If the title suggests another worthy period drama, then the sight of a naked teen heart-throb (Leto) scrabbling around some schoolgirl’s front lawn in search of his Y-fronts should soon assuage any doubts. For this is far less a tale of battling feudal clans than a gentle coming-of-age comedy, a lesson in how to survive the summer before A-level results unscathed. It’s 1977 Dublin, and the only member of his family that Frankie Griffin (Leto) can tolerate is Noely, his brain-damaged little brother. Said state of family affairs is due largely to Frankie having two over-emotional parents: Gabriel Byrne is a part-time father and full-time actor; and his mother (O’Hara) the real head of the household, a mad drama queen. Convinced his world is going to end with his exam results, Frankie tries to arrange a party where he can seduce one of his school’s most gorgeous girls. Unfortunately, the fact that Frankie would in real life have to beat off girls with a stick escapes everyone but Ricci, who, in a brief but amusing appearance as an American cousin, goes straight for the guy’s zipper. The cameos from her, Colm Meany as a lascivious MP and Stephen Rea as a loquacious cabby are so good they are in danger of overshadowing the rest of the film. Which means that although Leto’s mercifully accurate Dublin brogue and good looks should please fans of his cult American TV show My So-Called Life, the film around him is somewhat lightweight.
Your bag shouldn’t press uncomfortably into your back or hips, and you should be able to lift it into an overhead bin or a high shelf without it flopping all over the place, which can happen with longer duffels with soft bottoms. Does it have good organizational features? Packing cubes are great, but ideally, a good duffel bag should make packing and organizing your stuff easy without them. When it comes to pockets, “nothing is superfluous,” Lynch says. Look for “places to put your phone and other things that you need right away on the outside of the bag, and an inside pocket for either your laptop or other items, and enough room to store your clothing and toiletries without fear of any spillage.” Our favorite duffel bags have several clever, useful pockets for stashing items such as shoes, a smartphone, a water bottle, and dirty laundry. Does it come with a good warranty, return policy, and repair policy? When you’re spending $150-plus on a bag, it should last for years-and if it doesn’t, the company that made it should do something about that.
This isn’t a possibility for countless folks who don’t have easy access to good in-person retail stores, especially when we’re still in the midst of a pandemic that is hitting some areas notably harder than others. The store associate was helpful, but I wanted to know how to shop for a coat should I eventually decide to do it on my own. So I did what I do best: a lot of research. A lot of interviews. And a lot of looking at coats of all stripes. Are you an urban commuter in New England? A parent in Seattle who needs the right jacket for overseeing soccer practice? A Chicagoan bird watcher? We’re here to break down what makes a powerful coat so you can withstand the elements outside. Down seems, at least to me, like an eternal technology-we’ve been eating birds for millennia, so it seemed to follow that we’d be wearing them for millennia, too.
According to NSF, a product testing, inspection, and certification organization based in Michigan, the toothbrush holder is the third-germiest spot in the home. If it’s dishwasher-safe, just pop it in with a load of your dishes. If not, hand-wash it with hot soapy water, rinse it, and wipe it with a disinfecting wipe. If your manual toothbrush’s bristles are frayed, or it has been in use for several months, use it as a handy scrubber to clean grout and various crevices in your bathroom and elsewhere. If you use an electric toothbrush, give the base a scrub and wipe down the charging stand too. Bonus: Clean your actual toothbrush. If you have a manual toothbrush that you’ve owned for a while and the bristles have softened or frayed, it might make sense to simply replace it. You can do the same for brush heads on electric models. As a multimedia content creator at Consumer Reports, Perry Santanachote covered a range of trends-from parasite cleanses to pickleball paddles. Perry was also a main producer of our Outside the Labs content, evaluating products in her tiny Manhattan apartment.
2. Hands – mittens are warmer that gloves because you don’t contend with the curvature problem described above. Also the fingers tend to keep each other warm, rather than being isolated as in gloves. It is useful to have an inner mitten with an outer shell to give you layering capabilities. Also “idiot strings” are important to keep you from losing mittens in the snow. However, gloves are always essential as well in winter because of the need for dexterity in various operations. 3. Feet – finding the right footgear depends a great deal on the activity you are involved in as well as temperature and environment. The two general modes of travel are skiing or snowshoeing (in areas with only a few inches of snow you can hike in just boots). Cross-country skiing – you need a boot that has some ankle support due to the extra weight of a backpack.