The Daily Valet. - 11/24/21, Wednesday
✔️ Let’s Talk About the Parade
Wednesday, November 24th Edition
Wishing you and yours a very happy Thanksgiving.
Cory Ohlendorf , Editor ⋯ @coryohlendorf
↦ Our regularly scheduled newsletters return on Monday.
↦ But our team of editors will be collecting all the intel on the best Black Friday sales, and will send them to Daily Valet. subscribers over the holiday weekend.
Today’s Big Story
Let’s Talk About the Parade
Macy’s tradition has been largely restored, but how did this become a thing?
As the coronavirus surged in New York City last year, the typical fanfare of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade was downsized: The route shrank to a single block, participants were cut by several thousand people and the public was told to stay home.
This year, with the city reporting that more than 80% of adults are fully vaccinated, the parade is returning with all its helium-filled pomp and corporate-branded holiday cheer. This is actually the 95th annual celebration, but it’s not all cozy nostalgia—Macy’s just announced a rather modern publicity stunt: digital reproductions of some of the parade’s iconic Thanksgiving Parade floats will be auctioned off as NFTs.
Is this annoying because it feels predictable and capitalistic? Or because it means that thousands of young people will be forced to explain what NFTs are to confused family members? I’m not sure. But I can’t hate on it, because 100% of the proceeds going to the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
So let’s focus, instead, on the history of the parade. Because there are some interesting facts here you’ll be able to share at the Thanksgiving dinner table. Such as, the first parade took place in 1924 (but wasn’t nationally televised until 1947). It also used to end with the unveiling of the store’s Christmas windows. A holiday tradition, it has only been canceled three times—all due to World War II.
Today, typically 2 and 3 million people line the streets to watch the floats and balloons, which have been around almost since the beginning. But before the balloons, there were live zoo animals, paraded down Manhattan streets on loan from the Central Park Zoo.
Thankfully, it quickly became clear that that live zoo animals—who were often overwhelmed by the crowds as well as tired by the parade’s long route—did not make for the best parade participants. So oversized balloons became the go-to. And for the first few years, the balloons were allowed to float away at the end of the parade. Those who found them got a $100 gift certificate from Macy’s.
↦ FYI: Snoopy has appeared in the parade more than any other character—as everything from an aviator to an astronaut to an ice skater.
U.S. Fights Creeping Gas Prices
The government will release 50 million barrels of oil
President Joe Biden on Tuesday ordered a record 50 million barrels of oil released from America's strategic reserve, aiming to bring down gasoline and other costs, in coordination with other major energy consuming nations including India, the United Kingdom and China.
The U.S. action is focused on helping Americans coping with higher fuel and other prices ahead of Thanksgiving and winter holiday travel. Gasoline prices are at about $3.40 a gallon, more than 50% higher than a year ago, according to AAA.
Several environmentalist groups hailed Biden's actions as a way to ease Americans' energy burdens. But Kelly Sheehan, senior director of energy campaigns with the Sierra Club, said the current spike in oil prices was a reminder that “the only way to truly achieve energy security is to rapidly transition away from risky fossil fuels like oil and gas and make it easier for more people to access clean energy.”
And some analysts remain unconvinced. Stephen Schork, editor of the Schork Report, told CNBC that oil prices could climb even higher. Strategic petroleum reserves exist only to offset short-term, unexpected supply disruptions, he explained.
Smash-and-Grab
Why a slew of U.S. cities are facing a spree of brazen store robberies
You might be hearing about a wave of “smash-and-grab” crimes plaguing upscale stores in several U.S. cities. Typically it's a mob of thieves making off with expensive goods in brazen raids—in fact, one just happened near my home on Monday.
These robberies occur both at night and in broad daylight. They're happening across the country, and they're stealing a serious amount of goods—when over a dozen robbers barged into a Louis Vuitton store in suburban Chicago last week, they fled with more than $100,000 in handbags and other merchandise.
So what's going on? Security experts told CNN it's a mix of several factors. Organized crime rings are often behind these types of “smash-and-grab” operations and pay low-level criminals to steal for them, and the decriminalization of low-level offenses in many states means that criminals know that there is little consequence—especially if the thefts are kept below the threshold of a felony offense.
And typically, these kind of robberies increase around the holiday shopping season. Once items are stolen, there are several ways to sell them—all extremely easy and with little regulation and monitoring from authorities, one law enforcement official explained. Most items grabbed in such cases have no serial numbers, making tracing them almost impossible.
↦ FYI: As a result of these recent break-ins, many cities are installing more police in high-end shopping areas.
Antarctica by Private Jet
Airbus makes historic landing at new luxury adventure camp
Antarctic base camps have not normally been associated with comfort or luxury. But one South African tourism company has opened new temporary accommodations in the white continent's interior that would put Scott and Schackleton's tents to shame.
Launching this month, Wolf's Fang camp is in a part of Antarctica rarely seen by tourists. Guests stay in heated sleeping tents crafted from leather and canvas—a plush lounge tent prepares meals on a vintage prospector oven and serves drinks at an ice bar offering cocktails made from 10,000-year-old glacial ice.
Located due south of Cape Town, guests are flown via private charter on a Gulfstream jet. And earlier this month an Airbus A340 airliner made history when it landed on the continent, delivering supplies for the opening.
How do you land in a pristine polar locale? On a blue-ice runway, of course. “A glacial ice runway is hard,” the company's vice president told InsideHook. “Grooving is carved along the runway by special equipment, and after cleaning and carving we get an adequate braking coefficient; the runway being 3,000 meters long, landing and stopping isn't a problem.”
In Other News
Other Things We’re Talking About Today
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Navigate Family Tension Like a Champ
Here’s how to enjoy your Thanksgiving without a blowup
Thanksgiving should be a day of fun, food and familial inside jokes. Not about dodging trigger words or debating vaccines. But inevitably, someone will say something, sometime during this holiday weekend that will open the floodgate, unleashing a slew of eggshells on which you don't want to walk.
I'm pulling up this article from the Valet. archive that our writer Jordan Taylor wrote back in 2017—which now feels like a lifetime ago. But it still rings true.
It's full of useful intel on how to avoid ugly confrontations and how bring down the temperature of a heated conversation. Plus, there are some suggestions for board games you can play as well.
↦ Read: How to navigate Thanksgiving tension.
The Latest Pre-Black Friday Sales
↦ Madewell: 30% off sitewide w/code OHJOY
↦ rag & bone: 25% sitewide
↦ Uncrate Supply: 20% off nearly everything
↦ ASYSTEM: 25% sitewide w/code THANKS25
↦ Apple: Up to 40% off
↦ TRNK: 20% off select best-sellers
Partner
Upgrade Your Loungewear
There's no need to fee guilty about staying in your pajamas when they look this good. Embrace the slowness of the season and relax in style. Lahgo makes modern loungewear that's as luxurious as it is comfortable. From washable silk to cool, breathable pima cotton, their pieces are designed for style and engineered for ultimate comfort. Plus, for every $100 you spend over the holiday weekend, you'll receive $30 off your first purchase with the exclusive code FOR-VALET-30.
Cozy fleece pant, $148
Washable silk boxers, $88
↦ Shop the Sale: at Lahgo
↦ O.N.S: Up to 50% off select items
↦ adidas: Up to 50% off select items
↦ Mirror: Take $500 off, plus free delivery
↦ Kiehl's: 30% off sitewide
↦ Best Buy: Up to 50% off tech gear and small appliances
↦ Amazon: Up to 60% off select best-sellers
Partner
Grow Your Own Greens
Just because it's cold and dark out doesn't mean you can't grow fresh herbs and vegetables. AeroGarden's popular indoor gardens are designed to help you grow your own herbs, vegetables, salad greens or flowers quickly and easily in your home. They take all the guess work out of caring for a plant, ensuring you get a healthy (and tasty) harvest every time. And now you can get 20% off sitewide with code HOLIDAY20. Which means you can afford to buy one for yourself and grab another as a gift. There's as variety of options, depending on your needs or what you'd like to grow—no green thumb required.
Sprout 3-plant indoor garden, $99.95 / $69.95
Harvest 6-plant indoor garden, $149.95/ $89.95
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Harvest 360 round 6-plant indoor garden, $149.95 / $99.95
↦ Shop the Sale: at AeroGarden
↦ Olly: 20% off all pouches w/code CYBERPOUCH
↦ Sur la Table: Up to 65% off best-sellers
↦ Todd Snyder: 25% off sitewide w/code BLACKFRIDAY25
↦ Indochino: 10% off sitewide w/code CYBMON
↦ HAY: 15% off sitewide
↦ Onekind: Up to $30 off
Partner
Save on Quality Wardrobe Basics
Fresh Clean Tees is a brand with a solid reputation for just that—tees and other wardrobe basics that look and feel simple, but take a lot of work to get there. From a super-soft proprietary cotton-poly fabric to mastering the little things like how a collar lays or premium brushed nickel hardward on their hoodies, they know what they're doing. And best of all, over the holiday weekend you can save 25% off any purchase, making these affordable staples all the more easy to buy. What's more, if you spend over $100, that discount jumps to 35% off.
Crew neck T-shirts, $19 / $14.25
Best sellers 5-pack of T-shirts, $95 / $71.25
Wedgewood short-sleeve henley, $22 / $16.50
Garnet long-sleeve henley, $30 / $22.50
Zip-up hoodie, $48 / $36
↦ Shop the Sale: at Fresh Clean Tees
Morning Motto
Put in the effort to see what you have ...
↦ Follow: @scattering.inspiration
That’s all for today...
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