make assumptions based upon one outcome. If you don’t have the benefit of results/data from many outcomes, build strategies that don’t depend upon accurate predictions– like reacting quickly (retailer Zara, for example, demos small runs of each style in-store, and then mass produces the ones that sell most successfully).

The New York Times review of Watt’s book summarizes well: “Common sense is a kind of bespoke make-believe, and we can no more use it to scientifically explain the workings of the social world than we can use a hammer to understand mollusks.” Pick up his book here.

Whether you support or disagree with Watts’ contention of common sense, I’m of the camp that it is always worth asking ourselves the question (and working toward truth).

…see you at next month’s  Secret Science Club!

What is ‘The Moth’?

One of the most beautiful things about living in New York is the close proximity of diverse strangers… for any the people-watchers among us, it’s always fun to imagine someone’s “story” as they pass by you in the street. The Moth, I found, was a poignant reminder and perfect exhibition of these people-stories.

On Tuesday night I attended a Moth “slam” at HousingWorks Bookstore and Cafe in SoHo, NYC. In recruiting friends to attend my first ‘slam,’ I found that most either friends either a) got super excited/defensive “You’ve never been before?! How is this possible? I love the Moth!” to b) very confused “Is it a movie? Is it comedy? Is it real?” The best five-second-summary I can give you is to say that it is a series of 5 minute “improv stories” from members of the audience/people like us.

Here’s how it works:

-Each “slam” has a theme (Tuesday’s was “chemistry”) and when you arrive, if you have a story you’d like to tell, you are welcome to drop your name in a hat.

-Doors opened at 7pm (which was really more like 7:30) and the line was already down the block by the time I arrived at 6pm. It sold out, and many people were standing, So get there early.

-A host (ours was the funny/spunky Ophira Eisenberg, host of NPR’s ” Ask Me Another”) warms up the crowd and introduces each of the 10 storytellers (whose names are pulled from a hat).

-After each speaker, 3 panels of judges vote (scores are on a generous 7-10 scale) to ultimately decide the winner and “best story” of the evening.

-Between speakers, the host (in this case, Ophira, pictured above) makes jokes and reads from little q&a notecards the audience filled out while waiting for the slam to begin. Our notecard question read: Like oil and water, what two things in your life just don’t mix?” Funny responses included things like “Man Sandals” and “My husband and my boyfriend.” …Eep.

All in all, the moth is kind of a fun club of (I’m just gonna say it though I love you guys) nerdy curious people. In line and in the audience I met a slew of really interesting and diverse people who were either avid listeners or at their first event, from doctors to marketers to college students.

The speakers themselves ran the gamut:

-An articulately endearing prep schooler (who immediately alienated his hipster-y audience by declaring his allegiance to his prep school, Choate Rosemary Hall, expecting a warm reception/meeting crickets… I feel you bro) but eventually won them over with his tale of excruciating wrestling injury and anesthetic resistance (did you know about redheads and the MC1R gene? Me either.)

-A charming hipster who recalled re-introducing herself to people over and over, without being able to remember faces (haven’t we all been there?) only realizing after years of embarrassment, and listening to an episode of radiolab, that she had formal prosopagnosia, or “faceblindness.”

-An actual (immensely charming) staff member of the Moth who told his story about working as a weld inspector amidst oil spills in the gulf, whose life and professional awakening was eventually prompted by a silent brotherly understanding with a lost shark.

The moral of the moth, for me, is that people are fascinating, and fascinating people go to the moth. If you’ve found yourself doing a bit too much introverted ipod walking on the subway lately, for only $8, you too can be re-enchanted by humankind. Peep the schedule here. And let me know if you go, ’cause I’ll be there too.

“Our Little Nerd Circus” – Radiolab LIVE!

Radiolab’s Live show “In The Dark” makes. me. so. happy. At the end of last night’s show, I declared that if Jad (Abumrad) and Robert (Krulwich) just sat down and taught me a show about everything important about science, I’d be a genius. They are the Bill Nye the Science Guy for curious adults. After all, Radiolab is “a show about curiosity.”

First things first, let’s start here: Radiolab is “a show about curiosity. Where sound illuminates ideas, and the boundaries blur between science, philosophy, and human experience.” The boys performed their live show “In The Dark” at BAM last night, co-hosted by Demitri Martin, with whom I was previously unfamiliar, because I (apparently) live in a cave. He was hilarious, as (apparently) is to be expected, and was actually far funnier when he was improvising/making fun of the audience than when he took us through his scripted bits/slide shows. One of my favorite parts was a quick round of Good/Bad/Interesting, which (apparently) he’s played before.

EDITORS NOTE: It’s really tough for me to tell you about these things, because I really want you to experience them. This is why I don’t just show you pictures of our weekend at the beach. I don’t want to show you pictures. I want you to come. I want those hair curls you repress to swell with ocean salt and your hands to be all sticky clammy from cracking lobsters and sand to fall out of your pockets when you return to Manhattan and drop them on your parquet floor. So keep that in mind, lobster hands, and, just this once, mainly because the two New York shows are sold out, I’ll tell you a bit about what we saw. But you have to promise to listen to the podcast when it’s posted (and I’ll post it for you).

And hence, our 3 part show “In The Dark”:

Part 1: Jad and Robert began by taking us through the evolution of the eye, a controversial subject of Darwinian debate, and for this they summoned (one of my faves) Carl Zimmer, who took us through eyes as light detecting blobs to the modern day ones we know and love, that are embedded in our skulls (really neat, I didn’t know either, check it out). At this point in the show, the evolution of the eyeball is being beautifully exhibited by choreographed by modern dance troupe Pilobolus (brooklyn natives!) — who pretty consistently, fluidly, entertainingly accompanied (without distracting from) the show whether dressed as giant glow in the dark eyeballs or stripped down to their skivvies.

Part II: Next, we met two blind men from opposite ends of the world, one of whom tries to wipe his memory of all images so as not to skew his ability to live in the moment, and to live “truthfully” (as opposed to thinking of his wife the way she looked in her youth, he prefers to have no visual, mental picture at all) and the other, who strives to remember and envision as much as humanly possible, to the point where he intimately knows the cheek creases of his wife’s laughter and is comfortable crawling around on his roof to fix a leak. This dichotomy, and difference in perspectives was poignant and thought provoking. The gents provoked the audience to think of whether our full impressions of people are rooted in visual expressions, in images… whether our emotional attachments are cemented by seeing/understanding each others’ “isms,” reactions… I’m still thinking about it now.

Part III: SPACE! Of course I wasn’t at all excited to be introduced by phone to NASA astronaut Dave Wolf (did you know NASA’s hold music is actually sci-fi-ish space sounds? me neither. *SWOON*) who told us about the last 30 seconds of his life (or so he thought) when he was “locked out” of an airlock, for hours, in deep space, and had to disconnect his “umbilical cord” (co2 filter/cooling system) in a last ditch effort/affording a 4 minute window to break back into the pod and save his life.

Here’s where my heart breaks because you weren’t in the theater. They also gave us all these little light-conductory contraptions, so at the end of the show we were able to sort of “give a present” back to Jad and Robert by making the audience look like a glittery night sky, with a giant sun projected on the stage (pictured above). Of note that Jad and Robert sang the praises of stage band Thao Nguyen (who also boasted an earlier solo performance) thanked the audience, took a bow, Demitri Martin came back out in a dorky red backpack, and all was right in the world.

My final plea is twofold:

1) If you don’t already listen to Radiolab, start. They even have an iphone app now to make it super easy.

2) If you don’t already (listen and) donate to NPR, start. It is one of the most enriching, important private institutions we have.

Write to please just one …

Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia. (Vonnegut)

Hey, you.