E16: 💰Prime Picks, How to Nap

Plus: The right way to hydrate, an astrology-themed bar & German 'smooch cabins'

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The Skinny Newsdesk
July 17, 2024

Happy National Hot Dog Day! Let’s get to today’s serving of snackable news. For anyone new here: this is The Skinny, which saves you time by serving up curated, need-to-know items designed to entertain, and inspire a better (and more informed) day/week/life. What we’re covering:

  • You’ve been drinking water all wrong, and here’s how to properly hydrate during the heatwave (and always)

  • Because our history with hot dogs runs deep, we have a highbrow hot dog giveaway to celebrate National Hot Dog Day

  • Travel sanity tips, plus all the latest trends—from "raw dogging” to why your suitcase needs a bath

  • Editors’ picks for last-minute Prime shopping, designed to save you time (and money)  

  • Caffeine + napping sounds counterintuitive, but after this nap hack you’ll be on board

  • In the news: an NYC astrology-themed bar, German “smooch cabins” and a recipe for cult-fave Japanese 7-11 egg salad sandwich

If you have friends who would love The Skinny or some of this week’s edition, we’d be forever grateful if you forwarded this email. And if someone already in the know sent this, you can subscribe here.

It’s hot

Stay thirsty, my friends

Yes, this can help with hydration! Photo by Polina Tankilevitch for Pexels

The Skinny: Meaning…stay thirsty for hydration knowledge. Forget everything you thought you knew about drinking water! The H2O police are out in full force on the socials during the heatwave, and we’ve picked up a couple of hot tips along the way. First, while there can’t be anything inherently “bad” about striving to drink 8 glasses a day, some of the pundits are saying that this long standing advice is not rooted in science. 

If you want to don a lab coat and get into the chemistry of why, read this awesome Twitter thread. It also outlines DIY alternatives to sugary electrolyte drinks, including a honey concoction, lemon + sea salt (see below) and even pickles in brine. We also love that apparently saunas in Norway have little bowls of dried apricots outside of them for instant hydration. Very cool. 

Also of note: It turns out that even slight dehydration can have negative effects on your mood and mental clarity. For this reason, we’ve been drinking a mix-your-own electrolyte drink in the morning (lately it’s been Protekt – but only the watermelon flavor) or DIYing one by: 

  • Squeezing a wedge of lemon in a glass;

  • Mixing in a 1⁄2 teaspoon of Spicewell New Salt so it starts to dissolve;

  • Filling with water and drinking

For those who don’t like the salt water taste, here is an easier hack using a simple pinch of sea salt on your tongue. We can report that this has resulted in supercharged morning energy and mood – give it a try! You can also check out this list of high electrolyte foods.

Dog days of summer GIVEAWAY  

Happy National Hot Dog Day

Photos courtesy of Tulusa, Slawsa & Olympia Provisions (image by AJ Meeker)

Yes, it’s National Hot Dog Day and we invite you to celebrate with our Giveaway – curated to provide you with a highbrow hot dog experience that only The Skinny can deliver. 

Our love of hot dogs runs deep: from Nicole’s storied career as the college hot dog girl – fearlessly staffing the cart at the CU-Boulder quad, to our friend Tom’s childhood stardom in one of the OG Oscar Meyer ads, and finally Jill’s BU thesis paper on the best MLB stadium dogs. So it’s safe to say, we love our dogs. We’ll eat one in the early morning with no shame – hungover at ORD – and will seek out the best of the best wherever we are (with one of our faves being Mustard’s Last Stand in Boulder). All in all, the beauty of the hot dog is its ability to satisfy in either complete simplicity, or with any number of unique, and infinitely complex, topping combinations. Now, let’s [hot diggity] dig into the giveaway details: 

WHAT YOU’LL WIN: 

🏆Your choice of two jars of Slawsa, which is the like-you’ve-never-seen topping that everyone’s hot dog needs now. Is it kraut, is it relish, is it salsa (or is it a little bit of all three)? Fresh, sweet, and a little tart: As they say, it’s slawesome.

🍽️ Two sets of picnic-ready, handmade linen napkins from our incredibly talented friends at Tulusa. This 4-pack of  heirloom linen napkins feature a cross-hatch pattern created by handmade block print, and are – dare we say – the most perfect hot dog colors ever.

🌭Three packs of Olympia Provisions Frankfurters (4 dogs per pack), which are the gold standard in hot dogs. with a foot-long/over-the-bun hang and reviews that also go beyond the bun (“Bottom Line: Literally the best hot dog I’ve tasted in my life. Period. Final answer”). Made of pure pork shoulder and a natural lamb casing, and smoked with hickory and applewood.

Only one rule: no ketchup. 

HOW TO ENTER: 

✔️Follow all these accounts on Instagram: @theskinnynews, @slawsa, @olympiaprovisions, @tulusa.goods  

✔️Tag a friend who loves hot dogs as much as you do (each tag is a separate/additional entry) 

✔️For an extra entry, subscribe to The Skinny free newsletter by clicking here 

Giveaway ends on 7/24/24 at 11:59 pm PST, and is only available  to U.S. residents (we can only ship to U.S. residents). One winner, who must meet the criteria above,  will be randomly selected. We will email or DM the winner and request only an address for shipping, NOT any credit card information. We will handle costs of shipping. By entering your email for the giveaway, participants agree to consent to potentially receiving email newsletters from partner brands (Slawsa, The Skinny, Olympia Provisions, and Tulusa), and can opt out at any time.

Safety first

Airline travel sanity tips

Photo by Suhyeon Choi on Unsplash

The Skinny: âœˆď¸ The travel nurse is IN. Summer 2024 travel…will airports be busy? Yes. WIll flights be delayed? Yup. Will air travel be expensive? Also, yes! Regardless, Americans are traveling in record numbers this summer – up over 6% from summer 2023. We’ve been fighting for our share of armrest space a few times already since Memorial Day Weekend and here are our tips for airline sanity.  

How to feel human on the plane, especially a long haul:

  • Face/body wipes for a quick refresh. We just discovered (and enjoyed) these shower wipes 

  • Spritz your face and use hand lotion 

  • Stash a toothbrush/paste in your bag and brush your teeth upon arrival 

  • Be generous with the lip balm 

  • Bring some of your own food/snacks to help you say no to airplane food

  • Carry a full water bottle (Jill’s  new fave bottle is not a Stanley! But here is a great version if you must have a Stanley, just add some electrolytes. See our water item…) 

  • Read up on something that always interested you that you didn't have time for at home, or do a puzzle

Travel trend alerts 🚨

Some trailblazing travelers have found solace in the meditative practice of Rawdogging the whole damn flight, where the only distration allowed is the plane tracker map. And here’s the headline you’re waiting for:  “Men are Rawdogging Flights, and God, Help Us.” Despite what you’ve heard before, in  2024 “rawdogging a flight” is sitting through a long-haul flight with zero entertainment, save staring at the blank screen ahead. Whatever gets you through. 

Do you clean your luggage after a trip? Well, we did not, and after stumbling onto the always great Rick Steves forum, we are planning to start. 

Last-minute shopping

How to Prime Day, Skinny-Style (and how not to)

Photo by Bruno Kelzer on Unsplash

The Skinny: We LOVE a deal, and we love convenience. So, naturally, we are all for Prime Day! As always, we’re here to help you not waste your most precious resource, time. At your service to make your life easier, here are a couple tips if you’re shopping Prime today. 

  1. Try to buy what you NEED and items you’ve been wanting to buy and TRY to avoid impulse items whenever possible 

  2. Don’t fall for gimmicky kitchen items, like these eight gadgets that “are a complete waste of money” (co-written by Nicole) 

  3. TRY to be practical – that’s what these curated lists are for

Now, for our Editors’ Picks: we combed through the lists to save your brain for the higher good, and here is the curated list of items that we love, and for you to consider.

Kitchen Staples

Build a Better Bar

Snacks and, building a better pantry!

All Star Beauty

Audio/Tech 

The Skinny’s Take on Prime  

Because we always promise honesty, Nicole is testing out not renewing her Prime membership and, where Jill lives, pointing out that Prime takes 7-9 days to deliver. But we do appreciate that what Prime is great at is selling the value of time and convenience. Even anti-Primer Nicole shops on Amazon when she needs to, but here’s how she does it: 

  • Never pays for shipping. You can always find something else you need to reach the threshold to ship for free. You just can’t expect it to arrive next day (which is tough for her since she likes to roll late and last-minute)

  • Checks to  find the item elsewhere, for less. With some exceptions, you can almost always price match, or find it cheaper, somewhere else (most often, at Walmart or Target, or on manufacturer’s DTC

OHM, THERE'S MORE

This week’s newsfeed

  • Align the stars with your drinking thanks to this new astrology-themed bar in NYC. In other news, this NYC club reportedly denied admission to those born under this Zodiac sign (unverified report, but entertaining nonetheless) 

  • C’est vrai…the “summer camp for women” in the south of France does in fact exist 

  • While we’re in Europe, and because we love the idea of meeting mysterious strangers while riding the rails, Germany unveiled “smooch cabins” in some of their new trains 

  • Coffee nap life hack: If you’re tired, drink a cup of coffee and lay down for a 15-30 minute nap. After your nap, you will be recharged and be more energetic. Just don’t sleep for more than 30 minutes, or you’ll negate the whole purpose and wake up more tired than before. These 20-minute power naps (also known as a “disco nap” if you’re doing it right before a big night out) work and we do them at least 3 times a week

  • Join us in a quick culinary trip to Japan, courtesy of our IG feed: We present the 7-11 egg salad sandwich (according to them, “one of the best things you will eat in Japan”); the art of the miniature sandwich; and finally the “game-changing” way they make iced coffee in Japan 

*If you purchase something linked in The Skinny, we may get an affiliate commission—but at no additional cost to you.

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