Howdy friends from your Internet pal Nick Gray, author of The 2-Hour Cocktail Party and Founder of Museum Hack.

In this issue: 15 Prime Day deals on stuff I actually bought (chargers, a great TV, skincare, supplements, and more), an essay that made me grateful for what I have, and why Americans stopped throwing dinner parties. Most of the Amazon deals end tonight.

Random Interesting Links

Thought-provoking articles that I've read recently:

🏠 Ordinary Abundance — Edward Bellamy once imagined that music on demand would be “the limit of human felicity.” A modern apartment is full of things that once drew the same kind of awe, via Sam Rose: “This might be the most beautiful thing I’ve read in my life. What a privilege to be alive in 2026.”

📖 The Good Life: Lessons from the World’s Longest Scientific Study of Happiness — Recommended by Sarah Rogers, a reader from Wisconsin. The Harvard Study of Adult Development has tracked people for over 80 years. This book distills what they found about what actually makes a good life.

🍽️ Why Americans Stopped Throwing Dinner Parties — The Atlantic on why fewer Americans host dinner parties at home, via Araminta Andersson.

🐜 What’s Earth’s dominant species by mass? — You’ve heard all the ants weigh as much as all the humans. Not true: we outweigh them five to one. Cattle beat us, sugar cane beats cattle, and then one tree beats everything. 

Amazon Prime Day Deals I Actually Bought

I actually purchased all these items (with my own money!) in the past year. Amazon's Prime Big Deal Days ends tonight, Wed Oct 7. These sales are sometimes a scam- companies inflate prices, then cut them for a fake sale. But I don't care. I'm telling you that I bought these products and I like them enough to recommend them to my friends, whether they're on fake sale or not. If you click and buy, Amazon gives me a small commission which I will use to buy more salty pretzels and phone chargers.

Power & Electronics

 

🔌 Baseus USB-C 6ft Retractable Cable — $16.79 $20.99 (20% off). Best price I’ve seen on the long 6-foot version. This is one of my favorite gadgets. I think Matt Mullenweg from WordPress showed me these originally. I have purchased many for friends and family as little leave-behind gifts. No more tangled cords.

🔌 Anker Nano 30W USB-C Charger — $12.79 $15.99 (20% off) I just bought 2 more of these. It's a great small charger, but that's easy. What's special is that it is 30W (your existing small charger is probably 10 or 20W max). So this can even power a MacBook Air.

📺 Hisense 65" Hi-QLED S7 CanvasTV — $899.99 $1,999.99 (55% off, but it usually hovers around this price anyway) My new favorite home TV. I no longer recommend the Samsung Frame TV. The Hisense, I know it sounds cheap, but it's actually so good that I returned my Samsung Frame after going head-to-head with the Hisense. The Hisense CanvasTV new ones are basically as good or better than Samsung Frame at half the price. Plus I don't need to cut out my wall or hide a cable that goes to the Samsung box. 

Bath & Body

🧴 CeraVe PM Moisturizer — $10.49 $19.99 (48% off) I put this on my face every single night after I shower.

🧴 Hada Labo Plumping Gel Cream — $11.94 $24.00 (50% off) This is also a nice face lotion that I've used, but it is more... gooey. Perhaps try this if you have super dry skin? I don't know why you're taking skin care tips from a 44 year-old man. But I found this on reddit years ago and I still buy it for weekly use.

🧴 La Roche-Posay Toleriane Cleanser — $13.29 $19.99 (34% off) Just a nice daily cleanser and face wash.

Supplements

Not medical advice; please do your own research!

💊 NOW Psyllium Husk 500ct — $23.09 $39.99 (42% off). Taking this has made my "digestions" (poops) just better. Sorry if that's gross, but it really helped me over the past year. I take 3-4 capsules every day with a big glass of water.

💊 Pure Encapsulations Magnesium Glycinate — $37.20 $46.50 (20% off) I take 2 of these before bed. Supposedly they help with sleep. I follow a lot of "hip"  doctors online and a lot of them say magnesium before bed is good but (shrug).

💊 Integrative Therapeutics L-Theanine — $17.60 $22.00 (20% off) L-Theanine is the relaxing part of green tea. I like to take one of these before I drink a strong cup of coffee to lessen the coffee jitters. I hired a functional medicine doctor for many years and she always raved about L-Theanine as a sorta-natural anti-anxiety helper.

Other Stuff

 

🔋 Anker Laptop Power Bank, 25,000mAh 165W — $95.99 $134.99 (29% off). This is the only product here I haven't actually bought, but a lot of my friends have and they say it's amazing. The battery pack is huge, so only buy it if you need lots of power (like for a MacBook Pro). The people who actually need this much battery power swear by it as the best.

🧺 Molly’s Suds Laundry Detergent — $30.39 $37.99 (20% off)  I have sensitive skin so I use this detergent.

🪛 HOTO Electric Screwdriver Kit — $28.48 $49.99 (43% off) It's a pretty basic USB-C screwdriver that works well and is cheap and has a bunch of bits. I've bought 2 now.

📱 UGREEN Tesla MagSafe Phone Mount — $15.99 $19.99 (20% off) Easy to install on your Tesla screen (tho does not charge) for MagSafe.

🌬️ Aranet4 Home CO2 Monitor — $160.65 $189.00 (15% off with coupon, not a Prime deal) I watch CO2 levels in my office and bedroom and all the tech nerds like this one the best. I've got 2 of them.

🥨 Unique Snacks Extra Salt Splits Pretzels, 6-pack — $28.99. Not on sale. I just love these super salty pretzels. You can't find the "Extra Salt" version in stores usually.

Book Offer: How to Host a Great Meetup

My book The 2-Hour Cocktail Party teaches you how to host a great meetup or happy hour. Use it at work and you'll get promoted. Or use the framework for a neighborhood cocktail party. See 600+ 5-star reviews on Amazon, Kindle, Audible. It is also free to listen on Spotify Premium.

If you want a paperback copy and promise to read it, email me back with your mailing address (USA only please!) and phone number. I'll send out 10 or 20 copies to the first folks who reply at no cost.

The End (or is it: The Beginning?)

Well, that's all for today.

My wife is having a baby on Friday. It will be our first. I'm going to be a girl dad.

Did I bury the lede or what??

Everyone who knows me says that I'll be an amazing dad. They say it because I'm playful and not very serious. They say it because sometimes I like to talk to kids more than adults at parties, and I know how to juggle, and I love to have fun.

But fun is for 5-year-olds, I think. A newborn baby doesn't need a fun guy with name tags and a harmonica and a great Amazon Wish List. A newborn baby needs a warm bottle and a clean diaper every hour.

Can I do that? Will I do that?

My wife Lauren says she had doubts about me with a baby. I'm a very online person and I can be a little detached at times.

But then Lauren saw me feed a cat, that cat in the picture up top of this newsletter.

I'm on our sofa in the living room. A little tabby cat named Sunny is standing on my lap. Sunny is the neighborhood outdoor cat. She's young and full of trouble and meows a lot, and now I've coaxed her inside with a small tube of tuna that I got at the grocery store. I squeeze the tuna slowly and Sunny laps it up, just like a baby on a bottle.

Lauren is in the kitchen. She looks over at me hand-feeding this cat and sees me whispering to it very gently.

Lauren smiles at me in a way that feels different. There's a warmth and a recognition in her eyes. Maybe it's how a wife looks at her husband when she knows he'll be an OK father.

I smile back, but then I have to go wash my hands, because they smell like tuna and cat.

Lauren says that if I take care of the baby like I take care of the neighborhood cats, then we'll be fine.

I don't talk much about my personal life anymore, but I know this is going to be a big change. I'm quite excited. Thanks for reading. Pray for us on Friday morning, if that's something you do. 

 

~~ Nick Gray

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