Welcome to March! You’re well aware of how much I love this month. Will I overdo it and be left a shell of a person come April 1st? Most likely, but there’s nothing that can be done about that! Here’s what went down last month.

The best tweets of the month can be found over here.
I kept up with my weekly Winter Wednesdays series.
I finally finished the Mel Brooks memoir I’ve been reading for months.
If this coat (below) was under $100, then I would’ve had no choice but to buy it.

Some things I baked:
- God, I love a small batch cookie recipe.
- People won’t shut up about this New York Times marry-me chicken recipe but I absolutely would reject that proposal. I made it and it was FINE at best. And more recently, I made a cauliflower soup of theirs and it was bland as hell! I definitely need to take a step back from their recipes. Maybe the food styling is what’s tricking me? Gorgeous looking food doesn’t always taste amazing. There’s a lesson there??
- I made this brioche berry bread pudding that was delicious. Something feels very wrong about using strawberries in February, but the Grand Marnier soak really helped the flavour.

I can’t stop wearing these Aerie brown stockings.
Found a new coffee shop that I’m loving - Sonbobs in Astoria.
We bought Baby Dog a ramp to get on and off our bed and it’s been a huge help. Sometimes she’ll just leap off into the pillows alongside it, so it may take some time for her to trust this new inanimate object in her life.

I tried out a colour corrector from Huda because the internet told me to and it did absolutely nothing different to my face hahah?? Sometimes I seem smart and other times I do stuff like this.
Nathan and I saw the play An Enemy Of The People with Jeremy Strong (from Succession) and Michael Imperioli (from The Sopranos & The White Lotus) and it was great! Absolutely love the Circle in the Square theatre. $40 tickets straight from the box office can’t be beat.

The winter kale salad at Uva Next Door on the Upper East Side was top tier.
The patty melt at Daily Provisions? Wow. Makes zero sense that a coffee shop has that good a sandwich.
I’ve finally learned my lesson and I’ve stopped using third-party websites for booking travel. Took me decades to learn this lesson.
Also, I’m sure no one but me buys Visa gift cards - but just incase, stay very far away from the brand Vanilla. I’ve had so many issues with money that was loaded improperly and their customer service is nonexistent.
Some things I watched:
- Sometimes I Think About Dying: so great! Our friend Dave does such a great job in it.
- Two Weeks Notice and The Wedding Date (combining them because they don’t deserve individual billing): WOOF. Why do I do this to myself when I have a list full of actually watchable movies?
- If Lucy Fell: an old Sarah Jessica Parker movie? Course I’d watch that. It actually wouldn’t have been so terrible if the main guy wasn’t such an awful actor. He wrote, directed and starred in it, which was the wrong decision.
- Waiting To Exhale: such a great rewatch.
- Once Upon A Crime: perfect rewatch. It’s baffling that this movie did so bad at the box office.
- New season of Curb: ugh. I don’t want to be mean, but I really hate this show now. The storylines are so tired and it really didn’t need to come back at all. (Richard Lewis will remain the best thing about the whole show.)

Some things I’m looking forward to this month: taking Baby Dog to Niagara Falls, I really want to try the vodka chicken parm from Compton’s in Astoria, excited to spend some time with my brother + family visiting from Scotland and there are so many birthday cakes I get to make for other people this month.

If you’ve got any interest in reading last month’s roundup, you can read what went on in January over here.

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I think it’s clear that I love to read comedian’s biographies, I don’t really know when that started but I don’t see an end in sight. I wouldn’t call myself a huge Mel Brooks fan, but as a kid I did watch Dracula: Dead and Loving It, Robin Hood: Men in Tights and Spaceballs a decent amount. Here are the highlights from the book:

Love how he describes Madeline Kahn: “The only thing that held Madeline back was a psychological defect called modesty.”
When he talked about studio executive’s notes: “I never changed a thing. Like I’ve said before, as far as movie executives are concerned, always agree with them, but never do a thing they say. When the good reviews, and more important for the front office, the money started rolling in, I never heard a bad word from the head of the studio again.”
I’ve never heard the phrase folie à deux before, so I looked it up and it means, “delusion or mental illness shared by two people in close association” which I love, for some reason. How have I never heard this expression before?
I had no idea that he became friends with Alfred Hitchcock, so neat.
Also didn’t know that his production company helped The Elephant Man and The Fly remake get made.
He mentioned that he slices a bagel into three slices and then toasts each slice, which is absolutely genius and I can’t wait to try it out myself.
He mentions a book written by Dick Cavett that sounded so good, I’ve already ordered it.

It’s a bit weird that he doesn’t mention his first marriage at all, maybe because of all the cheating rumours? I guess it’s his book, so why would you want to paint yourself in such a bad light… but still. He definitely doesn’t seem like the type of man who owns up to any of his mistakes. He also didn’t mention any of the drama around the Broadway version of Young Frankenstein and how he completely cut Gene Wilder out of the profits even though they co-wrote the movie together.

In any case, the man’s had an insane career. I don’t think I’d recommend the book, unless you’re a giant Mel Brooks fan and you want to hear every single detail of every movie he’s ever done. If you’re just a general comedy fan, I’d probably skip this one. There’s definitely a reason this book took me about six months to finish.

February Feats 2024

All about Me!: My Remarkable Life in Show Business by Mel Brooks - A Review