A Thing Or Two We’re Doing Besides Making Magic Out Of Mushrooms

This week’s podcast episode is brought to you by SUMMER, and it stars minor-league baseball and salad dressings (< by popular demand??). If there are topics you want us talking about, why, you can just reply to this email.

erica’s things

• Checking every bodega freezer for this popcorn-y ice cream bar.
  

• Getting to know my Wikipedia editors.
   

• Making sure y’all are bearing witness to the especially good run Humans of New York is having. Exhibits A, B, C, and D!
   

• Calling all Chicagoans: Buy well-in-advance tickets for this, an opera for people only marginally interested in opera (e.g., me).
   

• Blaming this pasta recipe for forcing me to say “umami” seven times during one meal.

claire’s things

• Questioning why nobody told me about this extremely good slice shop from a former Misi chef.
   

• Apologizing for the many minutes of your life you’re about to lose to this.
   

• Wanting to alert all my group texts to how rich the latest issue of NYMag is?! Behold: an instructive guide that plays to their strengths, one of the better apartment tours I’ve seen in awhile, and a predictably delightful convo between Parker Posey and Choire Sicha.
   

• Enjoying my annual moment of appreciation for poetry.

A Thing Or Two We’re Doing Besides Reframing The Situation

On this week’s ep, we’re chatting with Mattie Kahn, the author of Young and Restless and a person who takes the role of Thingies contributor seriously. Also: a call for all your mosquito-thwarting best practices! Our phone line is open: 833-632-5463.

erica’s things

• Reveling in the sort of Paris lunch that could make a person obsessed with Paris. 
   

• Revisiting a childhood fave. (Consider this part of our ongoing Klutz koverage.)
   

• Developing a crush on a bike brand.
   

• Buying two copies of this cookbook—America, immigration, and PIE!—as gifts already.

claire’s things

• Revising my stance that fisherman sandals aren’t flattering on me because these ones are.
   

• Spying the perfect Father’s Day gift for the one in my life who loves to explain that “you just can’t find good flank steak at the butcher anymore.”
   

• Trying (and failing) to imagine a more charming tile pattern.
   

• Remembering that pimento cheese is a) a meal if you want to be and b) a very big hit when entertaining.
   

• Landing on a go-to frame style for the family photos I’m finally getting around to printing. (I do dream about these for a more statement-y splurge.)

A Thing Or Two We’re Doing Besides Collecting Fast-Food Bags

Hope you’re ready for pressing convos about gummy candy and night phones, a new-to-us, sleep-changing concept straight from our Geneva channel. (Thanks for bringing us that intel, Kara.)

erica’s things

• Becoming a burger person, exclusively for these burgers.
   

• Feeling like a fool recommending Annie Ernaux, but if you don’t know where to start, try here. The number of pages I dog-earred/photographed/read aloud, in the back half especially!
   

• Putting a podcast release date on my calendar—a personal milestone.
   

• Doing corduroy for summer.
   

• Experiencing a first: lamps that make me crave McDonald’s fries (dipped in honey, thanks).

claire’s things

• Nominating these nominations for…best high-concept podcast bit. (Don’t miss parts two and three.)
  

• Marveling at how impossibly well this works.
   

• Guffawing at a T-shirt.
   

• Maintaining this newsletter’s grand tradition of alerting you to important postage stamp developments.

A Thing Or Two We’re Doing Besides Watching The Clouds

How to get dressed for summer?! We have a podcast episode for you. In fact, we have one from last year, too. Please respect our process.

erica’s things

• Mowing through that rich-people-problems summer read ahead of schedule. 
  

• Getting the lowdown from a newsletter that’s as to-the-point as its name: Just Women’s Sports. 
  

• Experiencing peak soft-shell crab season.
  

• Following clouds on Instagram.

claire’s things

• Revisiting the Sandylion aesthetic.
  

• Transforming into a human infomercial for this posture-improving sports bra.
  

• Realizing that one of our greatest VPR commentators is also just a straight-up delightful writer.
  

• Sounding the alarm about the sandwich cake. (The Swedes are to thank.)
  

• Getting to the stage where family dinners are finally (mostly) enjoyable, aided in part by this. 

A Thing Or Two We’re Doing Besides Going DIY-Ish

This week on the podcast: community, (our) facial hair, and triumphs in juice copywriting. Also, dang, those Thingies recs from you all keep coming, and they’re saved to our IG if anybody needs a solid oblivion-time activity.

erica’s things

• Spending quality time with Julia Louis-Dreyfus.
   

• Vouching for these ceramic lights, which look even better on a ceiling than on a website.
   

• Enjoying this Target tank as much as the TikTok dudes do.
   

• Scrutinizing my calendar to determine just how soon I can see Hayal Pozanti’s paintings in person.

claire’s things

• Campaigning for more DIY tutorials from Liz Libré. (Previously. And before that.)
   

• Making sure that if you wept through liked that Connie Chung piece you don’t miss the Magic Mike one.
   

• Falling for some plates and vases that don’t look like all the other plates and vases. Hello to you and you and you.
   

• Hating myself for loving this so much.
   

• Living through our family’s Peter and the Wolf era with some help from David Bowie. 

A Thing Or Two We’re Doing Besides Feeling Like Lucky Dogs

We’re going hard at our FANDOM this week on the podcast—forever Professional Enthusiasts over here—and if you have thoughts to share, we await your voicemails: 833-632-5463.

erica’s things

• Seeing all the furniture potential in the cornfields of my youth.
   

• Still referencing this story about Chrome Hearts a year after reading it.
   

• Waiting for this man to attract the audience he deserves.
   

• Watching needlepoint shape-shift. I mean!
   

• Buying two of these tees, wanting 12 more.

claire’s things

• Hyping a lip gloss that really deserves it—exceptionally good!! (I have Bisou but want to try Crush and Bare, too.)
   

• Marveling at how glamorous a pregnant friend looked in her $27 maternity pants.
   

• Applauding the best reframing of shame I’ve seen.
   

• Failing to anticipate how much crafting satisfaction printed duct tape would bring to my life. I mean, the tortoise? The checkerboard? The rainbow? The leopard?!
   

• Welcoming the delightful shade of green that’s been popping up all over in home design. (I have used this to similar effect and have yet to tire of it!)

A Thing Or Two We’re Doing Besides Leading The Field

Any fans of Zany Brainy, pecans, or walks out there? Oh, good, we have a lot to dig into on these very pressing topics. 

erica’s things

• Prepping my talking points to discuss Minka Kelly’s memoir. If y’all aren’t hooked by the prologue…
   

• Presenting the world’s most charming saw.
   

• Getting invested in a tournament bracket, even if my player(s) didn’t triumph.
   

• Envisioning a whole Bode collection based on aerial photos of tulip fields.
   

• Rooting for the success of every (winged and/or tailed) New Yorker on this account.

claire’s things

• Celebrating my proximity to 40 with this absolutely genius tool.
   

• Applauding a very big thesis.
   

• Desperately needing to know who is doing the copywriting for this juice company.
   

• Sharing a delightful go-to Midtown lunch solution.
   

• Taking Peoplehood for a spin and maintaining a mental checklist of all the people I want to recommend it to. 

A Thing Or Two We’re Doing Besides Containing Ourselves

As part of our ~ongoing journey~ to become better, chiller party hosts, we chatted Thingies with Sue Chan, who knows a whole lot about the subject and is bringing us the good event-planning intel via Care of Chan, launching later this week. If you have entertaining tips you want to share, our Geneva is ready and waiting.

erica’s things

• Getting a handle on the whole complicated and fascinating fig-wasp thing.
  

• Missing the emails we used to send friends back when we sent friends *real* emails and looking to this newsletter to fill the void.
   

• Floating pet names for this bedside table, it’s so cute.
   

• Teaching frozen gnocchi and a jar of chili crisp new tricks. Surprising! Satisfying!
   

• Marveling at Matthew Desmond’s ability to cut through the noise. If there’s an ideal time to read this, just after Tax Day might be it. 

claire’s things

• Discovering that it’s possible to love Judy Blume even more than you thought—so much more.
   

• Considering who one buys this delight for—perhaps you have a supply-chain enthusiast in your life? Someone who got overly invested in Evergiven’s story arc?
   

• Generally begrudging the chickpea’s invasion into spaces it doesn’t belong EXCEPT in this case, where it is doing innovative, important work. 
   

• Seeking someone smarter than me to explain why giant bottles are trending in beauty marketing.

A Thing Or Two We’re Doing Besides Embracing A Sour Mood

Are you ready to CLEAR A PATH FOR LOVE? That’s the kind of podcast ep coming for you this week, friends. (Also, a music-competition-show discussion.) If you feel like giving us a quick rating, well, it still matters.

erica’s things

• Digging into the looong history of not being a mother. The context I’d been missing!
   

• Boot-scootin’ on a Monday thanks to this made-in-India brand with a great story.
   

• Dissecting how Pocky gets the melon flavor so right so we can get more treats this masterful.
  

• Losing it over a home tour for the first time in a long while.

claire’s things

• Watching core memories being formed here.
   

• Addressing my rice ennui by replacing it with soba, specifically this brand.
   

• Wondering if this is how Birkenstock Arizona supremacy ends.
   

• Calling all my slipping-rib sisters: We’re finally getting some acknowledgement.
   

• Getting offline. 

A Thing Or Two We’re Doing Besides Sending Thanks

If you like VPR coverage, ridiculous postage stamps, or new ideas for old food, we have a podcast episode for you. Also, Secret Menu new subscriber dollars this quarter go to RIP Medical Debt, which buys and pays off bundled healthcare expenses to free people from the trap of our abominable system.

erica’s things

• Caring about a music-competition show. DEEPLY. 
   

• Digging into this recipe as enthusiastically as the profile that led me to it.
   

• Paging anyone still in possession of their New Kids On The Block sleeping bag.
   

• Poking holes in tulips.
   

• Lugging this graphic memoir home in a carry-on because I couldn’t part with it after reading the first three pages.

claire’s things

• Barrelling through an unputdownable running story.
   

• Entering the bedding conversation: Experiencing these on Cam’s bed convinced me to abandon linen sheets for the first time in nearly a decade.
   

• Taking more Flea however I can get him.
   

• Receiving a thank-you note on remarkably luxe and beautiful stationery only to realize, duh, of course, it’s Jamie’s.
   

• Observing that I am not alone in my grocery-store fandom. That Wawa sweatshirt. <3 <3

A Thing Or Two We’re Doing Besides Shorting The Market

The podcast this week—what a mess!! (That’s the topic, so if this email has you opening a dozen browser tabs that contribute to your digital clutter, consider yourself on-brand.)

erica’s things

• Hoping spring brings this energy.
  

• Counting on khai jiao to answer a bunch of Qs, including “what am I going to eat for dinner if I don’t get it together to go to the grocery store?”
  

• Wishing I needed ski gear so it could be this ski gear.
   

• Calling all romance heads: Abby Jimenez has got you (us).
   

• Getting hung up on seventies statement curtains—nope, didn’t see it coming.

claire’s things

• Planning an entire weekend around this restaurant.
  

• Asking how early is too early to buy shorts.
  

• Landing on the most outrageous doll stroller—a true PANK present if there ever was one. 
  

• Adding “bread art” to my interests.

A Thing Or Two We’re Doing Besides Spooning It Out

Nothing like talking L.A. bagels and incontinence with chic Hollywood stylists! We have Karla Welch on the podcast this week, and she is an absolute delight. So is our Geneva if you haven’t joined. Think of it as the best possible version of a chat room.

erica’s things

• Going bananas over this encyclopedic cookbook, packed with ideas for what to do with leftovers, scraps, and dregs. Instant classic!
   

• Spending my free time brainstorming ways to use this brilliant money-pooling thing.
   

• Reading this to an aging bunny.
  

• Snagging a chocolate gift that’s not like the other chocolate gifts.

claire’s things

• Whipping out my credit card at lightning speed for this thing.
   

• Seeking a support group for others hooked on this perfect cheddar.
   

• Eating up this story about a woman who changed the book-design game.
   

• Calling all tiny-spoon lovers.
   

• Fielding regular DMs about a printer I recommended once in 2020, which is no longer in production; sending this in response. 

A Thing Or Two We’re Doing Besides Dimming The Lights

The wait is over: Our Magic Mike podcast episode has arrived. Can’t wait for part 2 when Channing joins us. (Chan, just WB to this email, and we’ll figure out a time—we can be suuuper flexible. Honestly, whatever is good for you is good for us.)

erica’s things

• Piling on the praise for freezer coffee. 
   

• Urging all the scalloped lampshades to make room for this pleated one.
   

• Dropping an Indian-ish frittata into the dinner rotation. (The commenters know what they’re talking about, as usual.)
   

• Spying a place to stay in Berlin; seeking an excuse to visit Berlin.
   

• Finding a new comfort podcast in this, about cultural products we’re told are bad but know are good. Try The Bodyguard ep. 

claire’s things

• Picking up a pocket-size-but-powerful book on design from the guy who is responsible for those genius Pleats Please ads. 
   

• Nodding along to this celebration of the Donna Karan woman, contemplating if now’s the time to revive my AOL screenname DKNYClaire?
   

• Feeling deeply enthusiastic about this thing, which occupies my kid for long stretches of time without any screen shenanigans.
   

• Wondering if it counts as nineties nostalgia to use a hot oil treatment. 

A Thing Or Two We’re Doing Besides Checking The Time

Some new terminology and a bunch o’ cooking thoughts coming your way on our podcast this week. Also, that Secret Menu new-subscriber money is going toward Plan C and all they do to support safe, at-home abortion.

erica’s things

• Doing my best fashion-inspiration searching in years.
   

• Hating all vodka except Channing Tatum’s vodka. (Phew, I don’t have to break my streak of liking all of the man’s creative outputs!)
   

• Visiting this new Brooklyn hiking store; opening up the AllTrails app.
   

• Engaging in Esther Perel voyeurism—a specific category, no?—via this novel.

claire’s things

• Feeling like we should all be talking more about Sophie Gilbert’s pop-culture criticism, which does not miss.
   

• Delighting in a shockingly good assortment of vintage clocks.
   

• Sensing a sea change in how we think about messiness and morality—exhibits A and B.
   

• Allowing this to convince me to stick around the internet another week.
   

• Learning the correct way to cut a grapefruit. 

A Thing Or Two We’re Doing Besides Opening Up

Should your Monday need a little polish, a bit of flair: We have Rachel Seville Tashjian Wise, fashion news director at Harper’s Bazaar and newsletter-er at Opulent Tips, on the podcast this week. Also, our IG followers have been doing some pretty major Thingies shares if you feel like following along or joining in on the fun.

erica’s things

• Begging for more ski lodging like this ski lodging. 
   

• Taking a monthly break from sugar/booze/whatever the low-pressure, Joe Holder way.
   

• Daydreaming about a can opener (a can opener!!).
   

• Fighting the good fight and trying to turn more people into celery people.
   

• Delighting in a magazine—it’s been a minute?—thanks to the first issue of this one.

claire’s things

• Thanking the universe for recognizing my wishes: This masterpiece is coming to Broadway.
   

• Refusing to give up my gel manicures, so turning to these, which have the added bonus of making me laugh.
   

• Loving that brands are getting into resale of their own products—this and this both caught my eye.
   

• Adding these to my migraine treatment regime. 

A Thing Or Two We’re Doing Besides Dusting Off Our Dance Moves

May we discuss this revenge song era and the sometimes absurd experience of going out to dinner? That and more in this week’s episode, and if you’d like to leave us a voicemail about vintage shopping or anything at all, we’re at 833-632-5463.

erica’s things

• Admitting that the effort this salad requests of you really is worth it.
   

• Pinning this to the camping moodboard in my brain.
   

• Asking if you’ve heard: Murano glass has come for our ears.
   

• Directing ya here for a pre-/post-Broadway dinner—the whole fried curry fish!

claire’s things

• Coming across the best utilization of “Under Pressure” since that scene in Aftersun.
   

• Putting those mitten clips I told you about to good use.
   

• …while finding myself wishing I had a beach vacation planned.
   

• Hearing that not everyone knows how great the Nan Goldin documentary is? Now you do.
   

• Announcing a new preoccupation with a T-shirt brand. Someone tell Jeremy Allen White. 

A Thing Or Two We’re Doing Besides Making Moves

This week on the podcast: more induction-stove coverage—are we inductionfluencers yet?—and the most heartwarming jibbitz story the world has ever seen. Tell us what you think, and if you like this newsletter, tell somebody about it, too.

erica’s things

• Busting out the Beautiful Mind memes imagining the countless iterations of polenta soup.
   

• Paying for access to Anna Z Gray’s 1) brain and 2) vintage recs.
   

• PR’ing for terracotta—it can do this and this and this?!
   

• Casting my Oscar vote for animated short, and not just because of the name.
   

• Recognizing what it would take to get me into chess.

claire’s things

• Begging someone to quit their life to become a caretaker of a castle. Or a château! Your choice.
   

• Imagining what I’d do with a bigger furniture budget, and the answer definitely includes this.
   

• Battling beanie boredom.
   

• Hoping it’s okay to say I loved this book even though I have retained all my social media accounts.

A Thing Or Two We’re Doing Besides Putting The Pieces Together

Hey, all y’all who’ve requested more styling content on our podcast: We present a Thingies episode with Lakyn Carlton, whose newsletter True Style you already get, right? As always, voicemails are open: 833-632-5463.

erica’s things

• Heading back to my hometown with one of my favorite writers—without even taking a connecting flight through O’Hare!!
   

• Celebrating that Ina Garten, Paul Mescal, and I all share a bday with this tremendous headline.
   

• Confessing to being the sort of person who hunts for her favorite discontinued postage stamps and gasps when she lands on the motherlode.
   

• Presenting a foam-furniture series that looks anything but.

claire’s things

• DMing my L.A. friends every time these people announce a new estate sale.
  

• Marveling at what a simply outstanding year 1992 was for music.
   

• Hoping that this might be my real WFH MVP—solving some layout challenges and providing a nice Zoom background all at once?!
   

• Applauding the very particular brand of sex ed that teen mags have always done best.
   

• Pitching these to everyone who finds themselves overly invested in their kids’ Magnatiles and Legos.

A Thing Or Two We’re Doing Besides Busting Out The New Calendar (Finally)

One word for today’s podcast episode: CRINGE. Boy, do we want to hear your thoughts—join our Geneva if you haven’t already?

erica’s things

• Becoming a kabocha squash convert. The post-roast sauce toss! (So what if I needed a little fun with rhymes at the moment.)
   

• Witnessing the artistic possibilities of old linoleum.
   

• Committing to regular facials and seeing results thanks to this gem of a person.
   

• Tracking snow farming—good term, cool thing.
   

• Asking if it’s weird to give wallpaper as a baby gift.

claire’s things

• Listening in on a particularly good convo about creative partnerships with the Daniels.
   

• Clicking on so much playful beaded jewelry these days—like this and this and this. It’s like…cool camp-counselor vibes?
   

• Offering a late submission for your 2023 wall calendar.
   

• Tracking all the attractive in-home composting options from Lomi to the newcomer Mill.

A Thing Or Two We’re Doing Besides Getting Organized-Ish

This week on the podcast: winter-wedding dress codes, pegboards, and the travesty of movie trailers. Also, keep your responses about slipping rib syndrome and induction stoves coming!! Oh, and, if you know someone else who might like this newsletter, want to fwd this to them or direct them here to sign up? We love a friend of a friend.

erica’s things

• Begging for access to a home dubbed The Tile House.
   

• Learning that I like my rice halfway between white and brown…and that this charming company makes it possible to choose the milling rate.
   

• Watching vid after vid from a to-the-point financial-literacy TikToker who knows her stuff.
   

• Relishing *totally unhinged* nineties nostalgia, in mug form.
   

• Taking advantage of citrus season with the easiest possible lunch.

claire’s things

• Applauding a realistic approach to home organization.
   

• Pitching this as the perfect bedside book: Open to a random spot and absorb a few pages of simple wisdom before you doze off each night.
   

• Finding myself far less intimidated by vintage shopping when it’s this tightly curated.
   

• Imagining the endless gifting possibilities in custom mini storefronts.
   

• Recognizing an instant classic when I see one.