Welcome! It’s a funny feeling to think that it might not go on forever, the isolation and social distancing, the scary trips to the market, the fear of the half-masked bicyclist approaching on the footpath, the days spent working on that uncomfortable chair, the days spent not working and navigating bureaucracies in search of relief.
Because someday we’ll go out to a park again, to a trailhead, take a train along a river. We’ll fly abroad on vacation, queue up at a museum, run in a foreign city’s park. Someday, children will be back in school, adolescents on college campuses, workers in cube farms and restaurants and retail stores, body-piercing shops, chandleries, bars. (And what will that look like? How will it work?)
In the meantime, though, here we are at home. And even if your city or state is taking measures that allow you to leave and explore, once more, the places beyond your block or tract or neighborhood, the safest place to be is still the one where you hang your mask, wash your hands and lay your head. I write to you today in hopes that we can help make living in that place more pleasurable, more cultured, easier, more fun.
How to deal.
What to eat.
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“There’s no way I could eat 50 pounds of potatoes,” said Matt Bochneak, one of the many people who turned to bulk buying as a result of recent shortages. For someone like David Tanis, a lot of potatoes is an opportunity, not a problem, and he picked out three recipes to maximize your tubers.
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Margaux Laskey put together 21 baking recipes for the ever-expanding list of people who are taking advantage of the current situation to master a new skill.
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And Melissa Clark continued cranking out meals using pantry staples, with her recent offerings including a rich challah bread, a congee that won’t deplete your rice reserves all that much, and a vegetable-and-sausage soup that offers some coziness even on chilly days.
How to pass the time.
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Not everyone wants a project to fill their time. For those missing the office (we promise that’s a thing), workplace comedies can be a welcome sight. There are five new comedy specials that resonate even though they were recorded pre-pandemic. And if you want to remove yourself from the situation entirely, you can explore the world of 1940s musicals with Manohla Dargis, or escape into books with Sarah Lyall.
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Anyone missing city life is covered with this soundtrack of New York City, which you can listen to while (virtually) walking across the Brooklyn Bridge with Michael Kimmelman. After that, step in a time machine to Manhattan’s wild past.
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And while Alanis Morissette may have been the poster child for righteous rage in the 1990s, a mellower version of her is hoping to meditate with you on Friday night, one of many live events that can take your mind off things.
Like what you see?
You can always find much more to read, watch and do every day on At Home.
