It’s been an interesting week. Like so many others, I can’t look away from what is happening in this election race right now. I’m so shocked and horrified by the persistence of the question, to be honest. Hudson came home the other day and told me that “that man Trump is a bully. He calls ladies pigs and slugs.” I find myself voraciously seeking out the humor pieces from pundits like Trevor Noah, Samantha Bee, John Oliver, Seth Meyers… and so on. But Michelle Obama, once again, was the one to frame the issue with more forceful clarity than anyone else: “This isn’t about politics, it’s about basic human decency. It’s about right and wrong.” If you haven’t watched the speech she gave in New Hampshire, it’s worth your time.
Also on my mind this week: I volunteer in Hudson’s classroom on Wednesdays and I was present for the school lockdown drill. I huddled in a dark little closet with 25 or so kindergarteners in complete silence while they hid from an imaginary “bad guy.” I felt like I was going to cry! In response I went home a read op-eds about common sense gun laws.
So, while I let out a loud sigh, some links with a bit more levity… Keep Reading >
I have always wanted to stay at the Parker Palm Springs. Even before it was the Parker, I recall driving past the sprawling property with my parents (first called the Autry hotel after its owner, Gene Autry; later the Givenchy), and wondering what lay beyond its slightly gaudy gates. It was such a curious place! Then, in 2004, news came that Jonathan Adler was renovating the Givenchy as the Parker. The white walls went up, photographs of its rooms and uber-stylish grounds were splashed throughout the travel magazines, and I thought… one day.
Last week, a mere twelve years later, Chevrolet invited me to a Palm Springs Wellness Getaway in celebration of the all-new Malibu Hybrid. The plan would be to drive from Los Angeles to Palm Springs, and stay at the Parker. There were other details—al-fresco dinners, yoga sessions, spa treatments—but the Parker was ample draw.
A few dozen childcare arrangements later (a huge thank you to the grandparents, friends, and sitters who helped on that front) and I was cruising along the 10, temperature rising as the sun started to sink down into the mountains. Palm Springs is such a beautiful place. Keep Reading >
Last Saturday, Aron and I drove out to Sonoma to celebrate the release of Andrew Tarlow’s and Anna Dunn’s new cookbook, Dinner at the Long Table, with Scribe winery. It was a particularly special evening for many reasons—most of all because it brought together some of our fondest memories of both New York and California, giving a homecoming feel to it. It’s likely that Tarlow’s restaurant Diner, which sits under the Williamsburg bridge in Brooklyn, will forever be given that designation of “our favorite restaurant”—even as other places may come to, in actuality, supplant it. It’s like that book that you read when you were seventeen. Who knows if it would be your favorite today? And yet it will always be.
It’s always a little intimidating to walk into a party where you don’t know anyone, but that changed very quickly as the wine started to flow and the oysters were slurped.
Dinner was on Moon Mountain, where it’s rumored that the beautiful views make beautiful wines: on a clear afternoon, you can see all the way to the Golden Gate Bridge. I couldn’t help but take some photos to share…
