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Watch

Lost


If you didn’t get to watch during its early-aughts heyday, or if you’ve exhausted the so-called prestige dramas on streaming services, now is the time to lose yourself to ABC’s Lost. Each episode leaves you with more questions than answers, which means you basically can’t stop watching, making for perfect lockdown television. Set on a tropical island, the show follows the survivors of a plane crash as they try to find their way home. As it turns out, the island houses many mysteries—polar bears roam around, and that’s probably the least weird inhabitant here. In fact, the passengers of Oceanic Airlines Flight 815 harbor secrets of their own. Lost, co-created by J. J. Abrams, is therefore a great balance of science-fiction strange and soap-dish melodrama. And with temperatures dropping in New York, where I’m currently confined to my apartment, being stranded on a beautiful beach, albeit with a bunch of suspect strangers, seems like a great time. (hulu.com) —Clementine Ford

Clean

Blueland


Every day, the amount of plastic polluting our oceans increases by about eight million pieces. In an effort to clean up the mess, Blueland has launched an eco-friendly and inventive line of home-cleaning products. The Everyday Clean kit offers three spray “Forever Bottles”—made of durable, re-usable plastic—and water-soluble cleaning tablets, each the size of nickel. Add water to the former, drop in the latter, and in a few moments you’ve got a liquid solution to suit your needs, with special formulas for all-purpose, window-and-mirror, and bathroom cleaners. The package also comes with a glass foaming-hand-soap bottle as well as the accompanying tablet and a tin of the brand’s dishwasher-safe formula. It’s space-efficient—no more storing industrial-size products—and reduces carbon emissions by cutting out water shipments. ($69, blueland.com) —Alex Oliveira

A woman wearing a mask looks back at the camera while sitting on the subway as the city continues Phase 4 of re-opening following restrictions imposed to slow the spread of coronavirus on August 09, 2020 in New York City.
Trace

COVID Alert NY


The South Koreans have been tracking the coronavirus since January, and the results have been remarkable, especially when you compare their numbers with the U.S.’s (434 deaths to 215,000). Still, it’s never too late to start, and with cases on the rise in several New York City Zip Codes, it’s worth downloading the contact-tracing app Covid Alert NY, which alerts users if they’ve spent a sustained period of time within six feet of someone infected with the virus. For those wary of privacy risks, the app, engineered by Apple and Google, uses Bluetooth rather than G.P.S. technology to track peoples’ locations. Similar apps are available in a handful of other U.S. states, including Arizona, Alabama, New Jersey, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania. California’s is in development. (apps.apple.com) —Julia Vitale

Peep

@miserable_men


My mom calls it “the Boyfriend Chair.” The Boyfriend Chair, found anywhere from malls to boutiques, is seating for the weary companions of enthusiastic shoppers. Cataloguing men-in-waiting, the very funny and almost moving Instagram @miserable_men shows men laden with shopping bags, mystified men surrounded by crop tops, blank-faced men encumbered by dozens of bras. (There are countless photos of men sleeping, in a Bloomingdale’s, in an antiques store, or slumped over a girlfriend’s designer purse.) One series captures Bruce Springsteen standing by as Patti Scialfa tries on a necklace—in the next photo, he has succumbed to the Chair. Composed of submissions by boots-on-the-ground shoppers, it’s a paean to these brave escorts, or, as the account’s bio puts it, “men that went shopping.” (instagram.com) —Clementine Ford

Issue No. 66
October 17, 2020
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Issue No. 66
October 17, 2020