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I feel a bit like a yoyo – swinging from delight and pride in my exhibits ™ and their achievements and their own contentment – to a miserable pessimist when I read the news. I am trying so hard to swing in the positive direction, but sometimes the current is too strong in the other direction. That’s why I started this podcast – to help nudge us all a bit to the brighter side. I will not give up, or give in to the cynics. Our caring matters.

Talking with actor Richard Kind was a tiny bit like looking in the mirror. Not that we look alike, but he is so familiar! He’s been in over 230 tv shows and motion pictures. You know him from “Spin City”, “Mad About You”, “Gotham”, “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” “Inside Out”, “A Serious Man” and at least one episode on what feels like every show on tv and streaming tv over the last 15 years. He is happy and so grateful for his career and his life, his kids and his friends – (as I am). When it comes to politics, he is angry, but reasonable. When it comes to knowing how to have a conversation, he’s a strong participant.

Hope you enjoy today’s podcast.

Here are the 5 Things that made my life better this week:

1. Happy Returns. It’s not a birthday wish, or a sexy tv show. it’s a great service I discovered when I wanted to return something to Everlane. It’s this: https://www.happyreturns.com/ Instead of packing up your returns and schlepping them to the post office, you can return them to a nearby facility (in my case a store – not Everlane) a few blocks away, and you get your refund that day. You don’t even need to keep the box the item(s) came in. Whoo! Check the link to see which retailers use this service.

2. Director Paul Mazursky. Though he died in 2014, his feature movie directing career, spanning the years 1962-1996 was full of the texture and the fizziness of the times. Whether it was “Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice,” about sexual freedom in the suburbs in the 60s, or “An Unmarried Woman” about a woman regaining her self-esteem after being knocked down by her husband’s affair and ensuing divorce, or “Down and Out in Beverly Hills”, the preposterousness of what makes a rich life in a materialistic community. They make us laugh at ourselves, in the best way, and stand the test of time.

3. The reason I celebrate Paul Mazursky is because of the delightful new musical adaptation of “Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice” in previews at The Group theater. Written by Jonathan Mark Sherman, with a score by Duncan Sheik, it is, probably as the film critics once said, “a delightful romp” in 1969. Ingeniously, in addition to the four principals, singer/songwriter Suzanne Vega leads the band, and plays all the other parts too. Music is great, acting is bubbly, costumes are outtasight!

4. Olivela. Here is a store I discovered online that sells everything a chic woman could want, but 20 % goes to charity with every purchase. It’s easier to stomach fashion’s high prices when in includes philanthropy. Olivela, pronounced… ah - li- VAY – lah was started by a young woman who visited refugee camps in Kenya and Rwanda with Malala. Realizing that it was relatively inexpensive to fund school for young girls, and that an education could lift a young girl out of profound poverty, she saw her mission. On the website, every garment, accessory, and lipstick is priced as it would be elsewhere – you pay no extra for that Ray & Bone sweater – and the best part is each price is given the equivalent in how many school days it will finance. Monies go to more than the Malala Fund. A list of the charities is on their website.

5. My lemon zester. I have waxed earlier about my newfound love of spiking food with lemon zest. I confess I used to use a cheese grater to scrape the skin off lemons. Now I have a zester. How could I live this long without one? Don’t even say it.