The Tall and Salty Gift Guide for Gents

How's your Christmas shopping going?  Freaking out?  Me too.  If you're on the hunt for gifts for your favorite man friends, dads, brothers, husbands, or errand boys, some suggestions:  

A Warby Parker gift card and the promise that you'll help him pick out a pair (bonus: comes with a hilarious snowman kit) ($100).

A Hudson's Bay Company blanket that's navy instead of the usual off-white, because it's freaking freezing ($150).

A beef jerky sampler, because MEAT ($50).

A scratch-off map for keeping track of his world travels ($30).

Copper mugs for making Moscow Mules ($28).

Of all the gifts I've ever given my husband, this is honestly the one he uses the most: an extendable arm back-scratcher ($6).

A full-sized, folding umbrella ($27.50).

 

A cozy Christmas cardigan ($168, 30% off with code "GIFTNOW"). 

And because it's always fun to give toys, even to grown-ups, a crazy high-jumping pogo stick, which is somewhat silly but way more fun than say, socks ($129, but $25 off today; or try this one, which is ridiculously expensive -- and that's saying a lot given that the other one is a hundred bucks -- but you can jump four feet high!).

(Warby Parker image via Daily Candy; Hudson's Bay blanket image via Herschel Supply Company; beef jerky image via Mountain Weekly News; map image via Conde Nast Traveler.)

The Tall and Salty Gift Guide for Ladies

Friends, I have received my first "Last minute gifts!" email, which means that it's time to get around to posting my gift guides.  [Side note: J. Crew, you need a little refresher on what procrastination really means.]  The first installment, below, is full of suggestions for the ladies in your life: moms, sisters, friends, and coworkers who you couldn't make it through the day without (without whom you couldn't make it through the day?).  Perhaps we should just call this "suggestions for girls you love because they don't correct your grammar" and get on with it.  Ergo: 

A stack of simple rings that look way more expensive than they really are and that she'll want to wear with everything ($25 with free shipping, too).

A cute glasses or sunglasses case so she quits losing her pair in her purse ($45).

And if her purse is really bad, a light for expeditions therein ($8).

Perfect for pregnant friends who can't indulge this season, a candle that's still not the real thing, but she'll appreciate the thought ($42).  And you could always pair it with a bottle of the good stuff down the road.

The choose-your-own-adventure version of address stamps: you give this stamp, and the recipient gets to go online and pick the style she loves from tons of choices.  Thoughtful and you give her the gift of making sure she gets what she wants ($40).

In case of emergency: Wine One One ($17.50).

A cookbook from Lemonade, a Southern California restaurant that I keep seeing everywhere and looks tremendously delicious (and if these guys like it, well, OBVIOUSLY) ($18).

Just because she is! ($12)

A beautiful necklace that can be customized with an address important to her: locations of engagements, weddings, first homes, favorite restaurants?  (That one might be just me.) ($175)

For those who want to sleep like Oprah (and let's be honest, who doesn't?), new jammies ($74 and $128, 20% off with code OPRAH).

Fancy monogrammed cocktail napkins for feeling like a grown-up ($58 for 4).

A quirky beanie with pink flamingos and palm trees to remind her that that warmth is out there, and it's coming eventually ($40).

Happy giving!

(Top image by Kate Spade via Note to Self; Lemonade cookbook image by DomestiKated Life.)

Fall things

Thanksgiving is as late as it can possibly be this year, which means Christmas is hot on its heels.  Which means I am having "CHRISTMAS IS COMING" panic.  That's rude to Thanksgiving, to say the least.  Some helpful accoutrements for slowing down and enjoying fall and all that it brings: 

A wooden cutting board/cheese tray/bread board/all around useful kitchen thing, for less than $10.

A pretty plum-hued lipstick.

I don't know how you're really supposed to make hot apple cider, but these mulling spice tea bags certainly seem to help (you can find these at Whole Foods).

Perfectly spare black kitten heel pumps.

The clutch to end all clutches: it's black!  It's brown!  It has stripes!  It can be monogrammed!  It's perfect.

Beautiful agate jewelry boxes for storing all manner of trinkets.

A coat for indulging your inner badass (30% off today with code GAPFRIENDS, and it comes in regular, petite, and tall sizes).

Hilarious boxed set of Ruth Bader Ginsburg cards for all your favorite lawyers.

Absurdly cheap graphic sweatshirt (from Old Navy, of all places.  $7, without any of their constant coupons, in regular, petite, and tall!).

And what would fall be without a cozy textured throw blanket?

(Top image by Heritage Bicycles.) 

Boo.

Happy Halloween!  Are you dressing up?  Your little people?  I'm not -- visiting my friend who just had a baby instead.  But to get in on the celebration, my favorite costumes from around the web: 

Nicole Richie (and maybe her husband?  I can't tell) as Twins. 

Babies dressed as football coaches: AMAZING.

A dog dressed as Zoltar from the movie Big!

Bad pic, but fab costume: Jennifer Morrison as Cher Horowitz from Clueless.  I like to imagine that in this pic, she's just left the party because her dad demanded that she be home in twenty minutes BECAUSE EVERYWHERE IN LA TAKES TWENTY MINUTES.

Willie Geist from the Today Show dressed up as the Hof, which cracks me up (Matt Lauer's Pamela Anderson is just a little too much for me).

And the dog who won Halloween: Tottie the Pug in a Wrecking Ball outfit.  I can't stop laughing.

I hope you all eat too much candy.  XO. 

It's (almost) the most wonderful day of the year!

Growing up, Oscar Sunday was a full-day event at my house.  My mom and I would lay on the couch all day in jammies and sweats, eating delicious snacks, watching the E! pre-shows from prior years, prepping for the red carpet and the show itself.  The most homesick day of my college career was Oscar Sunday of my freshman year: my school didn't have cable in student dorm rooms, but the television lounges did.  I "reserved" the lounge tv weeks ahead of time via multiple Post-Its stuck to the screen, only to be left flipping madly through the channels on the fateful day to discover that we did not get E!.  Tragedy.  Or at least it felt like one during my tearful phone call home.  (My mom: "Some girl is walking around with a SWAN around her neck!  What a nut!"  Me: "Whaaaaaaat? [sniffles] I CAN'T BELIEVE I AM MISSING THIS.") 

So I wised up, realized that spending Oscar Sunday alone and without E! was not for me, and spent the next few Oscars in a hotel (yes, really -- one of the only benefits of going to school in the middle of nowhere is that hotel rooms come very cheap in the middle of the winter!) with all of my girlfriends, piles upon piles of snacks, and basic cable.  What else could a girl ask for?  I'll never forget how one year it was so sunny and warm that we laid out on the roof of the Days Inn wearing our bras.  CLASSY.  But then, being proper ladies clearly wasn't the goal.  The goal was having the Best Day Ever, and in that, we succeeded.

It's totally silly, but I love Oscar day.  It's just so full of happy memories for me.  This year should be a great one: my mom is coming to visit for the weekend (and indulge in our sweatpants-and-snacks tradition), and we'll be watching with lots of friends.  Whoever wins (or wears a swan), we'll have a great time.

Do you have any plans for the Oscars?  If you're into the red carpet, you must see this New York Times archive of the last fifteen years of gowns.  It's pretty awesome.  Some of my favorites: 

Enjoy the show!  (And go Argo!)

(Top image of Audrey Hepburn and Grace Kelly waiting backstage at the Oscars via Huffington Post; Heath Ledger and Michelle Williams via EW.  Other images via the New York Times Red Carpet Project.)

Romantic comedies

For Valentine's Day, let's discuss everyone's secret favorite movie genre, shall we?  (Because admit it: regardless of romantic status, everyone has a favorite and we all sort of wish we could star in one.)  New York Magazine ran an article yesterday about the tenth anniversary of How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days, bemoaning the death of the rom-com and imploring everyone to buy tickets to the next pure romantic comedy that opens at the movies -- even if it's terrible -- as a future investment in the genre.  To which I say, bring on the 42-ounce Diet Cokes and popcorn.  (Speaking of enormous soft drinks: if you need a last-minute gift, any moviegoer would surely appreciate the RunPee app for his or her phone. :))

I long for the glory days of Sleepless in Seattle and You've Got Mail, and while they sure don't make 'em like they used to, it's not all bad news, is it?  One of my favorite romantic comedies is the hilariously adorable Fever Pitch (Jimmy Fallon is irresistibly poorly-behaved), and The Five-Year Engagement is great (this scene is hysterical).  Honorable mentions to The Holiday and Love Actually (though I fear Love Actually might be responsible for the Valentine's Day/New Year's Eve genre, which, charitably speaking, is more guilty than pleasure).   

    

What do you think?  Is the genre really dead, or are there some bright spots from the last decade?  Do you have any all-time favorites?  

PS: Mindy Kaling's  truly hilarious Guide to Chicks in Flicks, a spot-on analysis of the archetypes of romantic comedies.

And happy Valentine's day -- lots of love to you all!  xoxo

(Classic American Date Night photo by Jamie Beck.)