What Judy Collins Can’t Live Without

I use this scale for weighing food. I carry it with me, and I weigh and measure most of my meals. Always the protein, but not always the salad. It gives a whole perimeter of three meals a day, and nothing in between. I do four ounces of protein, unless it’s cheese, which is two ounces. It’s very helpful, it keeps me on the straight and narrow.

I really need these in my life because I travel a lot of places where there are a lot of people around me. And they’re so important if I’m on a plane. I was on coming back from Albuquerque recently and changed planes in Minnesota to get on one to New York. On both of the flights I had a lot of music to listen to, so I had to have my earbuds. I haven’t ever had success with other types of headphones — I lose them, I break them, I drop them, I can’t get them into my bag, they’re in the wrong place at the wrong time. Earbuds are much more accessible.

My purple Pilot pen is the best. I used to write with a Montblanc, but quite frankly the ink and the spillage and the nuisance I can’t put up with. I have these all over the house, and I’ve got to order more because I see that we might be running out. My husband prefers green, so he has a green pen — it’s also a Pilot fine-point. I think mine brings me luck. Purple is a very spiritual color, they say. So these purple pens are with me always, even right now. I just did the New York Times crossword puzzle with one. I don’t use the app, I do it on paper, and I do all kinds of things to get it. If I’m in a city where I can’t get a New York Times, sometimes my husband will email me the crossword for the day, and then I get it printed out at the hotel so that I can do it on paper.

Since 1964, I’ve gone to Arden’s for various things. I started out getting massages there and then finally getting facials and my feet done. My feeling about Elizabeth Arden is that she really knew what she was doing — the Eight Hour Cream has been around since she started her business, I think. And the formula is still the same. You can use it for anything, a little bump, a little scratch, a little irritation here and there. It’s really first-rate. She originally invented it to use on her horses, and that’s always impressed me. The other thing about the horse connection is that when Sea Biscuit’s trainer, Tom Smith, was out of a job after Seabiscuit died, Elizabeth Arden hired him to come and work on her horse ranch, and she kept him on for the rest of his life. She didn’t need to, but she kept him there. He was a real hero and he used the Eight Hour Cream on her horses, their bruises and bumps, to help them to heal. You can put it on chapped lips and the next day you’re good to go.

I couldn’t do anything without my coffee. I grind my own combination of espresso beans and dark roast, always from Zabar’s. I have a coffee maker in my bathroom, so I don’t even have to go into the kitchen. I started doing that because I’d wake up in the morning and want to start writing right away, but I have to have my coffee. And I don’t want to wander around the house looking for it. Years ago, before hotels had coffee makers in them, I traveled with a little suitcase that had my coffee grinder, my coffee beans, and my coffee maker. It was actually a T. Anthony suitcase. In 1993, I went to stay at the White House; Clinton was just inaugurated and he invited me over. So I took my suitcase with my coffee maker in it. After dinner with him — just him and me in the Map Room — I went up to my room, pulled out my coffee gear, went into the bathroom, set the whole thing up, and ground the coffee. Then the whole thing fell on the floor. So I was on my knees in the middle of the night in the Lincoln Bedroom’s bathroom, cleaning up the coffee off the floor. I realized later that I could have just called one of the people who work for the White House and ordered some coffee. Turned out they made awfully good coffee, because I did that the next morning when my coffee maker was on the floor with coffee beans everywhere.

I love cats. I have three Persians now, but I’ve always had cats. When I adopt cats, it’ll be three at a time because I like them to have company. At the moment my three are 11 years old, they are a white Persian, a blue Persian, and a black-and-white Persian. The white Persian’s name is Tom Wolfe, the blue Persian is Rachmaninoff, and the black-and-white Persian is Coco Chanel. The black-and-white one particularly loves to chase the ribbons, and so I always have a handful of ribbons that I can run around with, pulling them behind me so that the cat will chase me. It’s very good for them, it’s healthy.

It’s my go-to wedding gift or anniversary gift. I’ve given it to people all over the world; I just sent one to Heidelberg for the son of my musical director. It’s a beautiful, simple, elegant shape, and inexpensive in terms of glassware. And Tiffany still makes it. That’s what’s so amazing, because they’ve dropped a lot of things out of their line that were beautiful. Many, many, many of their various kinds of glass hand warmers, paperweights, and so on, they’re gone. But the Harmony Bowl is still around. It makes a beautiful sound when you hit it with a piece of silver, and it holds beautiful big salads or a lot of fruit in it. It’s very special.