A supine rainbow spinning wheel
Plus, 3Recs for your *~mind & body~*
Good first Monday of May to you, a veritable national holiday for those who love fashion and the lucky ducks who get to wear it at the Met Gala tonight. I myself will be watching the red carpet from the comfort of my couch, where I’ve spent a good chunk of the past 48 hours, coming down from the high of the Friends in Napa tour by reading, diddling on my phone, and watching television.
I will spare you any great tour insights as I have none. “Still processing.” Consider me a supine rainbow spinning wheel. My month-long promotional rampage ended with a takeover of Decant, a winery in a former automobile garage in a leafy part of Houston.
It was organized by Book Club Plus, which is run by my college roommate, Amrutha Jindal, and if I sound stoic it’s because there are not enough superlatives in the English language to describe how dear of a friend Amrutha is to me, so we’ll stick with a tone of British Removal because they’re so good at expressing their feelings, right?
We had a blast. Forty people came, and almost all had read the book. They had intelligent insights that made me think about the Friends in Napa characters more, wonder about the lives they lived before and after the page. Related: Decant’s 2019 Mourvedre is not half bad. It’s actually quite good. Serve it chilled, ideally with a funky cheese and a fabulous friend.
I spoke with the Orange County Register about my childhood obsession with The Babysitters Club series and Reader’s Entertainment about what a typical writing day looks like (spoiler alert: no two are the same)! Did I mention the gorgeous reception that the Pendry Newport Beach organized ahead of my talk at the Costa Mesa library? No? Do please forgive me.
I managed to look away from my navel for long enough to write about J.P. Morgan Chase’s entry into the airport lounge wars for the New Yorker. Research involved sampling caviar and testing out a $33,000 couch. Grueling!
Oh — a note for those of you reading The Goddess Effect Act III: I’ll publish new installments every Friday. Chapter 19, coming soon.
Anyway, time for
3Recs
I meant to get here sooner but as with Waze, one sometimes gets turned around.
Innocleanse. The jury remains out on whether or not this supplement can purify your insides (as its name suggests), but after one week of taking it, I’m a convert. My promotional rampage has involved a not insignificant amount of fried foods and *~mineraly~* wines; my system seems to be taking to the burdock root and Bentonite clay and whatever else is in these pills. Take two per night for two weeks straight and then stop. Easy! But again, I’m not a doctor (in case you couldn’t tell) so don’t take medical advice from moi.
Bonberi’s “addictive” cabbage.
An Instagram post from Nicole Berrie, founder of Bonberi, a Manhattan emporium of good for you foods, crossed my radar Saturday morning. It contained a recipe for so-called “addictive” cabbage. I’ll be the judge of that, I thought, and went to Erewhon to get a head of its finest green varietal. I am here to report that the combination of rice vinegar, toasted sesame oil, grated garlic, and a hearty sprinkle of Trader Joe’s Everything but the Bagel seasoning results in a bowl of cabbage that is, indeed, as addictive as advertised. You do need to massage the dressing into the cabbage. You will feel ridiculous, but your insides will thank you.
The New Yorker Interview: Jerry Seinfeld. I will now dismount my gut and fiber horse and point you in the direction of one of the most entertaining and informative interviews I’ve read recently, which is David Remnick’s with Jerry Seinfeld. Seinfeld was on a TV show in the ‘90s. Maybe you’ve heard of it. He also has a new movie out that I want to see (it’s about Pop-Tarts). He talks about his work and life and shares several bons mots that I’m tucking into my pocket, including “life is pretty much a nuisance. But, if you can get a laugh out of it, it’s worth it. That’s the way you go through life. You only care about laughing and being funny.” I’ll raise my glass to that.
