To All the Dads We Loved Before (with Anthony Rotunno)
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Description
Nothing says Fathers Day better than a crisp, handwritten letter on heavyweight stationary. Or a perfect fitting linen shirt. Or really anything suggested by Anthony Rotunno, the classiest, most sophisticated non-dad to be a guest on the show. Plus, Ku and Su go over their own Father’s Day finds and feelings.
Find Anthony on Twitter and Instagram @ajrotunno or on The Strategist @thestrategist and @nymag.
Father’s Day Product Recommendations
The Perfect Robe from Wakanicci
Cream Wove Kings Correspondence Cards
Please note, Add To Cart contains mature themes and may not be appropriate for all listeners.
Make sure to check out all the products from this episode @addtocartpod on Instagram. Links to purchase products can be found at www.lemonadamedia.com
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Transcript
SPEAKERS
Anthony Rotunno, Kulap Vilaysack, SuChin Pak
Kulap Vilaysack 00:10
Hi, everyone, welcome to another episode of ADD TO CART. A show about the things we buy and buy into and what they say about who we are. I’m your Kulap Vilaysack.
SuChin Pak
And I am your SuChin Pak. Later in the episode we have such an amazing guest. I have a crush on this man. Anthony Rotunno, he’s going to be on our show. But before we get to him, let’s talk a bit about Father’s Day.
Kulap Vilaysack
This Father’s day for me. I am surprised about what’s coming up, what’s coming up for me. Normally, because of my fraught relationship or my formerly fraught relationship with my mom, Mother’s Day has got stuff connected. It feels heavy, but now I have a peace in that relationship. And I am surprised to kind of feel this heaviness with Father’s Day this year. Having everything to do with like my bio dad and my stepdad. I don’t know, it’s bittersweet, is the word bittersweet? I don’t know if the words bittersweet, but their stuff stuffs kicking up is what I’m trying to say.
SuChin Pak
And is this new? Meaning that like, father’s days past, have you felt this? Or is this kind of a new, you know, feeling an emotion that’s coming up this particular year?
Kulap Vilaysack
This feels pretty new for me. And if you guys have checked out Origin Story, thank you. Number one. If you haven’t yet, please do it’s available and on every platform that you can imagine.
SuChin Pak
Including Blu-Ray.
Kulap Vilaysack
That’s right. Thank you, SuChin. And you know, I meet my birth father, and it’s complicated. And while I love my stepdad, the man that I call my dad, I don’t ever call him stepdad. The man who raised me, we to have a complicated relationship in a way and we love each other. If I’m in Minnesota, I’m going to visit him. But like our relationship, he was never one to really reach out. He’s a very somewhat of a loner of a man. Our relationship is like me texting him Happy Father’s Day, me texting him. Happy birthday, me texting him. Merry Christmas, and then him responding. So it’s not unpleasant, but it’s not you know what I mean?
SuChin Pak 02:35
It’s not very satisfying or fulfilling in the way that most of your relationships are. But this is I assume just how he is in life. It’s not particular to you.
Kulap Vilaysack
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. And I honestly don’t even take offense to it. It’s always been about my mom for my entire life that took so much rent in my head. And now it’s like, oh, now I’m feeling the things that maybe I wasn’t looking at before. Where that leads me to? I don’t know. But I also want to shout out, you know, this Mother’s Day, this Father’s Day, like, it can be triggering for a lot of people, right? Whether you have a good relationship with your father, whether he’s passed on, sometimes these days, it can bring up things. And so I just want to share what’s going on with me and but also to kind of give a shout out to those who also have complicated relationships.
SuChin Pak
Yeah. I’m really glad that you brought that up, because we talked a little bit about when we met […]. Eye to eye, face to face. Last week, I had said how much I loved Casey’s book. And I’d never thought about how a mother’s day could be triggering. You know what I mean? You just like you only know your own perspective, in some ways, whether there’s loss to it, either true physical loss or just a loss because that relationship isn’t good. And isn’t, you know, doesn’t bring you joy. So I think that that’s really important. And I’m glad that you brought that up, because, you know, the Hallmark version of all of these holidays, you know, they it’s a double-edged sword, it’s like both celebratory, but there’s lots of shame and guilt. And that I feel that all the time. You know, and I have a pretty by immigrant standards, decent relationship.
Kulap Vilaysack 04:37
Important to note, yeah, yes.
SuChin Pak
Pretty decent relationship with my parents. But yeah, it’s not always Hallmark cards.
Kulap Vilaysack
Yeah. But that said, you know, like, I want to voice that but like we definitely, we’re gonna get into some tips of Father’s Day add to carts and certainly I know our guest has some great Father’s Day add to carts. Before we get into that. You mentioned Casey Wilson’s book, the wreckage of my presence. Why not get that for your dad as well? It’s available in New York Times bestseller.
SuChin Pak
Not just our opinion.
Kulap Vilaysack
That’s right. Hilarious essay memoir book. Get that, but let’s get into our official add to carts.
SuChin Pak
All right, Ku. Do you want to start it off?
Kulap Vilaysack
Yes. So I have a great relationship with my father love Bert Aukerman. He is an amazing man. He’s a veteran. He loves me and I love him. And something I gave him during the pandemic, which I think would be great for other dads. And I view myself as a dad, too, is a Lego set. And the specific one is a Volkswagen Beetle. He does a lot of like puzzles, like a lot of like jigsaw puzzles. It went this way for me. I got sick of jigsaw puzzles. And then I started building three elaborate LEGO sets because Paul shear suggested it to me. And as you guys know, Paul shears my guy for everything. And so I was like, I think Bert loves Beetles, like he, my sister Bethany, I remember, she like, got her an old beetle and fixed it up for her like he’s a handy guy.
Kulap Vilaysack 06:25
And I thought, oh, well, this is like, this could be a really fun activity. And he really liked it. He did it with my mother-in-law, Linda. And so I know that this one if you go on the Lego site, it says it’s hard to find. It’s so cute. It’s blue. It’s got a little surfboard on top of it in a cooler. Doing LEGO sets are so fun. Because unlike a jigsaw puzzle, it’s like you got instructions. And you’re just taking it layer by layer. And it’s so satisfying.
SuChin Pak
First of all, let me just say this one is hard to find. But they have other ones a Ford Mustang, a Fiat, the James Bond Aston Martin.
Kulap Vilaysack
I did that one that’s really fun.
SuChin Pak
Of course you did. Because you as a classy lady. You know, these are for maybe an adult palate, a sophisticated palate. Lego’s aren’t just for kids. I have this memory. When you were talking about Lego’s, which I love and our family loves, I had this moment in good to share it with you. Doing my very first Lego ever was with my son, Kai. And I didn’t know he must have been maybe four years old; he just loves Legos. Now I’m not good, as you know, Kulap, with tactile things, directions. I’m not good with north, south east west, you know, I just my brain doesn’t work that way.
SuChin Pak
And I share this and I don’t know why it’s bringing up emotions. Because you know, when you have a kid and you grow up in a family and with the childhood that isn’t very ordinary. And that is has many points of trauma. And you know, I don’t have a single memory of my parents ever sitting on the floor playing with me, right. And I don’t begrudge that. I think both of our parents, so many immigrant parents, were working two, three jobs just to put food on the table. So that part, isn’t it.
Kulap Vilaysack 08:29
It just simply didn’t happen.
SuChin Pak
It just didn’t happen. But one of the biggest pain points as a parent for me, is playing. I have a really, really, really tough time playing. And it wasn’t until I had my children that I realized that I don’t enjoy it. I don’t like it. These are things that going through my head, I’m not good at it. And then it leads to very quickly a spiraling of like, I’m a terrible parent. And of course, I’m a terrible parent, why would I think that it would be anything less than a terrible parent, like I have no emotional, you know, skills to handle parenting. So it goes very quickly into there. And I remember doing the first Lego set with him trying to figure this out and he’s four and he’s jumping around and can’t really help. I just remember feeling so just underwater.
SuChin Pak
You know, and it takes me back to that time of like, when the first few years of having kids how just like underwater and dark and just like guilt and shame cycle that I was an all the time and cut to, you know, today were like doing a Lego set for the family, like you said is like sitting down. I love doing Lego sets. It’s something that Kai and I bond over. I love, love, love sitting And I’m doing that with him. And in fact, Lego sets are a lot easier than me doing imaginative play with my kids, which I still have a very difficult time with. And so Lego gives me a focus. And then like you said, they’re so satisfying. So, I don’t know, just brought up all that stuff like, out of the blue, I don’t think I’ve ever connected those dots like that memory just popped into my mind of that first Lego set I did with Kai.
Kulap Vilaysack 10:26
I love that. And thank you for sharing because like, I listened to Deep Dive with June Diane Raphael and Jessica St. Clair, two very dear friends of mine. June was talking about how she doesn’t view herself as a playmate. She’s a parent. Yeah. And she makes that distinction. I’m saying this is my opinion, you don’t have to be good. I give you props of saying it out loud. And just like, I think it’s okay to just do what you’re good at.
SuChin Pak
Doing what you’re good at, and really valuing what you’re good at, you know, because I think often what we think we’re good at, we just dismiss, like, I mean, I’m not a great cook. I mean, I cook every single day, almost every meal, you know, like you just dismiss all these things that are really great. And, to that point, I think that what you’re getting at and what I have been learning, especially in this past year, spending so much time with my kids is what keeps me from connecting with my kids is not my inability to play. But it’s my shame and the guilt around that. My kids don’t give a rat’s ass whether I can play teacher-student with their stuffed animals with them. What they care about is the energy that I bring into a room when they’re there.
Kulap Vilaysack
And more so in this time, where like, where you’ve had to, you know, play so many fucking roles because of lockdown. Yeah. But that imaginative play, like that’s what their friends are for. And thank God we’re getting out of what was before. And they can play with their friends and they can be imaginative together. Like, you don’t have to be Robin Williams. Do you know what I mean?
SuChin Pak 12:20
There was only one late great, and he was kind of great.
Kulap Vilaysack
Yeah, you don’t have to do all the voices. You don’t have to like be great at improv and like, take on characters like that. So you don’t have to do that.
SuChin Pak
I’m just going to soothe myself right into the break with that. I just thank you from releasing me from the Robin Williams level of play that I cannot measure up to on a daily basis. All right, we’re gonna let that go on this quick break. But we’ll be back with so much more.
Kulap Vilaysack
We’re back, Su, what are you adding to cart for Father’s Day?
SuChin Pak
Well, I added a very specific thing last week that I get for my dad, which is HanBooks, which are books that are translated into Korean that him and I can share this love of books together. But today I’m adding a very classic. Just you cannot go wrong with this Father’s Day gift-gift. Okay. It’s a bathrobe that is being marketed as the perfect bathrobe. In fact, it’s stitched into the back of the bathrobe. It says the perfect bathrobe right under the collar when you pop it. It’s by a fantastic brand that only sells guess what, one thing? A bathrobe. And it’s called Wakanicci. Okay, it’s a made-up name by David Walton. You have to go to the site.
SuChin Pak
And this is a classic terry cloth robe. This is the robe that it speaks of elegance of style of a timeless quality of a gentlemen’s handshake, if you will, if a bathrobe could say all those things, this is it. Yeah, it’s thick. It’s plush. It’s white. It has a blue trim as a classic bathrobe should. The sleeves are three quarter because David wanted to make sure that when you were whisking a batter for pancakes in the morning or waffles that the sleeve doesn’t get into the batter.
Kulap Vilaysack 14:38
You want to dredge french toast not the sleeves of your bathrobe. No, we want to we need to make some disclosures here, okay? David Walton is married to our boots on the ground, slash scientist, slash one of the most beautiful women ever, Majandra.
SuChin Pak
Yes. Doctor, MD
Kulap Vilaysack
Majandra Delfino.
SuChin Pak
Yes.
Kulap Vilaysack
We’re on the up and up here. It’s an amazing, amazing bathrobe. David Walton is a really funny actor. He’s been in virtually everything. He was the lead in the TV series About A Boy. He did a bit with Whitney Cummings in my show Bajillion Dollar Properties David I just wanted to bring up that.
SuChin Pak
You didn’t know this until I brought this up that he even had a bathroom company, right?
Kulap Vilaysack
And it’s a shame. It’s a shame that I didn’t know this and I am going to add to cart for Scott.
SuChin Pak
Yes, no, this is a bathrobe for the non-fussy person in your life isn’t into fads. Okay, this is a lifetime piece. It’s $200 even and so it’s not an inexpensive gift. What this is a gift that says quality, that says appreciation, that says forever. Okay, so if $200 is too much to pay for forever, I get it. But if it’s not. So that’s what I brought to the table. Oh, wait, wait, wait one last thing and I swear I’ll be done with it. It comes in such a beautiful packaging too. So if you’re going to gift this, there’s a little envelope with a note, it has all of the presentation and the ceremony. It’s a fantastic Father’s Day give, Mother’s Day gift, birthday gift, but I thought it was perfect for this season.
SuChin Pak 16:44
Our next guest I have admired from afar and up close. And when we say expert shopper on this show, this man has made a career out of that. He is an award-winning journalist who for over 13 years has built a career as an editor, beloved for his storytelling. He is a champion of diversity and the people, his current position as the senior editor for The Strategist at New York Magazine. It’s a site that obsessively covers the very best of shopping, okay? He is father to Pebbles, a hairless Sphynx cat with an outsize personality. Please welcome to the show for the very first time, the one and only Tony Rotunno.
Anthony Rotunno
Oh, thank you.
SuChin Pak
Kisses all around. Tony. First of all, I as you know reached out to you as a fan girl and I reached out to you because I have been a longtime fan of The Strategist. And then you and I connected just over email and it’s been a love affair really for some time now.
Anthony Rotunno
I would say I replied as a fan girl.
SuChin Pak 18:02
I was waiting for that.
Anthony Rotunno
Yeah, whose career you know, I’ve admired from afar. Back when I was a young, a young lad in Hopewell Junction, New York watching you deliver the news in such a cool way on MTV, you know, you inspired me to get into this crazy profession we call journalism. So the feeling’s mutual and I can only say that I’ve grown to love you even more. And I also plan to have an equally torrid love affair with Kulap by the end of this but you know, between our shared obsessions with infrared saunas are all of our shared passions for shopping and SuChin you and I are also we don’t really like to talk a lot about what happens in the bedroom and I appreciate that. I appreciate that quality in you because I’m the same way my husband, he gets mad about it to be frank.
Kulap Vilaysack
Look, both my arms and my legs are open to you. Regardless, if you don’t consent.
Anthony Rotunno
We need the Kulap pillow.
SuChin Pak
We all need the Kulap ballads, otherwise Tony you and I we would we would what? Be just in hot pocket sleeping bags close to the world. You know never feeling thing, you know what I mean? Just withering in our own feelings. You know, repressed.
Anthony Rotunno
You know, without people like Kulap, our beds would be poise pads, and you know, and the pebble stones.
SuChin Pak
You’re right. First of all, stop talking that sweet sexy talk to me, Tony that bed sounds like when I could share with you with different comforters, of course. who shares one comforter with a partner in bed anyway. That’s weird. I don’t know how you actually get any sleep that way. So Tony, there’s a few questions that I want to get right to your list because guys, okay, you are an expert shopper. You have a team of expert shoppers. The Strategist is the place to go, if you want to buy something and you don’t know where to start, and it’s my very first place whenever I have an idea of something, something I wish and I long for I go to Strategist first. I check out what they’re recommending. But before we get in, we always like to ask what kind of shopper are you, Tony?
Anthony Rotunno 20:21
You know, I’ve realized over the last year that I’m a really high touch shopper, I met my husband while shopping. I picked him up but of J. Crew. He was a sales associate. I was in there trying to find Oxford shirts. And I walked out with a tie and his number and we went on a date.
Kulap Vilaysack
You add to cart, your husband.
Anthony Rotunno
I added my husband to my cart. And I haven’t returned him yet.
SuChin Pak
That by the way, could be the biggest Add To Cart we’ve had to date.
Kulap Vilaysack
That’s amazing.
SuChin Pak
Okay, so high touch shopper.
Anthony Rotunno
High touch. And, you know, I think my items that I might share a little bit later kind of speak to this. But I mean, all of us are creatures of habit when it comes to shopping at some point, but I’ve always admired people who find things, swear by them, and just never looked back. Whether it’s my husband or a nice linen shirt, you know, it’s like, I think that and that’s what I love about the strategist is we get to speak to interesting people, SuChin like yourself, or, you know, I just finished interviewing 10 of the front runner mayoral candidates about the products they use every single day. And you just pick up all of these wonderfully specific, you know, time tested things. And that is how I shop. I you know, there are people who like to try a lot of stuff. And, you know, to all the publicists looking for my email right now to pitch me, you can but I am not as much of trier as I am like, I take a recommendation from someone who’s done it and knows it. And that’s where I begin.
SuChin Pak
I love that because the last time we were emailing, I was asking you a question. And I forget your answer was something to the effect of oh, yeah, yeah, no problem. I’m just road testing some cordless vacuum cleaners. I’ll get right back to you. And I thought, Oh, my God, he has my dream job. This is what I want to do with my time. Do you know what I mean? I want to road test vacuum cleaners. I just as a fan girl.
Kulap Vilaysack 22:24
Well, SuChin, you’re well on your way.
SuChin Pak
Yeah, that’s what it sounds like. I feel I’ve made this dream come true. Welcome to my dream. But I always just as a fan of the strategist like what does an average day for an editor look like? Or a fun day for you look like when you’re either testing products or talking about ideas?
Kulap Vilaysack
Any product we want to talk about, you know, we’re service journalists at heart and so everything we recommend, we touch on, we even welcome into our homes. It needs to be more than just a gimmick it needs to be more than just the latest this or that it really needs to be something that can improve someone’s day, you know, significantly or even just by looking at it, but not something that feels like fluffy or low cal.
SuChin Pak
Insignificant. Yes, low cal. Exactly. All right. Let’s get into a full-cal heavy meal here with Tony’s list. Yes. All right, Kulap. I have talked about my lack of sleep. What it does to my brain, the fogginess.
Kulap Vilaysack
Yeah me too. I mean sleep is truly the most important thing in my life. That’s why today we want to talk about Birch Mattresses. They are organic, non-toxic mattresses shipped for free straight to you with no contact delivery and free returns.
SuChin Pak
They are made in America with just three materials, okay? Organic latex, New Zealand wool, and American steel springs. So I have not one but two Birch Mattresses because one is just not enough.
Kulap Vilaysack 24:03
And I love how the organic cotton it’s made up doesn’t ever get too overheated. The entire bed is the cool side of the pillow.
SuChin Pak
The best side of the pillow. So you can check out this bedding at birchliving.com/AddToCart. They have a 25-year warranty and you get to try it out for 100 nights risk free they will pick it up for you if you don’t love it, but we know you will love it.
Kulap Vilaysack
Birch is giving $200 off all mattresses in two free eco rest pillows at birchliving.com/AddToCart. So that’s $200 off all mattress orders and two free eco rest pillows.
Kulap Vilaysack
Let’s get into what you’ve added to cart. This first item is a J. Crew Baird McNutt Irish Linen Shirt in sunrise orange.
SuChin Pak
What? Let me click on the link. once again you have added your husband to cart at J. Crew. And then now you’re adding this linen shirt. Tell us about this. Father’s Day is coming up. This is perfect.
Anthony Rotunno
It’s a fabulous Father’s Day gift. I’m wearing it now in I think the color is ink, or Indigo I own 11 of these shirts and the fabric is just what sets the shirts apart. Um, it’s stiff, it washes so well better each time. And they’re just a great staple and easy staple a great Father’s Day gift and as with most great things to J. Crew, you can find them on sale.
Kulap Vilaysack
Okay, so I’m already thinking Add To Cart for Scott. My husband. For Bert, my father-in-law. But you know who else I’m like, I’m sending this link directly to Paul F. Tompkins. Irish descent who loves a linen and also I need to know if Jason Mantzoukas knows about this in white.
SuChin Pak 26:00
Yeah, he loves a white shirt. He looks very good. It offsets his skin tone. His hair.
Kulap Vilaysack
Yeah, much like Tony. Jason is tried and true. And he’s that’s what he does. He’s not messing around.
Kulap Vilaysack
I wouldn’t, I would stand by it. And if he doesn’t like it, he can send it to me. Okay, okay. Don’t return it.
SuChin Pak
Not only did I add to cart for my partner, but I also added cart for myself. Because a men’s linen slim shirt. Just cuffed right. Just so at the elbow. Is that the epitome of summer sexy time, for Su? It sure is, button right up to the top. You know, just a sliver of an Adam’s apple.
Kulap Vilaysack
You’re exposing too much right now. You look like a harlot […]
Kulap Vilaysack
You should see the shorts. Thank God for only half the screen. No but and the nice thing too, the thing that I think people forget about J. Crew is you go in the store. And that’s one thing. You’ll see them all in slim. But online, they have the classic cut. The classic is nice because it gives a wee bit extra room. And it doesn’t, but it doesn’t look sloppy, or sloppy, or sloppy, or whatever that where it is.
Kulap Vilaysack
And you’re suggesting the sunset orange, is this just because you don’t have it yet?
Anthony Rotunno
The orange was a departure for me. I’m more of a blue. Like I’m a blue guy. I’m a white guy classic. But with you know, my Olive tone skin and my last name that I can’t pronounce. Like the old country. I felt like orange was like a color that I should be wearing. You know, and now that I hope to be out of the house a little more this summer, maybe I can get a nice tan with it. You know. So that’s why I went out on a limb with the sunset orange.
Kulap Vilaysack
I see you as you’re there. You’re having an aperol spritz. It feels like Capri.
Anthony Rotunno 28:03
It’s like wearing an aperol spritz, Kulap.
SuChin Pak
I love a hopeful buy too. And we do a lot of hopeful buys here where you purchase something and you’re like see that is what I will aspire to be in the very near future. So I love that.
Kulap Vilaysack
It’s all about manifesting the summer you want and you know, yeah, the person you want to be and what you add to your cart.
Kulap Vilaysack
The next thing that you’ve added to cart is the Skura Style Sponge Sets.
Kulap Vilaysack
This is for the clean freaks among us. These sponges are the probably the thing I bought the most after reading them about them on the Strategist and that I buy them every six weeks. They’re just so fantastic. They’re designed in a way that as clean as I’d like to think I am. I’m the type of person who could let us sponge you know, linger for a month, maybe two, you know, as long as it’s still yellow. But I think that that’s not really hygienic and so early on in my tenure here. I have a pal who’s a writer, pitch these to me and he was like, they’re the most ingenious little things. They’re designed with a pattern on the top that wears off with you. So by the time the pattern disappears, you throw it away. And that has proven true. Never smell, never a funk. I love that it tells me when to do it because it just helps me feel like I’m keeping a cleaner kitchen and not letting whatever muck by buildup in the sponge stay there, you know longer than you’d want any guests to stay in your house.
Kulap Vilaysack
Yeah, like I don’t even want E.coli to visit. Yeah, this makes sense.
Kulap Vilaysack 30:01
I do a lot of dishes, we cook a lot, you know, especially over the last year, so the sponges have been something like during the pandemic, they never ran out, it was just one thing that helped me feel in control.
SuChin Pak
What I do with my sponges, and I’m sure a Reddit thread will prove me wrong on this. I was told once. And I do this every day as I put it in the microwave for a minute to kill all the bacteria on the sponge that has accrued over the day. And then you sort of, you know, can go longer in between getting rid of sponges. Anyway. Thank you for letting me share that part of my life with you guys.
Kulap Vilaysack 30:40
I’ve added to cart it’s in my cart right now I’m getting these sponges.
Anthony Rotunno
And you know what if you don’t like them, it comes with four, give them to a couple people you know, enjoy doing dishes and don’t have a dishwasher or just enjoy microwaving sponges because they’re really, I’ve never done that. But they seem like a really great product to try in the microwave.
SuChin Pak
I don’t know. It’s just something that I picked up and never let go of anyway. Okay, love it.
Kulap Vilaysack
And our next thing that you’re bringing us is hand written correspondence. And so what I’m seeing is a whole line by Smythson Wove Kings. And so let’s start with the correspondent cards and cream.
Kulap Vilaysack
Yeah, so Smythson is one of those brands I think at Strategist we hear all about it when it comes to its like its planners and its organizers. It makes these really beautiful diaries that are not cheap. But you know, are heirloom pieces that everyone from Debbie Mays are to you know, Tad friend at the New Yorker tells us, you get one for a year you put it on your bookshelf, and over time you develop this collection of beautiful diaries, but low-key sleeper hit among their inventory are the note cards. And they’ve larger writing paper, which I also put on my list. Because a handwritten note, I think, goes a long way. And last year, when we couldn’t see people I was writing up a storm, you know, even just the smallest letters. And the nice thing about this Smythson stuff is I think when you start getting into the area of personalized stationery, it can get expensive, and then you have to replace it and you start thinking like who gets the one with the monogram on it and who just gets you know, the one that I got, you know, left over.
Anthony Rotunno 32:33
And with these the quality of the paper is just so nice. It’s thick, you can sort of see the texture on it. And it’s the type of thing that like, I’d like to imagine whether I’m writing a note to my six-year-old niece Gracie from Pebbles, who is known to sign with a paw now and again, or, you know, to a friend of 20 years, like they’ll keep they won’t just toss it because you can tell the quality of it. And you can you know it’s like I have a box of cards that I’ve collected since I was a young adult. And again, this was a habit I formed after working for the editor, former editor in chief of Vanity Fair who archived every piece of correspondence and it just but I it made sense. And so I’d like to think that people are holding these things that I send them to remember the sentiments and so that’s why I like these cards because they make a great impression and they’re not that expensive for something from Smythson, you know where it’s the diaries can cost like $200.
Kulap Vilaysack
So when you’re using the writing paper, is that when you want to do like a larger letter is that how are you using the writing paper in your life?
Kulap Vilaysack
Yeah, I’ve used it to write like larger letters I also once wrote, you know, I had to write a best man speech for a while, or maybe it was just a speech, I can’t remember if I was the best man. I don’t want to put myself up but I wrote the speech on the paper. And then I gave it to the bride as something that she could have as an artifact, you know, of that moment. So it’s everything from that to you know, we have some folks cat sitting for us this week, and I write a note to them with their little gift that I left. I like to switch it up sometimes. A friend of mine, a former lover, she worked for an editor at Vogue when I was at Vanity Fair. And that editor, famously I remember would write very long not long letters, but you know, a couple words or sentences on these longer sheets and so you’d get a six-sheet letter and it would be like you know, how are you it’s so nice to hear, […] like an eye chart or something you know, but there’s something really cool about that. So that’s why I like to have the variety.
Kulap Vilaysack 34:41
And then you also have the envelopes which are gorgeous.
Kulap Vilaysack
which are classic and they fit you fold if you fold the larger sheet you can get a bunch of them in there and they fit the note cards like a glove so it’s like a nice mix and match that.
SuChin Pak
I just love. You know, we talked about this have many episodes back about how I had been thinking about getting an old school typewriter. Because during this time that we’ve all been apart, you know, you have a little bit more time some of us have more than others, which I understand. And then also, you know, you start to miss people in a way that you didn’t before because you couldn’t see them. And so I had this kind of longing not to do the email not to do the texting because that was just sort of easy, but something a little bit more special.
Kulap Vilaysack
And you bought the typewriter.
SuChin Pak
And it’s still in my cart. And I’m thinking about it.
Kulap Vilaysack 36:01
Now, after we’re coming out of lockdown.
SuChin Pak
Oh, I’m not coming out of lockdown. For all of our younger listeners, because we apparently have quite a few younger listeners that love to listen to aunties go on about things. This is a great tip, Tony, for all those folks that only have really just out in the digital world. Going to this site Smythson getting this when someone receives this from a young person, you’re like you did the work. You talk to someone, you got a recommendation, you got the right one, I see the work in this stationery, that’s the kind of stationery this is.
Kulap Vilaysack
It’s exactly how I feel about it. You know, back in the day, I would run these letters from whatever office I was at to whatever job I was interviewing for, and like find the meant messenger rooms so that I could get them snuck but it shows that appreciation and that care and I do think people appreciate that.
Kulap Vilaysack
Plus they’re called Smythson wove kings. Don’t you want to be a wove king?
SuChin Pak
I had no doubt that you would bring a level of sophistication and just a gentleness to the show that we sometimes lose along the way between the cackling and the you know the screaming over things that happen in the bedroom but I really appreciate..
Kulap Vilaysack
It’s more of a screeching on both our parts. Where do we find you on the social medias? How can we?
Anthony Rotunno
I am at @AJRotunno on Twitter and Instagram. But I would also encourage everyone to you know where you’re really find me is that The Strategist where I pour my heart and soul into so much and so me yes but also @thestrategist, @strategist some combination of those handles will find it everywhere and like SuChin said, you won’t just find me you’ll find her you’ll find you know, mayoral candidates, you’ll find so many wonderful people. Shopping is such a personal thing. And that’s why podcasts like this and work that we do is so important because it helps tell stories that other people might not know and might resonate even if it’s one other person how great is that? So I just appreciate you guys letting me tell mine and Kulap, I think we need to get you on The Strategist next. Because I mean don’t leave me with the microwave of sponge person.
SuChin Pak 38:55
God, please don’t leave him. I beg of you. No one should be left with that.
Kulap Vilaysack
Tony, thank you so much. You’re amazing.
SuChin Pak
Thank you so much.
Anthony Rotunno
It’s a match made in heaven.
Kulap Vilaysack
That’s all we have for this episode. Make sure to follow Anthony for your stationery hot tips.
SuChin Pak
In fact, send him a note on that stationery why don’t you? follow us of course on @AddToCart pod. For all the gifts and products on today’s show.
Kulap Vilaysack
Call us at 833-453-6662 to tell us your favorite man robe.
SuChin Pak
Alright everyone, we will be here same time, same place next week. Bye.
CREDITS
ADD TO CART is a production of Lemonada Media. Our producer is Claire Jones and our editor is Ivan Kuraev. The music is by Wasahhbii and produced by La Made It and Oh So Familiar with additional music by APM music. Executive producers are Kulap Vilaysack, SuChin Pak, Jessica Cordova Kramer and Stephanie Wittels Wachs. Be sure to check out all the items we mentioned today on our Instagram at @AddToCartPod. Also, please take a moment to rate, review, and subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcast.
