1. BUY A STRONG ISLAND TEE: Yes, that is Dave Ellefson from Megadeth wearing his Strong Island shirt! You should do the same this week, because for every shirt or hoodie you purchase at Looney Tunes (LooneyTunesCDs.com) in Babylon, all profits will go to the American Red Cross Sandy Relief Fund. Stay strong, Long Island.
2. ORDER SELTZER GOODS GREETING CARDS: Forget the stodgy, glitter-laden, run-of-the-mill cards from the convenience store. The fun, amusing and witty holiday greeting cards from Seltzer Goods (SeltzerGoods.com) are much, much better. This Brooklyn-based design company creates one-of-a-kind cards from 100-percent post-consumer recycled paper using veggie-based inks and featuring all your—or someone’s—holiday favorites, including the Hipsterbread Couple, complete with a tattooed gingerbread chick and her ’stache-tacular boyfriend.
3. BID ON AUTOGRAPHED MERCH: WhyHunger hosts their 2012 Hungerthon auction with a goal of raising more than $850,000 this year for hunger and poverty relief. Items include guitars autographed by Pink, Willie Nelson, Mumford & Sons, and a piano bench signed by Tori Amos. View the entire auction at CharityBuzz.com/Hungerthon.
4. EAT TWINKIES: It seems like every few years we hear that Twinkies have met their maker. Once again, the time has come. Hostess Brands, the maker of Twinkies, HoHos and Wonder Bread, announced it was going out of business this week. A few days later they were “negotiating” with labor unions. We’re pretty sure all of this will blow over by next week, but since Mrs. Rogan in second grade always told us to be prepared, and because boxes of Twinkies are already popping up on eBay for hundreds, even thousands, of dollars, you’re probably going to want to grab them while you can.
5. GOOGLE “STEPHEN WILKES DAY TO NIGHT”:Photographer Stephen Wilkes regularly spends up to 15 hours hovering above the world as we know it on a cherry picker, snapping away with his camera, and even more hours intricately digitally piecing his photos together to create Day to Night, a breathtaking project which merges the day and night scenes of various iconic New York locations into one. Check out his gorgeous work, where light and dark merge seamlessly.
6. BUY A TURKEY CAKE: Forget the stuffing, the pie, the wine—bring something unique to your Thanksgiving Day dinner hosts this year—a turkey cake. You have multiple options. Carvel’s turkey cake—aka Tom the Turkey—is made with layers of vanilla and chocolate ice cream separated by chocolate crunchies and covered with a chocolate mousse decorated with red, yellow and orange icing. If you really want to get authentic, stop by Baskin Robbins for their molded ice-cream turkey, made with chocolate chip ice cream and glazed in caramel.
7. VISIT BEERCOLORS.NET: This new website shows unique decorative giclee prints made with beer—yes, beer. The site also spins mini-fables to illustrate several of its more light-hearted prints, such as its fish with lipstick, senior geese (“Geesers”), party animals, gull friends and its Cool Birds sections. Check it out.
8. VISIT BLACKFRIDAY.COM & BFADS.NET: We don’t recommend even leaving the house on Black Friday, for obvious reasons. Unless you have the ability to brave 5 o’clock traffic on the LIE with a smile on your face on a regular basis, this isn’t the best time to be on the roads. But if you do venture out for a deal you just can’t miss, at least check out these sites first and be prepared.
9. USE “OMNISHAMBLES” & “GIFFED” IN CONVERSATION: Oxford Dictionaries has chosen “omnishambles,” defined as a situation that has been comprehensively mismanaged and characterized by a string of blunders and miscalculations, as its top British term of 2012 and Gif, short for graphics interchange format, as the top American term of 2012 for making the crucial transition from noun to verb.
10. HAVE A HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
For those of you heading out to the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in Manhattan, flip to page 34 for details.
