Phoebe’s apartment was the quirkiest of all places. It housed things like Gladys, Glynis, the smoke alarm that wouldn’t shut, and Einstein’s photo for grandpa. Since it was the least shown apartment, we feel like you may have missed some of the details. Here are ten of those.
Apartment Number
The showrunners failed to get the apartment numbers right. Monica, Ross, Joey, and Phoebe fall in the same category. In “The One With Joey’s New Brain,” Phoebe reveals her address to a caller. She says she lives at 5 Morton Street, apartment 14. But we see her apartment numbered ’16’ in “The One With Ross And Monica’s Cousin” and in “The One In Massapequa.” Commonplace in Friends. It isn’t easy to even imagine Phoebe moving apartments. What could have led to such a mishap?
Grandpa Einstein
How is it that everyone knows who Einstein is and Phoebe doesn’t? For a more significant part of her life, she thought Einstein was her grandpa. Her grandmother Frances mislead her into thinking so. In all fairness, Phoebe was gullible at the beginning of the show. She felt the guy in the photo frame was her father, a famous tree surgeon in Burma. She also thought Einstein in the photo frame was her grandpa. “Wish me luck, grandpa!” said Phoebe as she stormed off to visit her dad for the first time. She may have discovered the truth about her father, but not so much about her grandpa. The photo stayed at her place for a long.
Golden Buddha
One of Phoebe’s oldest things is the golden buddha statue at her place. Like most of her things, the figure may have changed places. But it always stayed with her. The Golden Budhha said a lot about Phoebe’s beliefs. It also lets us believe Phoebe was part-Buddhist, maybe. She believed in reincarnation and spoke about a person being ‘brand new.’ The showrunners never addressed audiences’ doubts about religion, specifically Phoebe and Rachel.
Gladys
Phoebe is quite the artist. She created the three-dimensional Gladys herself. Gladys is a short-haired woman with half her head tilting out of the frame. She’s dressed in blue. She doesn’t have a left hand. When Mike moved into “The One With Ross’s Grant,” Phoebe had to clear out her stuff to make space for Mike. He wanted her to get rid of some stuff, Gladys. Phoebe entrusts Gladys to Monica in the end.
Glyniss
“Whoever doesn’t get Gladys gets Glynnis.” Glyniss is Phoebe’s other frame that has something coming out of it. Just like Gladys, Glyniss is an original Buffay. If you thought Gladys was scary, think again. Glyniss is double the size of Gladys; she has protruding arms and hands. She’s bald, and there are three tiny children above her head for some reason. Monica and Rachel were sure Gladys was less creepy than Glyniss was.
Apothecary Table
While living at Phoebe’s, Rachel bought the apothecary table from Pottery Barn. Phoebe hated all mass-produced stuff, so she hated Pottery Barn, too. Rachel lied to her at first by telling her the table was an antique from a flea market for one dollar and fifty dollars. This apothecary table was from white plains, from the period of yore. The apothecary table stayed at Phoebe’s long after Rachel moved out. It stayed with her forever. You can buy the table for your place if you wish to pay the incredible Phoebe Buffay an homage!
The Ornamental Birdcage, Large
Rachel bought the ornamental birdcage when she bought the apothecary table. She told Phoebe the cage was ancient, and early colonial bird merchants used to bring their birds to market. What’s a bonus is that it was significant in size. Unlike the apothecary table, Phoebe realized the birdcage was from Pottery Barn. This was when she was walking right beside Pottery Barn and peeped in. Yet, Phoebe decided to keep it. She went ahead and bought the lamp too. Just like the apothecary table, Phobe held onto the birdcage. It usually hung from a corner in her apartment, as seen in “The One In Massapequa.”
Antique Telescope
Phoebe kept the antique telescope in her living room despite hating the mass-produced Pottery Barn stuff. She had the apothecary table and the ornamental birdcage to remind her of the pottery barn. The antique telescope could be seen at Phoebe’s laying on the parker console table with many other things. In Ross’ words, it looked like page 72 of the catalog.
Metallic Windmill
In “The One With The Routine,” Phoebe and Rachel find Chandler’s gifts hidden in the guestroom closet behind some coats. A metallic windmill lies in Phoebe’s apartment, too, if one looks closely. It is silver in color, metallic, shiny, and appears heavy. She also possessed an XO bookend. God knows why Phoebe was so surprised to see an AZ bookend when she had one. Phoebe seems to be annoyed on seeing heavy a-z metal things. She thanks Chandler for her az.
Buddhist Praying Altar
Phoebe had a small Buddist praying altar/shrine installed at her home. The altar didn’t contain Lord Buddha’s statue most of the time. But in “The One Where Phoebe Runs,” we see a golden statue sitting in the middle of the shrine. Phoebe may have practiced Buddhism or believed in some of its tenants from this and various other beliefs.
