Friday 5ive- October 22, 2021

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

1) The new Target store had a soft opening this week for their new store on 86th Street. It's in the space formerly occupied by my beloved Barnes & Noble store, where I spent many an evening listening to fascinating authors talking about books, and heard Broadway performers sing songs from their shows.

The store is much bigger than the Target on 3rd Ave., and they have a much better selection of some things, like groceries, which takes up most of the lower level. I overheard someone saying the layout is odd, and I have to agree with that. The floors haven't been finished, and the Up escalator wasn't working, so they still have some work to do. 

2) You don't see too many Halloween decorations on the Upper East Side, but I did see this display set up tucked in between two buildings. 

3) They say you can find anything in New York City, and while walking to Target, I saw this COVID-19 Testing van set up on 3rd Ave. Get your groceries at Target, get your COVID test on your way home.

4) We started watching Dopesick on Hulu. Based on the book by Beth Macy, it tells the story of the opioid crisis from the perspective of a DEA agent, two DOJ lawyers, the Sackler family who own Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin, a pharmaceutical rep from Purdue, and a doctor and his patients in coal country. Michael Keaton is astonishing as the doctor who cares for his patients, and Kaitlyn Dever is just as powerful as a miner who gets addicted after a back injury. If you want to know how we got to where we are today, this is must-see TV. It's heartbreaking, and I'm definitely going to read the book now. 

5) I read two book this week, both of them big ones. 1000 Perfect Weekends from National Geographic has 720 pages of suggestions to spend a weekend across the globe. There's history, beautiful photos, and fun Top Ten Lists. It would make a great gift for the travelers on your holiday gift list. (The Finger Lakes region gets a two page spread!) My full review is here. 

The second book is Amor Towles' new novel, The Lincoln Highway. Set in 1954, 18 year-old Emmett Watson returns home from a juvenile detention center to his eight year-old brother Billy after their father passes away. The bank is foreclosing on their farm, and Emmett plans to take Billy and go west to start over. He runs into trouble in the forms of Dutchess and Wooly, two other young men from the detention center who ran away. The four set off on an unplanned road trip to New York City, where they meet with various adventures and people, good and bad. The writing is exquisite, Towles builds this incredible world around these four boys and the reader truly cares about these characters. I loved this book, even more than his A Gentleman in Moscow, which I adored. This will be one of my Top Ten books this year, and it's this month's Read With Jenna pick. 

Stay safe, continue to wash your hands, wear a mask indoors in public, stay socially distant, and please get the vaccine if you haven't yet to protect others. 

Friday 5ive- August 30, 2019 Edition

The Friday 5ive is a weekly blog post about five things that caught my attention this week.
This week's post is mostly a visual one.

1) While wandering the neighborhood, I've been seeing lots of signs on bus stops for the Upper East Side Target. That's right, we're getting a Target, albeit a mini-Target, but that's better than no Target at all (I hope). I walked by the store and it looks like they are getting close to opening. I saw employees walking in the front door. 

Target at 70th St. and 3rd Ave.

2) There are a lot of empty storefronts in the neighborhood, and this one had a huge ad for a book! I was so surprised, I've not seen this before. The book is The Floating Feldmans by Elyssa Friedland, about a family that takes a vacation cruise together. Hilarity ensues.

3) The MTV Music Awards were on the other night, and while I didn't watch too much of them, I did see the Moon Man from the original MTV ads back in the beginning days of MTV. He was stationed in Times Square, just hanging out on the corner like the Naked Cowboy, but you know, fully clothed.

4) Comedian Sebastian Maniscalco hosted the MTV Music Awards. I saw him on CBS This Morning last week, and he was funny so we watched his Netflix special and I have to admit, I laughed pretty hard at him. He's a physical comedian, and he does a lot of family jokes that I enjoyed. My favorite joke was about all these choreographed dances that groomsmen do at weddings today. He said he couldn't even get his groomsmen to rent their tuxedoes. Relatable. 

5) I love The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel on Amazon Prime, and to get us ready for season three (not til December-ugh), The Paley Center in New York has an exhibit. They have sets from the show- the makeup counter and telephone switchboard at B. Altman where she worked, a diner booth where she and Susie (my favorite) would plot their strategy, and the hair salon at the Catskills resort where she would sit under the dryer with her mother. And of course, they had costumes, the highlight of the show. Those dresses are so fabulous! The exhibit was similiar to the Downton Abbey exhibit I visited last year, but on a much smaller scale. It closes on September 7th if you are in NYC and want to go.

The Elizabeth Arden counter 

The switchboard

Susie and Mrs. Maisel sat here and planned 

The hair salon at the Steiner Resort

The ladies gossiped under the dryer

All the classic beautiful dresses

I'm taking a few weeks off, but when I come back, I'll have some great photos of the exciting things I saw in Italy. Ciao!