Friday 5ive- October 28, 2022

Welcome to the Friday 5ive, a weekly post featuring five things that caught my attention this week.

1)  Sunday is Halloween and there are lots of homes on the Upper East Side decorated for the holiday. There is one house near our apartment that decorates for El Día de Los Muertos- Day of the Dead, a Mexican holiday that celebrates the welcoming back of the souls of the deceased for a brief reunion on November 1st. 

2) You know when you go to a wedding, and the bride and groom give all the guests a small gift? Back in the day it used to be something like Jordan almonds wrapped in small bag. We recently attended a wedding where the guests all received an appropriate and useful gift- a corkscrew and a wine cork. The bride and groom love wine, so this is such a perfect gift and one that we personally will use frequently. We'll toast to Gerard and Cheryl when we open our wine.

3)  We're trying to eat more healthy and this week I made a recipe that Food Network star Katie Lee Beigel created for Weight Watchers- Lightened-Up Chicken Parmesan. She uses ground chicken, spreading it out and baking it in a round skillet. Then she tops it with marinara sauce, a little low-fat mozzarella and parmesan cheese and bakes it a little longer. It was delicious, and it tasted very similar to Quality Italian's version that we enjoy at their restaurant. We'll have this again.

4) On another food related item, a bakery called Crumbl opened near us and every time I have walked by their store, there has been a long line of people down the block waiting to get in. I wanted to stop and get some cookies to bring into work, but I didn't have an hour to wait in line. I'll keep you posted when I finally make it inside the store. It sure smelled good walking by.

5) I'm on a nonfiction kick this week. I read When McKinsey Comes to Town by Walt Bogdanich and Michael Forsythe. The authors have written articles in the New York Times about the mega-management consultant corporation McKinsey, and they give an excellent overview of the beginnings of the company, which has grown into the largest and most powerful consulting company in the world. One of the biggest issues with McKinsey is that there is so much conflict of interest- they worked with a Chinese construction company that built man-made islands that China militarized in the South China Sea while they were advising the Pentagon, which has major concerns about these islands. They worked with Purdue Pharma, the infamous company that unleashed much of the deadly opioid crisis on the United States, (advising them on how to get their pharmaceutical reps to get doctors to write more prescriptions) while at the same time working with the FDA who oversees pharmaceutical companies, without disclosing to the FDA that Purdue was their customer. It's a fascinating book, and fans of the Hulu series Dopesick will want to read this one. 

Have a safe, healthy week, and Happy Halloween.