Are a majority of today’s topics serendipitously eighties related? Yes. Are we inadvertently excited about that? Indeed.   

Pizza Hut updates! Tomato-basil Pizza Wine and American Girl’s Book It! Set. 

Someone barefoot 24/7: Buffalo Bills wide receiver Mack Hollins.  

And spotted! Cutie eyes on Kacey Musgraves merch. 

We are loving Rivals, which is based on a novel by Dame Jilly Cooper. See also: her takes in this Financial Times interview and “It’s Family ‘Sex Scenes’ Night” by Anya Kamenetz for The Cut.

If you’re in NYC soon, check out Luna Luna at The Shed, and read Joe Coscarelli’s piece on it in the New York Times for more backstory. 

Share your follow-ups and/or recommendations at [email protected], @athingortwohq, our Geneva, or our Substack comments!

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You ready to talk about romance, feminism, and monsters? We sure are, and so is Sanjana Basker, a psychology PhD student and bookish content creator who we’re obsessed with (in a totally normal way). Also: some animal updates, thank goodness. 

Animal Updates! Kacey Musgraves is an NYC rat defender (join the club), the raccoon at LaGuardia has captured our hearts, and Claude has arrived at Erica’s house (by way of Long Island Rabbit Rescue)!

Sanjana’s Thingies are Rivals on Hulu, mass-market paperbacks, Calzedonia tights, @poetssquarecats (see also: @catworkers), and L'Occitane Almond Shower Oil.

Some authors mentioned in this ep include Lisa Kleypas and Libba Bray, and books mentioned include Left of Forever by Tara DeWitt, Office Hours and Sabbatical by Katrina Jackson, Creep: Accusations and Confessions by Myriam Gurba, and Dead Weight: Essays on Hunger and Harm by Emmeline Clein.

Want to more of Sanjana? The way she talks about romance on TikTok is an absolute delight, and her episode of the Care So Much Podcast is fantastic.

What romances are you loving right now? Let us know at [email protected], @athingortwohq, our Geneva, or our Substack comments!

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We are so excited to chat with photo director/visual cultural commentator/incredible Instagram follow Emily Keegin about her Thingies! Also: some thoughts on where to get your gift guides this year, should you not be overwhelmed with them already.

Thank you for respecting our decision not to do 2024 gift guides! If you want past installments, we have five year’s worth here. For the freshest stuff, check out Helen Rosner’s for the New Yorker, Goop (the modern Neiman Marcus catalog?), Caroline Moss of Gee Thanks!, Alisha Ramos of Downtime, T mag, The Strategist’s searchable Gift Scout, and a roundup of Substack gift guides from last year (that’ll point you toward this year’s too, certainly). 

Emily’s Thingies include Thomas Tallis polychoral music from the 1500s (Fifty Shades–coded?), spraying perfume or hand sanitizer on your armpits and vodka on your clothes, passionfruit, Madness, Rack, and Honey by Mary Ruefle, and scrolling through someone else’s Instagram feed.

What are your Thingies lately? Please share with us at [email protected], @athingortwohq, our Geneva, or our Substack comments!

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Welcome to Article Club! A few that require our attention this week span topics from an important anniversary to management tips to recommendation culture. Now off to go eat a personal pan pizza…

Is it an overstatement to say that Book It! is one of our generation’s premier cultural references? This NYT story commemorates the 40th anniversary, and an LA Times article from 1985 made us feel nostalgic. See also: pins for sale on eBay and Tejal Rao’s fascinating review of Chain. 

We loved “Want To Be A Good Boss? Be A Bitch.” by Samhita Mukhopadhyay for Bustle. Here’s to intergenerational slaying!

The Locavore Guide to Shopping NYC by Caroline Weaver is a tribute to physical guidebooks of yore featuring 670 NYC shops. It has a a searchable digital directory too! Relevant: "The Banality of Online Recommendation Culture" by Kyle Chayka in The New Yorker.

Does anybody have any intel on Cutie Eyes? Please share with us at [email protected], @athingortwohq, our Geneva, or our Substack comments!

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Another day, another kookalook collection of topics from us, including new lingo care of (honorary Bob) Jack Schlossberg, wrinkle makeup, minimalist shoes, LaGuardia Airport, and a straw cupdate. 

Wrinkle makeup—not what you think, probably! Check out a couple of looks by @shine__rising and rachy_mua. Related: crackle lips. 

In which we dip our toes into the minimalist shoes conversation: Gait Happens, Born to Run by Christopher McDougall, and The Infinite Race 30 for 30 doc by Bernardo Ruiz are all relevant on the content front. Some brands of interest: Muki, Vivo Barefoot, and Groundies. They kind of remind us of Prada Sport from the late 90s/early aughts, Miu Miu rope sandals, and ballet flats with wide toe boxes from Sandy Liang and Proenza. Also: Let’s take this opportunity to shoutout Yoga Toes. 

We’ve been considering giving our ComfiLife a break and trying a kneeling chair. Memor and Varier are good-looking options!

In the world of straw cups, Claire got a BrüMate and really likes it! (Don’t get her the MargTini though.)

Where do you stand on Eat/Pray/Love vs. FMK? Do you believe they can coexist? Let us know at [email protected], @athingortwohq, our Geneva, or our Substack comments!

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We are DELIGHTED to have Alana Cloud-Robinson on today to share her Thingies from her perfect, wood-paneled home (more on that, clearly). She’s the author of the 831 Stories release Hardly Strangers, out tomorrow, and, wow, we can’t wait for you to read this one.

Alana’s Thingies include shoulder pads, thrifting (see: The Council Shop!), her home in Century City, and Irish culture (shoutout to Fontaines D.C., and Say Nothing).

Want more Alana? Check out The Artists Are Frightened, her premier collection of personal poetry.

Also, a really important album that is (somehow) a follow-up to our milk.com conversation.

What are *your* Thingies? Let us know at [email protected], @athingortwohq, our Geneva, or our Substack comments!

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After this episode, we have some action items for the Bobs: 1. Petition Dairy Queen and Carvel to make their ice cream cake minis available nationwide, year-round. 2. Use “whenharrymetsallying” in a sentence. 3. Send us your thoughts on NYC Marriage Bureau merch. 

We aren’t doing gift guides this year, but we’ll tell you good places to look once it's time! Start with giftguide.substack.com. 

We’re excited to meet Chewbie, Hi-Chew’s new Mascot, but perhaps this is a "say less" situation?

The Rat Pack is still in our lives, and it introduced us to the MeowSquad. 

Speaking of local government initiatives, the NYC Marriage Bureau has merch! We especially love the Witness Tee and "I Got Married in New York City" mug. 

All about Split59’s Raquel high waist crop legging, and we’ll try their Icon legging and report back.

A shoutout to A24’s book Hey Kids, Watch This! It’s full of movie recs, great design, and FUN. 

What menu items do you whenharrymetsally? Let us know at [email protected], @athingortwohq, our Geneva, or our Substack comments!

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We have some very serious reporting about very serious topics coming your way, including the official Sanrio character rankings, a Jellycat status update, and some wild news from the domain-hoarding beat.  

We have to take a moment to show some love to Kuromi, the third-ranked Sanrio character overall and Sanrio costume-sourcing, ℅  Sueju Design and Nerdy Treasures by Amy. 

How Jellycat became so popular with kids and grown-ups alike. Also: Their pop=ups give Sew Your Soul vibes, in our opinion. 

Let’s talk tech! Our listener Olivia shared her Notion tips, we are flatted for the credit you’re giving us for Google Tabs, and we loved the piece “The Million-Dollar Mystery of Milk.com” by Alex Mayyasi for The Hustle.  

Finally, have you listened to "Longer Gone" yet? 

 Name how much $$ it would take for you to change your email for at [email protected], @athingortwohq, our Geneva, or our Substack comments!

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Get a free Sage guidebook for parents with kids ages 5 to 12 who want to better navigate tech and their digital worlds.

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Just a heads up, this episode will make you want to refresh your bra and underwear drawer! We’re talking Thingies with Lauren Sherman and Chantal Fernandez, the authors of the smart, compelling, and fast-pased book Selling Sexy: Victoria's Secret and the Unraveling of an American Icon.

As mentioned, bra and underwear Thingies incoming! Chantal absolutely swears by the Tom Bra from the brand Mary Jo, and Lauren likes bras from Only Hearts, Notori Bliss underwear, and Bombas UItra Stretch Calf Socks. Also, shoutout to Le Bon Shoppe’s Her Socks. 

Misc. Thingies include Chantal’s go-to assassin’s pasta and Lauren’s rejection of (most) kids' music. 

Want more of Lauren and Chantal? Lauren writes Puck’s Line Sheet newsletter and hosts the companion podcast Fashion People, and you can find Chantal’s writing in The Cut (see: “The Unbranding of Abercrombie”), for starters.

Friends, you gotta read Selling Sexy: Victoria's Secret and the Unraveling of an American Icon. We are thinking and talking about it a lot, a lot.

Finally, for those intrigued by Soupstack, check out Anne Helen Petersen’s 3rd annual soup roundup (4th annual coming…sometime, we’d bet?!). Ella Risbridger of You Get In Love And Then is also testing crowdsourced soups, and Becca Freeman shared her favorites too. A few of our own favorites: Ottolenghi’s curried lentil, tomato, and coconut, 101 Cookbook’s red lentil with lemon, Smitten Kitchen’s carrot with miso and sesame, Thomas Keller’s butternut squash. 

Actually good: Souper Cubes. 

Do you have bra and underwear recs we have to know about? Please share them at [email protected], @athingortwohq, or our Geneva!

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Try L.A. Burdick’s delightful and individually handcrafted chocolates (the ghosts, the coffin!).

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Gather round! We have a whole lot to say about Fudgie the Whale, learning chess, finding your inner paid tier, and a whole lot more. But what’s new? 

This many week post-launch of 831 Stories, we’re so grateful for the love you’ve shared for Big Fan by Alexandra Romanoff! If you’re looking for additional recs to hold you over until Hardly Strangers by A.C. Robinson comes out in November, take a peek at our list.

Did you know Fudgie the Whale’s mold moonlights as Santa during the holidays? Check out this CNN article for the deets. If you’re feeling ambitious, we love this Ali Slagle ice-cream cake recipe. 

We are now deeply committed to Jouer’s Skin Barrier Cream. Shoutout to Knockout Beauty’s facialist! 

We’re also hyped on Seed’s Pediatric Daily Synbiotic and Storytime Chess over here. 

"If" by Rudyard Kipling has some good life advice for 8th graders and grown-ups alike. 

What’s your personal paid tier? Let us know at [email protected], @athingortwohq, or our Geneva!

Challenge your preconceptions about the real origin of our species and check out Eve by Cat Bohannon, available everywhere books are sold.

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