I missed my train on my way home to Connecticut yesterday. I am a chronic train-misser. The next train is usually waiting at its platform already, so I’ll go find it and sit alone and take comfort in the fact that it can’t possibly leave without me if I’ve boarded an hour ahead of schedule. I usually pass that time cleaning out my purse or tweezing my eyebrows while I have the car to myself.
This time, I decided to kill a little time in Grand Central Terminal. It used to be my favorite place in NYC, but I developed a strong aversion to its echoing passages during the four months I spent commuting in and out of them last year.
While I wandered around, reconditioning my cognitive response, I discovered Pylones, newly opened in Grand Central. I have no idea how to pronounce Pylones, especially considering the fact that much of the merchandise has a Japanimation look even though it is designed in France.
Most of the products are novelty versions of every day items. Everything from toaster ovens to pill boxes to retractable pet leashes has been coated in baked enamel in coordinating patterns and themes. A few things show elements of that eerie, retro sort of European style; I like the crocodile staple remover but am not such a fan of the fish bone box cutter or the mustachioed silicone oven mitt.
Not a fan of some of the prices either. My favorite item in the store—a folding garden table coated in polka dot enamel—has a $170 sticker. I can’t imagine enjoying a picnic on that. A matching ice cream scoop on the website is $20, which is too much for a spindly scoop, but not unreasonable for one with enough heft to really get good at a block of ice cream. If there is one utensil that warrants a polka dot print, I think it’s the ice cream scoop.
The $20 tweezers caught my eye because one of the ladies looks a little like me. Good, sharp, metal tweezers usually cost $18-24, and these stand up in a rubber suction cup that will stick to a counter-top or mirror in your bathroom.
Or my bathroom. In my home. Because that is where I should be tweezing my eyebrows. Not in my office, and certainly not on the Metro-North train.
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