Category — The Good Life

Ivins Spiced Wafers

If it’s autumn and I have visited my hometown, then it’s a good chance I’ve returned with no less than four boxes of Ivins Spiced Wafers.  Ivins (and their lesser counterpart, Sweetzels) are the one treat I used to get in Philadelphia that is still not available in North Carolina.  They are hard to get because they are only produced for a few months between June and December and because they are available only at ACME grocery stores (aka “Ack a Mee” ref link ).  Ivins are easy to find once you enter the ACME because of the black and roadsign orange box.

Ivins have been part of my memory of autumn for years.  They are spiced with ginger and nutmeg and cinnamon.  They are practically autumn in a cookie.  When I taste these cookies, I know it’s almost the end of the year, and I can vaguely smell the warm aroma of roasting turkey, feel the chill of a crisp, woodsmoke tinged, Pennsylvania-autumn evening, and faintly hear the shake of sleigh bells approaching.

The Parker 96R

If you’re fed up with cheapo plastic value razors and the highway robbery of cartridge razors, read The Art of Manliness post How To Shave Like Your Grandpa.

I had been using a shaving brush on and off for some time, but I didn’t know what I was missing until I started using a safety razor.  I received a Parker 96R as a gift from my fine lady and it shaves differently and, quite frankly, better than anything I am used to.