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And check out our sidebar to see what our NYC celebrities, Liz Smith, Gael Greene, Valerie Smaldone, and Arthur Schwartz are discussing this week. And we posted some very funny new videos at 3T.TV. Hey, we can all use a laugh.

How to be a Recessionista while still pampering yourself
There are luxuries in life we're willing to give up, and then there are the self-preserving necessities like manicures, pedicures, hair highlights, facials, and massages. So here are some great bargains we want to share with you. Right across Fifth Avenue from Lord & Taylor (which has its own great bargains these days), is an office building, where you will find Christine Valmy, an "international school of esthetics, makeup and nail artistry", which offers weekday facials for $27 ($38 on weekends and evenings). And they'll be adding manicures and pedicures soon too. You can also buy their line of skin care products.

At the Swedish Institute in Chelsea, you can buy a package of (6) one hour massages (available on Saturdays or Sundays) for $150, which is close to the price of a one hour massage at most spas in the city.

And you can get fabulous deals on hair cuts, color and other services at the Carsten Aveda Training Institute on E. 17th Street.   Haircuts are $17 and highlights start at $35. You should also know that many of the top salons in NYC, like John Frieda, Louis Licari, and Bumble and Bumble have salon training appointments with huge discounts too. Take a chance - your hair will grow back.

How to get free books and DVDs
Okay, so if you're like The Three Tomatoes and you love books and movies, here's a novel money saving tip. It's called the public library, and did you know they actually let you borrow these things for free? We have to confess, it's been a good 30 years since we last used a library card. (Do they still use the Dewey Decimal System?) And we're a little afraid of showing up because we think there might be a book or two we neglected to return, but it seems libraries are making a comeback in these belt tightening days.

Buzz Killers - Calories on the menu at the Palm
Speaking of belt tightening, we know our good Mayor Bloomberg doesn't want us to get obese so he decreed that calories must be posted in chain restaurants, which to us conjured up McDonalds and Burger Kings. So we were blown away recently when we went to the "original" Palm restaurant on Second Avenue (which is one of our three favorite steak places anywhere) and low and behold on the back of the menu are the calories.   You see, the Palm is a chain after all. And we must say knowing that the calorie count of our favorite T-bone steak and creamed spinach, is basically equivalent to the ideal caloric consumption of a family of four for an entire day, sure in heck took a lot of the fun out of it. Thank goodness they didn't list the calories in our dirty martini. And FYI, our other two favorite steak places are Benjamin's and The Capital Grille, and if there's one thing we know, it's our steaks and martinis. But from now on, we are not looking at the back of the menu. Not to mention we're supposed to be hunkering down and $40 plus steaks can buy a pedicure.

An Election Day Tale
Yes there were many. Here is ours.   For close to thirty years we have voted at the same place, a local elementary school.   You enter from the front of the school into a large vestibule where the PTA sells coffee and has a cake sale and you then proceed into the large gym which has four tables "organized", a term we use loosely, by where you live.   Now mind you, there have never been any signs that indicate what table you should go to (it's a trial and error thing), but they've always been in the same place, so we've always known the deal.   So here's what they did this year, which everyone predicted correctly would be the largest voter turnout in history. They moved the voting area into the lunch room which you have to enter from the side of the school. However, there were no signs indicating that until you reached the front door entrance. So we found our way to the lunch room which is half the size of the gym, to be confronted with chaos. There were four tables, one of which had a huge line of grumbling people, and then there were a bunch of other confused people like us, roaming around trying to figure out which table to go to. The well meaning election ladies seemed just as confused and were sending voters to the wrong tables, and truly not to be disparaging of our elders, (we'll be there soon enough) what we all wanted was deli speed checkout people, not lovely little church ladies. So memo to the people who set up the polling places. Signs would be a good thing and perhaps distributing the voter neighborhoods a little more equally might help congestion. And make some room for those PTA bake sales. Just a thought. At least we don't have hanging chads to deal with.

So here's to Happy Days are here again. Soon we hope.

'til next week,

The Three Tomatoes



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