Happy Easter 2026

Another winter is over in the Western Hemisphere, and spring has arrived! We have persevered and overcome! Easter celebrates tenacity over trials with the hope of new beginnings! 

St. Paul the Apostle Church, a New York City Landmark, sits next to Lincoln Center. In early December, when Lincoln Center hosts its White Light Festival to celebrate the arts, the event turns into a big block party with live music, theater, and dance. St. Paul the Apostle Church participates by opening its doors with priests serving hot chocolate to the public. It’s a warm, welcoming chance to come inside out of the cold and walk around the church's majestic interior. Of course, Easter Sunday is a house of worship's biggest celebration. My friend, Carolyn, belongs to this church and sings in its choir, and her friend, Debbie, puts in a few appearances, usually for special events. The clergy is, without fail, welcoming and lovely to all who enter. They never ask you where you’ve been!😊

Talk about the Lamb of God, here’s an especially cute one!

Let's finish off with a joyful baby duckling who is wearing his Easter “bonnet" of rabbit ears.  

Happy Easter, Everyone!✝  

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Anonymity Is Priceless

I didn’t watch the John Kennedy and Carolyn Bessette docudrama. Certainly, I was aware of them in the 1990s and walked past their penthouse loft at 20 North Moore Street downtown in Tribeca a few times. When the Southern District of New York summoned me to serve as a grand juror on Centre Street, John was one of many assistant JAs who came into the courtroom to present evidence to us to secure an indictment. During the time of my jury duty, John stood directly in front of me, riding the elevator down to go out to lunch. BTW, I met or saw many celebrities in Manhattan, but I never met or saw John’s mother, sister, wife, or ex-girlfriend, Daryl Hannah, out and about.

This television series on John and Carolyn is making me think about anonymity. To be clear, anonymity is a state in which a person’s identity is unknown. I have heard the stories of the stress Carolyn felt when she lost her anonymity by marrying John Kennedy, Jr., and I can empathise with how trying and traumatizing it must have been for her.

To a degree, I can imagine the discomfort of being watched, judged, and critiqued everywhere she went, often in print. What a terrible state of feeling like you must be dressed impeccably, with every hair in place, even to dash out nearby in the mornings to grab a bagel or drop a letter in a mailbox. Sometimes I’ve thrown on a long coat before taking a shower or putting on makeup to pick up breakfast or deposit mail! But then to have strangers evaluate me or paparazzi jump out to take my picture would be horrifying! It’s been said that Carolyn began to crack under the strain and to feel like a caged animal. Quite understandable.

We should all be careful of what we wish for, as fame can seem ideal, like a best-case scenario. Singer Little Richard is credited as saying, Elvis Presley got what he wanted, but lost what he had.

Anonymity is priceless in New York City. One of my great pleasures is freely walking about, people watching, or going on window-shopping sprees. On an easy-breezy weekend of afternoon exploring often around the Upper East Side, Upper West Side, or in Midtown, sometimes people will smile at me when our eyes meet. At times, I might exchange little snippets of pleasant conversation or even a laugh with fellow New Yorkers who, just like me, are out and about, but we still maintain our anonymity. I also take for granted that such exchanges are genuine since I'm an unknown. I can be open and accessible, giving people the benefit of the doubt that they don’t have ulterior motives for interacting with me unless they prove me wrong, which, despite what outsiders think, usually doesn’t happen in Manhattan. New Yorkers are more benevolent and friendlier than many people imagine.

In absorbing the city and basking in its energy, anonymity is priceless as you walk the streets, enter shops, or stop to observe street entertainment. Some street entertainment is unintentional.😉 In New York City, you can be alone sans the isolation. You’re one of the crowd, with nobody bothering you or asking anything of you. Without a doubt, the freedom to be an observer has increased my wisdom. I’m smarter for having the space to process what I see. Being unencumbered enough to get lost in our thoughts in public is a gift!

How painful and restrictive it must have been for Carolyn Bessette, who was raised as an ordinary girl and married at age 30, to have lost her anonymity and with it the freedoms she enjoyed throughout her 20s. At times, the best things in life are free (like privacy, control over your own life, and peace of mind, to name a few), so be grateful if you still have your anonymity!

*By chance, John’s Aunt Jean Kennedy Smith sat a couple of pews in front of me during a Christmas midnight Mass at St. Ignatius Church on Park Avenue and East 84th Street with her adult children, including her son, William Kennedy Smith, the year he went on trial for rape. At the time, the press speculated whether or not Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis would let her beloved son, John, attend his cousin’s trial in support. A source claimed his family pressured him to attend. John made two appearances during the jury selection. The trial ended with an acquittal.

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Common Purslane Is A Perennial Superfood Plant

Wow, I learn something new every day! I’m a city girl, and don’t know much about botany. Outside of well-known plants, I’m clueless. I did not know the following existed until last week! Here’s what I learned ...

Common purslane (Portulaca oleracea) is exceptionally easy to grow and naturalized all over the world. It’s very adaptable in all climates, though it thrives in warm, sunny, and dry conditions. Somewhat invasive, it is a highly resilient, drought-tolerant succulent that grows as a weed in nearly all soils, preferring well-drained, sunny spots. It is a summer annual in cooler zones and a perennial in warm climates.

If you’re as ignorant as I am, you might be tempted to remove it from your backyard or cracks in your concrete and toss it into the garbage, but no, you shouldn’t! Here’s why:

Common purslane is a nutrient-dense superfood. It is packed with omega-3 fatty acids (the highest amount of any land-based plant), along with high levels of vitamins A, C, and E and minerals like magnesium, calcium, iron, and potassium.

Its high levels of Omega-3 fatty acids reduce inflammation in the body, the risk of strokes, and support a healthy heart. Its high content of antioxidants supports immunity and skin health. Its mineral richness supports bone health and regulates blood pressure. The plant also contains small amounts of vitamins B1, B2, B3, folate, copper, and phosphorus. This nutrient-dense powerhouse is low in calories at 16 calories per 100 grams. Studies indicate it also helps reduce insulin and blood sugar.

Purslane is a tasty weed that is categorized as a leafy green vegetable. It has a slightly salty and tart taste, and just like spinach or watercress, you can toss it in salads or on sandwiches. Mix it into grilled vegetables or add to stews.

Calorie for calorie, purslane is one of the most nutrient-dense foods on earth! It may look like a weed, but looks are deceiving! Now that I know what a common purslane is, I want to grow some in a flower pot. I’m curious to taste it. How about you?

One note of caution: If you find purslane in your neighborhood, be sure it hasn’t been sprayed with chemicals before eating it.

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The Story Hybrid: A Suitcase in a Backpack

Have you heard about The Story’s Suitcase-in-a-Backpack sold exclusively at Target? Wear it as a backpack, but open and pack it as a suitcase. It’s 35L in size and has a water-resistant polyester exterior with a zip-around closure. It has padded shoulder straps, an outside zipper pocket, and holds up to a 17-inch laptop inside. The hybrid travel backpack features interior mess compartments and pockets to separate and store all your items.

What gives this hybrid travel backpack its hot internet buzz and makes people want it is this: The combination backpack-suitcase is spacious yet small enough to qualify as your personal bag, to take along with your carry-on luggage unchecked aboard an airplane. In other words, you can board with 2 unchecked bags and no fees! It fits under an airline seat! As a bonus, when you’re pushing it to your gate to board your plane, it has an integrated trolley strap that slips over a wheeled suitcase.

Available in 5 colors, customers buy it to take an extra unchecked bag on an airplane, but the travel hybrid backpack also makes a great lightweight weekend suitcase that holds lots of stuff you can organize! So roomy that if you stuff it to the brim, it gets heavy.

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Oreck Elevate Command Vacuum

To borrow a term from financial journalism, a vacuum cleaner isn’t a sexy topic, but I bet all households need one!

I use an Oreck Elevate Command Vacuum. It is recommended for hard floors and low to high-pile carpet, both of which I vacuum. I’ll start by stating I prefer upright vacuums that contain bags. 

Uprights are more compact than canisters, and I’d rather push a handle than pull a canister to vacuum. I also wish to change and toss out dirt inside a bag over the less sanitary and greater mess of emptying and cleaning a bagless vacuum. So in selecting a vacuum, I start with these two preminators.

The Oreck Elevate Command Vacuum is super compact and lightweight to move around furniture or to carry up stairs. It has strong suction, nearly too strong on carpet on the carpet setting, as it ripped a corner lining of my 8.6 x 10-inch area rug! Nowadays, I only vacuum using the lower (hard floor) setting. However, I do like the ease of use and the excellent suction in achieving a good cleaning. Moverover it’s quieter compared to a commercial vacuum cleaner. Check the noise level when you are tempted to save a few bucks by ordering commercial instead of residential vacuums. Turned on, the Orack lights up, and it flattens to roll under a bed. I choose not to pay $100 more to buy the Oreck model with a swivel head. Would I have liked it? Sure. Is it worth another $100 bucks? You must decide for yourself.

Oreck upright vacuums lack attachments for anything beyond floor cleaning. So there is no hose on the side to clean couch crevices or blinds, and this lack of a hose gave me pause about whether or not to buy it. What sold me was Oreck's soft belly with a zipper over a hard plastic belly upright vacuum. A soft belly that you unzip to change the bag is lighter and more compact than a plastic belly when storing in a closet. No potential for plastic breaking off after years of opening and closing to change a vacuum bag, either.

Oreck has the reputation of being a durable vacuum cleaner with decent customer support, should anything go wrong. The Oreck Elevate Command Vacuum is a no-nonsense model. It does its single job of vacuuming the floor well, and I love how little space it takes to hide it away in a closet; therefore, I decided to pay the piper, expecting it to last for years to come.

I managed to buy it in 2025 during a promotion offering a $50 discount with 6 free hepa bags.

Still, I understand that vacuum cleaners have gotten expensive! So for consumers who have a small budget and really need to spend less, Housebrush offers a Cordless Vacuum Cleaner on a self-standing stick that many customers say cleans well and has a good battery life that is also rechargeable. There’s a small bagless compartment that collects the debris. It comes with convertible nozzles to clean 8 surfaces, not just floors. Customers also like the similar SVHT vacuum on a stick, costing even less. Perfect for dorms or tiny spaces. For a house, you’d likely need a more substantial vacuum cleaner, but I cannot speak from experience. Read all the customer reviews to know what type and size of vacuum cleaner is right for you!

Years ago, a co-worker bought a hot pink Oreck vacuum! A blast from the past. The black Oreck Elevate Command Vacuum is meeting all my needs, though I looked for the pink, a fun color to push around.:)

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A Fire Blanket For Your Home

A very inexpensive safety tool to consider for your kitchen, fireplace, or grill area is a fire-retardant blanket. In the event of an accidental fire, you toss the blanket over the flame to smother it out before it spreads to the rest of your home. It’s a safety precaution you could prepare every member of your family to know how to handle in such an emergency.

The fire-retardant blanket sells for as low as $5 on online retailer Temu, and it is available at Walmart and Amazon.

Made from 100% flame-resistant fiberglass, it forms an airtight seal to quickly cut off oxygen and suffocate the flames. It has a 6 year shelf life, so there’s no need to replace it often. I have no idea what elements go bad in the blanket, but time seems to spoil many material things.

It’s a very practical, low-cost tool to keep your home a little safer.

If you wish to invest more, you could also buy a fire extinguisher. You’d have to have a place for family members to easily grab it, and they must learn how to aim and spray it. The blanket requires less mechanical know-how, but the low cost means if you wish, you likely could buy both fire extinguishing tools for your home. 

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Axe Body Spray Cherry Spritz

Sometimes my local CVS drugstore has free samples for the taking, which introduces me to unfamiliar products I wouldn’t normally pick up like Axe Body Spray Cherry Spritz. The spray is marketed as a man’s “fine fragrance,” yet is widely considered unisex. 

The scent is cherry-amber with hints of red apple and eucalyptus. Many women like the sweet, non-traditionally masculine fragrance, and I am one of them! It has a clean, fresh -- minus a strong, or artificial perfumey scent.

Photo: Madisondecinq

Like the new deodorants on the market, the Cherry Spitz can be safely sprayed all over the body, but I wonder if some people are going overboard fearing they have body odors that they really don’t. A daily shower should stop most of us from stinking. 

Still we enjoy smelling extra good, and this pleasing, clean scent is a winner. 

It’s also considerably cheaper than many fine fragrances and lasts a reasonable length of time. Costing around $7 for a 4 ounce can, it’s a worthy expenditure to smell delightful!

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It’s The New Year 2026

New Year's Eve is a holiday I like very much. As a younger adult I went out to celebrate sometimes, but always to places which were easy to return home from and with good friends. In fact, my favorite way to celebrate New Year’s Eve is with family and/or friends at home, or nearby in the neighborhood. Without fail, we do stay up past midnight to ring in the New Year while munching on a few tasty treats. One way we never spend the night is traveling a distance from home that requires a long drive back on a highway. 

I suppose a reason I like New Year’s Eve is it closes out the Christmas season. It’s the cherry on top of our high spirits. Christmas and Easter are two major holidays, each stretching out over a week, with Easter the more solemn one. The yin and the yang of Western cultural holidays. I love the sparkle, glitter and gaiety of Christmas completed by New Year’s Eve, and the anticipation of Spring and the renewal of Easter. I’m also happy Easter hasn’t become commercial like Christmas.

I prefer eating to drinking, however this year I intend to open a bottle of Champagne. 

Allow me to thank all my readers and fellow bloggers for your support. On THE SAVVY SHOPPER, we are one global, multi-cultural community, and my life is richer because of you! It's meaningful to share and exchange ideas. I enjoy learning right along with you. Dear friends, much appreciation for your time and contributions! Let’s make next year even better!🌍🌎🌏

🍾🥳Happy New Year 2026!🥂🎉

Merry Christmas In New York City 2025

All around Manhattan the Christmas trees are up, and the brownstones are decorated. Below is a festive one on the Upper East Side.

In my kitchen, the cookies are baked. This year, I made Springerle (I do not have the molds!), Czechoslovakian cookies, Scottish Shortbread and Gingerbread cookies. We are ready to have Christmas teas with visitors!

Many of my friends are off to midnight Mass, but my senior Mother and I will watch the 1st American Pope say Mass on tv. Over the years, Mom and I have spent Christmases both together and apart.

By phone, I've had lovely catch-up chats with 4 friends today.

I hear many poor people are suffering with the flu. Mom and I got our flu, RSV, and the latest Covid vaccines in October, 2025. Thank heaven for shots! Get your up-to-date vaccines, dear readers, from your doctors or local pharmacies! No need to be sick unnecessarily.

Adoration of the Shepherds by Jacob van Oost (1603–1671), a Flemish Baroque painter

We wish everyone near and far a Merry Christmas!🐑🐪

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The Best Sizes of Food Containers

Bormioli Rocco Quattro Stagioni Glass Milk Bottle 33.75 Ounce/1 Liter with Airtight Lid

In recent years I’ve become super orgainized. I tend to buy larger sizes of foods you might consider staples such as 4 lbs - 5 lbs of flour, sugar, dried legumes and sometimes pasta. I dislike having a job before starting a job, so having a little extra in storage containers means I can decide to make bean, lentil or pea soup without having to go to the supermarket. The same with baking, I never lack the flour or sugar to make pizza dough or a coffee cake if I get a craving or a visitor.

The 3 most useful shapes and sizes of food storage containers that fit most compactly into a pantry, refrigerator or freezer may surprise you!

1) 1 liter sized glass milk bottles - I discovered Bormili Rocco Quattro Stagioni Glass Milk Bottles with airtight lids at T.J. Maxx. Initionally, I only used them to store milk, eggnog, juice, Kombucha, i.e., liquids. But the mouth is wide enough for dried beans, peas, lentils and many pastas, and they take up less space than 32 oz canning jars, which are another great type of food storage containers. Had I considered compactness though, I’d have bought more of these than canning jars. The milk bottles are more versatile and can be lined up side by side inside a cupboard. 

2) Large (about 1 gallon) rectangle storage containers - They fit enough potato salad, cole slaw, guacamole or slices of an entire coffee cake to feed a family, but take up less room in your refrigerator or freezer than round or oval shaped contrainers. You could invest in glass or hardy plastic, but the takealong lighter plastic ones hold up surprisingly well for less moola.

3) Half cup Rubbermaid containers - When I got 8 of these as part of a set I thought it was a ripoff, but you’d be amazed at how many times they are the right size for condiments or leftovers. They also stack and snap together which is a useful space-saving function.

After I pack leftovers from a home cooked meal, I always think one day someone will design a more storeage efficient refrigerator! I notice flatter rectangles that hold a good portion of food fit better inside a refrigerator than round containers. When you get the black bottom containers or the plastic round ones for free with other food you buy, reuse them as they’re great for leftover soup or beef stew. 

Today I’d always aim to get shallow rectangle-shaped containers as the best space-savers for storage. You can stack them up!

Like-foods organized in (too thin for shoes but just right for a freezer) plastic shoe boxes bought at Walmart

If you’d like to add other space-saving-tips or brands for storing food in a cupboard, pantry, refrigerator or freezer, please comment.

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Don’t Throw Away Your Silica Gel Packets

You know those little silica gel packets that come with leather goods like shoes or handbags? Don’t throw them away. Reuse them!

I keep them with shoes that stay in plastic shoe boxes if I only wear the shoes occasionally. When I have extra silica gel packets from the shoe boxes I toss out, I repurpose them by placing the packets in the corners of my closets, kitchen cupboards, and inside drawers throughout my apartment including my nightstand and entertainment center.

Moisture if not controlled can destroy many types of dry goods. The silica gel packets absorb up to 40% of their weight in moisture, saving many types of dry goods from damage. They help maintain a dry environment, preventing mold and mildew from damaging leather goods and other articles that may surprise you!

Moreover, silica gel packets can also release moisture back into the air if the atmosphere gets too dry, helping to stabilize humidity to maintain product quality. 

Papers, photographs, jewelry, and electronics are several categories of items that can be preserved by tossing silica gel packets into the containers that store them. Razor blades will not rust or dull in a medicine cabinet, and car windshields will not fog up with silica packets placed on your dashboard. You can also toss silica gel packets into your gym bag, luggage, or clothes hamper to prevent mildew. A few packets stored in the corner of a food pantry keeps herbs, breadcrumbs and crackers fresh.

Silica gel packets are non-toxic unless cobalt is listed as an ingredient which is toxic. Most silica gel packets do not contain cobalt. If you place a few packets into a file cabinet or food pantry, you can always insert them into a paper envelope. The silica gel packets are fairly sturdy, so I don’t worry about them lying inside closets, pantries, or drawers.

Nevertheless, you should keep them away from children and pets since they aren’t editable.

Have you been throwing your silica gel packets away? Stop! They're very useful and you get them for free!

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Put The Laundry Book On Your Shelf

Do you know using too much laundry detergent gets your clothes less clean? Too much laundry detergent will also wear out your washing machine faster. So how much laundry detergent should you use to clean a normally soiled, medium load of laundry? According to 3rd and 4th generation, father and son laundry experts, Jerry and Zach Pozniak, the amount to add is only 2 tablespoons. It’s much less than most people use or what manufactures suggest. Moreover, if your clothes are not heavily soiled washing them in warm over hot water, not only gets them cleaner, but preserves the colors in your clothing.

Jerry and Zach Pozniak are the owners of a luxury dry cleaner located at 1318 Madison Avenue at 94th Street (the Carnegie Hill neighborhood) in New York City called Jeevers New York. It’s a small family run business which caters to celebrities and fashion types. 

Zach Pozniak has a YouTube channel where he doesn’t hold back on giving viewers free cleaning advise and reviewing best to worst laundry detergents and cleaning solvents. Kirkland and Purex liquid detergents top Zak’s list -- go to his channel for the complete details. Like a scientist he explains what ingredients make a detergent or solution most effective for different types of stains. Detergents containing OxiClean are recommended.

In addition to the above tips, I leaned to apply hydrogen peroxide to remove stains from a shirt after I wash but omit drying it. Let the hydrogen peroxide dry on the fabric. IMHO, The Laundry Book would make a great addition to a home. BTW: Know that my blogs are not sponsored. I give my honest opinions. The Laundry Book is a valuable reference book to help us keep our clothes in tip-top shape by squeaky cleaning them without damage. Jerry Pozniak recommends not buying clothes you can only spot clean since you can’t really clean them.

Father and son are committed to passing their 4 generations of cleaning hacks onto the public, and they run a prestige small family business customers can feel good about supporting.

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