Okay. We are now live. How about that? That's fun. [snorts] Hi gang. Coming to you live. We are live on Substack and we are also live on YouTube for today's installment of what I've come to affectionately call Han Solo. Um, and I'm just going to log in here so I can see you guys also on Substack. This is a freebie, this episode, which is also double fun. Northern California's in the house. How are you, Betty Chandler? And no word from the YouTube community yet, but nonetheless all fine. It is Tuesday, May 12th. It is a gorgeous day here in New York City. Um, I've had a pretty good day here at home with the puppy dog. I do like, I am a little spoiled.
Yeah, first of all, I never like, unless there's payment involved, one does not get me out of the house, like away from the dog, until after 12:00 noon, really. No, I don't. I've talked about this before. When somebody wants to meet for breakfast, no. I mean, there are exceptions, like if it's the one chance I get to see someone and if they're in town for a very tight window of time, sure. I will come and meet you for breakfast if I'm not going to see you for like a year or something. Uh, the other exception is if there is some really good money involved, but until then I am unavailable to the outside world until noon or after. No, just not going to do it. So I am enjoying my mornings with baby girl. And I enjoyed my mornings with Smokey as well. It's just my favorite. Ontario's in the house. Hi. Uh, and Rory Kelch. All right, we got some usual suspects. Usual suspects.
Um, so, I love my mornings and it usually is, of course, as you know, the coffee. I take my, um, uh, uh, I take my, is it B12? And a Lipitor. I take a B12, I take a Lipitor, I take an antidepressant, and then, uh, coffee, a ton of water. Sometimes I'll indulge in a little sparkling, which I'm going to do now. Sparkling is my non-alcoholic martini, really, because it's clean and pure, like a good vodka or gin should be. Although, I think vodka's cleaner than gin, isn't it? I haven't had a drink in nearly a quarter century, so. Mhm.
Speaking of martinis and, um, gin versus vodka, I came across this really fun article today, which I will put in the show notes in the Substack edition of this episode, but I came across this piece, excuse me, in Wallpaper about best spots. Wallpaper's a magazine, for those of you who don't know. Uh, I think it was started by Tyler Brûlé, who moved on to create Monocle, if I understand the chain of events correctly. Um, I like Wallpaper. I love Monocle. Like, Monocle is such a great resource for international things, all things culture, design, a little bit of politics, um, uh, urban life, you know, there's some luxury in there, some automotive, but Monocle, really, it's, I got, I'm not sure what I would say Monocle is in an elevator pitch, other than the fact that I happily subscribe digitally and I enjoy their audio offerings. There's a Monocle radio station and they've got podcasts. Anyway, I digress. Jesus, George.
Wallpaper magazine was created by the same guy who created Monocle, Tyler Brûlé. And I don't know who runs Wallpaper now. I don't really care. But they do some, you know, interesting stuff now and then, fluffy stuff. And a great piece today called, the literal title of the piece is, The Very Best Spots for a New York Happy Meal. What, you ask, is a New York happy meal? A New York happy meal, for those of you who don't know, for the drinkers among us, is an ice cold martini and piping hot french fries. So, if you're going for the OG martini, like a real one, that is going to be gin. Hopefully you're springing for a good one. Or when I was a drinking person, I was a vodka martini drinker. And yeah, and then you want really crispy hot fries with some ketchup, maybe some mayo if you're feeling nasty. Some people don't mind dipping their fries in, um, mustard. I get it. Um, and maybe a little caviar if you're really over the top.
Fran McTamney, look at this, you guys. For those of you watching on YouTube or Substack, you can see on the screen that my dear friend Fran is watching via YouTube and threw some tip money in the jar. Thank you, my dear. So generous of you. Um, so yeah, I was, I had forgotten about this term. We used to say it all the time, but I had forgotten about it. It's kind of like a little bit of a throwback for me to see this term New York Happy Meal. Um, and now some of my favorite places, it was nice to see on this list, um, some of my favorite places, um, Balthazar, Raoul's, Raoul's, The Odeon, and then they added some new ones, um, ah.
Mr. Walker, look at this. And why she should make you try mayo with fries. No, I don't mind mayo with, I occasionally, I don't mind mayo with fries. I know it sounds gross, but yeah, just hear me out on that one or try it out. I know it sounds counterintuitive. It's not a regular thing, by the way. No, just a little touch of it every once in a while. Um, but there were some newish places that were in this list that I've not been to. I've not been to Raoul's, I have not been to Shay Fifi, um, and I've yet to go to the 86. Um, I, you know, Dean Ram, uh, the owner and who, a guy who runs that restaurant group, they also have the Corner Store on Houston and West Broadway, one of my favorites. But they also have, uh, the 86, which used to be where Chumley's was and enjoyed a very brief tenure as a place called The Frog or something like that. Anyway, I don't know. Anyway, thank you guys for your generosity with the gratuities there.
Um, Balthazar's on the list, the 86 I've not been to. Raoul's, uh, which is down on Elizabeth Street, La Rock, which is in Rockefeller Center, chic place. If you're ever in 30 Rock and you're looking for a really great sexy French dinner, you want to go to La Rock. It's fantastic. It's from the people who brought us Frenchette, which is down in TriBeCa. Raoul's, old New York standby, legend, an institution, goes back to 1975, I think. Uh, the Lobby Bar at the Hotel Chelsea, a favorite of mine. Chateau Royale, that's new to me. So, I have to try that out. Chateau Royale. The Odeon, big favorite. Uh, Sloane's down on Thompson Street, never been. Um, Corner Bar, also never been. Anyway, this list about the best spots in New York for the New York happy meal, agreed. I like this list. I might add Cafe Luxembourg to this list. I might also add, oh, there's no bar at La Goulette, which sucks. But, I love La Goulette. Um, I'm wondering, I might add Minetta Tavern to that, although there's a lot of Keith McNally representation on this list already. I'll have to think about it. I'll have to think about it.
So, for a New York martini for a non-drinker, what would I do? My non-alcoholic New York happy hour, rather, uh, would be a San Pellegrino or a Saratoga or a Perrier, whatever. See? Um, and a Diet Coke, or a Diet Coke, I should say. Those are my favorite things to drink when going out. A Shirley Temple every once in a while. Um, although I'm just trying to watch the sugar. Shirley Temple's got a lot of sugar in it. Mhm. But, cuz that grenadine. [snorts] But, uh, it's usually a San Pellegrino with a slice of lemon. Not a lime. Um, or a Diet Coke with the fries. That's my non-drinkers, um, my sober person, or just if someone's taking a break from the drinking, um, New York happy meal. And you get that with, and you get your fries. Love it.
And I also like, this is something I've only noticed in the last 10 years, where fries are served in a silver cup, you know, lined with like wax paper or parchment paper. That's a newish thing that you didn't see. You used to just get fries on a plate or in a bowl, but not anymore. But it's actually more civilized, I would say. So, I'm going to a place, I'm going to dinner tonight and we're certainly going to have fries for the table. No question at all. Good ginger ale, Jody Shepston likes to add here. Um, love the print directly behind me. Oh, do you mean Michael Caine? I love Michael Caine. Truffle fries. Um, sure. Truffle fries are so specific, though. I like bare naked regular fries, just throw a little, um, sea salt on them. That's my personal preference. Truffle fries, there's also a lot of, when you, when you, when you have fries that have something added to them like Cajun fries or, God, disco fries, that's for a specific hunger. Um, uh, mm, no. I kind of like my fries. I prefer them to be clean and pure and then add ketchup or mayo or mustard, whatever your jam. Yeah. So, there. Onion rings? Nah. This is a fries thing. That's a different happy meal. Yeah.
And also, I think bars should have the New York happy meal on the menu. That'd be a cute thing to have. Might be a cute thing to have on a menu in restaurants that are not in New York, like in Cleveland. Have a New York happy meal. And, and just make it a martini or, uh, or a sparkling water, a bottle of sparkling water for the non-drinker. And, um, fries. Yeah. That's great. Cuz who doesn't love that after work? It's not a full dinner. It's a little appetizer. And if you're there with someone or by yourself, but it's a really nice thing shared between two people, the fries that is, not the martini. And, or, but you can share a bottle of sparkling water. If you're both not drinking, um, yeah. Am I breaking this up? I mean, am I really digging into this too hard? I don't care. It's so delicious. So, that was nice. And I will put the links to that into the notes for this episode on Substack.
Another thing I wanted to share with you, sexy people. I'm seeing, I'm watching, I have two episodes left of this. You know, sometimes when I'm skipping around streaming services and I'm wondering what to watch, and like all of us, I will just see something. I'll look at the trailer for something and just collapse into it. No agenda, really. And I just fell into this show the other night called Legends. Can you hear the siren outside? That is real-life New York audio, ladies and gentlemen. That is the sound of my beautiful city. And that is an ambulance. Um, Legends is a limited six-episode series on Netflix based on a true story about customs agents, uh, going undercover to infiltrate Britain's most dangerous drug gangs. Following a thrilling criminal investigation based on extensive research and interviews with those involved in the top-secret operation.
It's a fun, it's, it's, there's some dark comedy in it, but it's also quite serious. It's that kind of thing like, like American Gangster or, you know, any of these, these, these, uh, uh, law enforcement stories where someone goes deep undercover and so there's that tension and there's that danger where the cop or the, uh, agent can get killed, um, because their cover could be blown or whatever they're, you know, whatever they're chasing in these movies about, you know, drug dealers or arms dealers, whatever. So, [snorts] uh, Legends, the title, comes from the life of the undercover persona. So, say I am one of these customs officers and I go undercover and I have to come up with, you know, a, you know, a background, where I was born, who are my parents, where did I go to school, where was I raised? I mean, it goes, it gets deep. Like, it's a deep, whole different life that you have to build for yourself because it's got to be convincing and deep, as deep as your own life, really. And that other persona that you put on, that's called your legend. That is your legend. So, it's these four or five agents, if you will, four I think it is. Five, I take it back. And Steve Coogan sort of runs them.
Um, uh, because there is a real drug outbreak problem coming from the late, you know, coming into the '80s into the late '80s and early '90s and Margaret Thatcher is not having it. It's a real problem in the UK. So, this little sort of covert, you know, impossible mission, uh, uh, the IMF, it's kind of what it's like because it doesn't officially exist, this little group of sub-agents. Anyway, it's great. It's called Legends. It's on Netflix. I'm four episodes in. There are six altogether. It's a fun show. It's a fun show. Um, going to catch it, so let me see some comments here. Tom Burke, love Tom Burke. Sounds good.
Let's see, Stu, Steve Coogan. I love Steve Coogan. Steve Coogan has officially entered his milf phase and I'm into it. Steve Coogan is looking good. My personal crush in the show, and it's, you know, it's an odd choice, is kind of Alex Jennings who plays the home secretary. Um, he was also in, uh, Mob Land with Tom Hardy, Pierce Brosnan, Helen Mirren, that wonderful show on Paramount Plus. Good God. And yeah, Alex Jennings. I, I think he's, uh, yeah, he's a handsome fellow. But I'm really enjoying Steve Coogan in this show. Six episodes. They're each an hour long. It's a good, it's a good Netflix series. So get into that.
And then finally, the last thing we're going to touch upon here in this installment of Han [snorts] Solo is, uh, let's see, someone asked me if I finished Daredevil Born Again. Um, Bill Kelly, sorry. I, I apologize, Bill Kelly. Bill Kelly was, I was watching me on YouTube and was kind enough to, Bill, I'm so sorry. It's so hard sometimes to remember who's what with the aliases. I apologize. Anyway, um, there is today, and I listened to the audio version of it because it was very, I would, narrated by a very good reader, by the way, for the New York Times. Um, an article in the New York Times on testosterone and why men are so obsessed with testosterone. I want to see maybe if I can pull up this piece that was in the Times and recall the title of it. Yeah, here we go. Um, it is called Why So Many Men Are Obsessed with Testosterone. It is a long read published today. The audio version is over 45 minutes long. Uh, written by Azam Ghorayshi, who covers science and culture for the Times.
Uh, and for this article, she interviewed a senior Trump administration health official, urologists, and endocrinologists, and 14 men taking testosterone. It was a fascinating peek, uh, into that whole thing. And, you know, the culture of masculinity and testosterone and the waning of testosterone. Some people call that aging. Um, but it just, I, listening to these stories and quotes from people she sourced for this article, just, I, my, my, my sort of perpetual question over the past, I would say, decade is, are men okay? Really? Are you guys, like, are you guys okay? You know, we're not accepting, you know, the natural course of things. We're refusing to accept the natural course of things. It's very strange. Anyway, um, there, there are guys outside my window. They're my, the, the facade of my building is being fixed and they're literally guys like going up and down literally outside my window. So, if you hear other voices speaking not far, that, and Lenore barking cuz she's been freaking out, understandably. Anyway, um, so, yeah, are men okay? Because they really just seem to be freaking out about their standing in society, their inability to make, like, this, just this, this, this men struggling moment that we're in. Scott Galloway talks about it. He wrote a whole book on it. Um, Notes on Being a Man. Another book I would recommend is Glenn O'Brien's book How to Be a Man, which was fascinating cuz Glenn goes into manners, how to dress, how to take care of, like, having a cool home or apartment, all of that. You know, men gets in, Glenn got into more style aspects of it. His book came out about 15 years ago. This guy's literally outside my window. That is hilarious. So, anyway. Um, yeah, the, the, the, the, speaking of the waning of strength, virility, and masculinity, I was reminded of this really good 2018 documentary called The Game Changers. Some of you may have seen it. I'm going to find it on IMDb here.
Um, The Game Changers was produced by Schwarzenegger. I also want to say that, uh, um, uh, Jim Cameron had a hand in it as well. But, The Game Changers, uh, is about strength and performance on plant-based diets versus animal/meat diets. And, uh, it also goes into sexual performance. Um, interestingly, the meat myth and what we've been told about meat as the definitive protein source and it's what, like, real men eat meat, um, might not be the power source that we've been led to believe it is, and I can't recommend that movie enough. It's very well done, The Game Changers. And as I sit here talking about it with you, um, is, I'm wondering, you know, should I watch it again because I so enjoyed the film and I found it so worthwhile. Yeah, The Game Changers follows a UFC fighter's world as it's turned upside down when he discovers an elite group of world-renowned athletes and scientists who prove that everything that he had been taught about protein was a lie. It was directed by Louie, um, Psihoyos, I think I'm pronouncing that right. Schwarzenegger was a producer in it, Jim Cameron also. And the guy, the guy it follows on this journey is a guy named James Wilks.
[snorts] And it was a fascinating book, but it also got into, which is a thing with guys on testosterone therapy, testosterone replacement therapy, um, about their sort of virility, their, their sperm count, their ability to hang on to a boner, all of that. Um, they covered that in The Game Changers and did this fascinating, you'll see it in the movie, uh, sort of side anecdote with these athletes testing their, and I'm not, I don't want to give away how they do it, but, and how they, um, uh, run this test, but, um, going into their sexual virility, um, on a plant-based diet versus the other guys who are on a meat-based diet. And I will, I'm just going to spoil this for you right now. The guys on the plant-based diet getting their protein source through plant as opposed to animal meats, um, the plant-based guys performed better, had a more rigid hard-on, like all of that, you know. Um, which makes me wonder, is there something in terms of the way meats are raised and what's injected to them and into them and, you know, chemically what goes into our food that may affect testosterone and sperm counts. Plants seem to not, I don't know. Anyway, I've been largely plant-based, not exclusively, as I often call myself, um, vegan adjacent, and feeling pretty damn good on, you know.
I had a meeting with a cardiologist about a month ago and he himself is a vegan and made some really smart suggestions, didn't put any, these guys are literally outside my window, didn't make any mandates for me. Um, but, um, you know, he, he made some suggestions that made a lot of sense and as someone who has, hm, indulged somewhat inconsistently in a plant-based lifestyle, um, I don't find it hard. Like, I think going plant-based is easier than ever. Is it the only way? No, but, like, am I going to have meat when I go out tonight? Possibly. Um, I don't know. I might have the veggie burger I've had before at this place and it's quite tasty. So, we'll see. Anyway, um, check out that story on testosterone if you are a man yourself or if you're a woman who has men in your life, I think you'll find it worthwhile. I will put links to all of these things in the notes for today's little episode here. But anyway, that is it.
Uh, easy in summer to be plant-based, says Jenny Blitz. Yeah. Might be. Uh, I want to check in with, let's see, produced by Arnold and Jackie Chan. Yes, that movie. Jim Halpert, you've seen it. Um, Jim Halpert says, 'Testosterone replacement often misused and overused.' Correct, cuz you can get that online, uh, without a prescription. And that's not the way to do it. Gladiators were vegan, fact, or at least vegetarian. They can tell from their bones. Yeah, that's also true. And watching these elite, these elite athletes perform, these elite plant-based, uh, perform with a plant-based diet. Uh, whether it's endurance or strength, it's amazing how they perform. And I'm, you know, if a doctor said, if my cardiologist said, 'Listen, um, I'm really suggesting you go off meat,' um, I would be so plant-based, I would be all up in beans. I love a bean salad. I had beans, quinoa, and sweet potatoes last night. I talk about that all the time, my Dan Buettner dinner, which is beans, black beans, sweet potatoes, avocado, and over either rice or quinoa. Last night I made quinoa. I mean, fabulous. It's so good. I could have that every goddamn night. No problem. So, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Um, someone here says, 'I worry about the pesticides in our vegetables.' You know what? I worry more about what the beef gets injected with. Like, everywhere there's a problem. Everyone, I worry about this or worry about that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I get it. Uh, if you can get organic, great. Yeah. Organic is the way to go. So, um, that's it for this episode. I hope everyone's doing all right. Um, I watched Kara Swisher on Gwyneth Paltrow's Goop podcast. Gwyneth is really good at it. I really sort of, I'm a fan. Good for her. I love this sort of new chapter in her life and she's kind of, you know, running with it. Go for it, girl. We are getting a Goop kitchen here on the Upper West Side soon. It's going to be on Amsterdam and 77th, I want to say. Um, so, coming soon. I just saw the storefront riding up Amsterdam on my bicycle the other day. But, um, I noticed that on Gwyneth's show, there's no intro music. It's just literally, I thought I was missing or I, like, jumped ahead or something like that, but no. On YouTube, Gwyneth's podcast, the Goop podcast, it's literally just go right into the conversation. There's no end credits, there's no opening, like, like theme song. No, they just go right into it. And I thought that was incredibly refreshing. So, I'm going to take, I'm going to steal a page from that book and do the thing.
Um, and that's it for now. So, anyway, thank you guys for tuning in. I want to thank everybody who is subscribing on Substack, especially those of you who are paid subscribers on Substack. Thank you, thank you, thank you. And, um, that's it. So, Meg Mulholland says, 'Any chance you do a how-to on that meal?' No, I don't want to do a cooking show. I don't want to do a cooking show. No, plus my kitchen's ugly and I don't want to show off my kitchen. If I had a better kitchen, I would. If I had a better place to shoot, um, a kitchen, yeah, but my kitchen sucks and you're not seeing it and you have no say in the matter. Um, and that's it. All right, but thanks for asking. I really appreciate it. [laughter] All right, guys. I'll talk to you later. Thanks for watching. Bye.
Mhm.
