Tag: Amy Zents

British Mysteries

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The game’s afoot!

I think I have always loved British mysteries.  Agatha Christie of course is the consummate mystery writer. Then, of course the BBC does such a fine job presenting Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s genius detective Sherlock Holmes.

Who doesn’t enjoy all the BBC specials on PBS such as “Mystery”once hosted by  Diana Rigg?

Tonight I discovered a wonderful television mystery series called Chandler & Company about a housewife and her friend who become private eyes.

There are so many police shows and detective shows that are most enjoyable from British TV. I enjoy Inspector Morse, and all the other Inspector shows as well.

One of my favorite  actresses is Margaret Rutherford.

Not to be outdone is Rumpole of the Old Bailey, a comical caricature similar to Margaret Rutherford’s character  Miss Marple.

It seems when people get older in British mysteries, their peccadilloes,and peculiarities become more endearing making  old-age less frightening.

Have a hot cup of tea and a crumpet, or a small bottle of beer and enjoy being transported through British television to a world of quaint delight.

The message of the mystery may be rather macabre, but the thrill of the chase and the solution laid bare, is always a crowd pleaser in the end.

Food in focus

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I think I might have a philosophy about emotional eating.
I find when I’m bored I turn to food. Food is not boring. Food comes in an endless variety. You can just go on Pinterest, and search the word “food” and soon you will find a billion delicious photos of food to drool over.
I come from a foodie background. Both my parents were in the restaurant business, and both were fantastic cooks.
My interest in food goes all the way back to my childhood, to a time when I used to watch my mother make the most delicious German dishes and Greek dishes, from foreign recipes. She used foreign language cookbooks that only she understood, not to mention the foreign measurements, none of us besides her could translate.
She would make sauerbraten, souvlaki,  tzatziki and other delicious main dishes, and she could bake a variety of delicious desserts that would curl your hair and your toes!
After I dropped out of high school, I went to Manpower. They made me take a test. It was a way for them to find out what my career should be. It said the test results were that I should be a cook!
They had me enroll in a cooking program, called Commercial Cooking and Baking.
I never took the class because I left Toronto, Canada in 1981 to get married, and move to United States.
After doing a few stints at babysitting, being a housekeeper, and trying to sell makeup,  I was hired as a cook in a hospital.
I found cooking for others was a far different story than cooking for oneself.
To sum up, it is better to cook for yourself. If you cook for others and their special dietary needs, it becomes repetitive and boring. Especially in a hospital setting; especially in the late 1980s.
I don’t know what hospital food is like these days. Yet, back then, I not only cooked for the patients, I also cooked for the staff.
The mundane American diet could not hold a candle to my exotic foreign mother and her delicious dishes.
I found it was such a disappointment to make the same things over and over again, still, that did not turn me off food.
Food is happiness on a plate.
Food is my premium go-to delight when things get rough. The point is not to allow things to get that rough.
The point is easier said than done. Try to find things that you’re interested in, besides food, such as people, music, art, pets, fashion, travel and other wonderful treats that make life fun.
If possible, try not to give food the starring role all the time.
However I must say, be grateful if you can still smell and taste, and cook!
Food is wonderful. And there’s nothing that beats home-cooking when you have a wonderful chef at the helm.
There are other things that may be wonderful, but I confess food really takes the cake!

Musically yours, Amy Zents

Zany days

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Spring is finally here. We’re in for all kinds of roller coaster weather.
A little rain is in the forecast, also a little snow.
The nights of thunderstorms are coming this way. That is no picnic in the park when you have 2 dogs who hate thunderstorms.

Say goodbye to your sleep. The dogs will crawl into the master bed, and climb on your face and head for feelings of security and safety.
Today I had a ravishing hunger. I made a taco salad, and then I was reading about Chelsea Market. The one in New York City.

I just had to make a homemade crepe. We had fresh whole nutmeg. So I fried a delicious crepe, and I grated some fresh nutmeg, adding delicious  butter, cinnamon and maple syrup!

Some days are easier to diet than others.
Nevertheless, I do have two days off to do some house things, and get some exercise, and prepare for a big couple of weeks of solid working.
Lately my dreams have been pretty vivid. Sometimes they are of me being an alter-ego character such as a superhero or a billionaire. Sometimes I’m screaming with fright in my dream, as I’m dangling in the air, hanging off one of those cable cars that got off their cable.
The busier I get, the more strange and scary, or more strange and varied my dreams are! 🙂

Musically yours, Amy Zents

Marching ahead

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It is Monday. It doesn’t feel like Monday, but I do have to work this afternoon. I worked all weekend long.
I know some people who work so much they don’t even know what day of the week it is, much less what year it is.
For those who say TGIF, they have to realize not everyone works 9 to 5 Monday through Friday.
While it may be 5 o’clock somewhere, when it’s time to work, it doesn’t matter what day of the week it is, it’s time to work!
Everyday above ground is better than seeing your name in the obits.
Having a job is better than being unemployed. While I’m earning money other people are spending it.
Do I seem grumpy? I hope not. I have to put on a happy face. In less than 30 minutes, I’m on the air! 🙂
Enjoy your week, and your weekend. We are marching through March together! The first day of April is on Friday. There’s a week full of fun ahead, as we march ahead!

Musically yours, Amy Zents

Walking in the dark

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This morning at 5:30, I walked to work to my radio DJ job. In the moments it took for me to walk to work, I noticed things I normally never do when the sun is up.

I chuckled to myself as I saw a newspaper man walking with his head down, texting on his smartphone. He was dragging his feet, walking very slowly. You hardly see kids delivering the paper these days. Usually they’re older people. Nowadays, they’re carrying smartphones.

I was able to look into lighted windows over shops, things I would never able to do during daylight. I saw kids drawings hung on the wall, and a creepy looking doll perched against the windowsill.

I was able to look into a cafe that I’ve never entered. The reason I’ve never entered it is because during the day you are unable to look into the building because of the window screen that prevents people looking in. Just to be clear, if I can’t see into a café or store, then I’m not going in.

Fighting over Charlie Brown

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Went for my big walk today. I’m trying to drop a lot of weight, so I go for big walks everyday. The two furkids love it!
Whilst I walk, I like to listen to Inspector Stone. Or some other mystery podcast. Today I was listening to Inspector Stone. His beat is a rough section of Manchester, England.
This one I was listening to was about a bunch of thugs. I thought about where I grew up in downtown Toronto. It was called Regent Park.
It was the furthest thing from royal ever!
Not like your Regent’s Park in Great Britain! 🙂
More like low-income housing!
I was bullied a lot as a kid.
Mostly, because I was weak as a kitten, and spoke like a baby. I was the youngest and babied by a single mother, and as an incredible singer I lived in a dream world of my own.
One day this girl stole my Charlie Brown comic book. I found reading comics made life better. She took my book and put it in her locker. I confronted her about it in class. I kicked my chair back and stood up. The teacher intervened. I never got my book back. I wanted to punch that girl in the face. I found that bullying creates tremendous hostility in the one being bullied.
Nevertheless, I realized in retrospect, I found so much fun in comics.
I suspect that the bullying girl wanted the same pleasure I found in Charlie Brown. Let it be.
I forgive her. I love comics! I love Snoopy, I love Charlie Brown, and I even love Lucy, the bully.

Musically yours, Amy Zents

The Divine Right of Dogs

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I live the life I love, and I love the life I live

It’s so easy to clog your day off with mundane tasks that really hold no priority. The best thing to do on your day off is to do exactly what you feel like doing!
Of course, this is not always feasible when you have to maintain a house. For me that means, still cooking and cleaning, still taking care of a diabetic dog’s needs, still putting in my proverbial 10,000 steps for the buzz on my Fitbit.
It also means following my healthy eating menu  and checking my Facebook and social media for a perk, a bump, a lift, or a laugh.
Otherwise, all bets are off.
Today is my day!
When you do have a day off and you are forced to go to the dentist, or to the hair salon, or to fulfill some obligation that encroaches on your free time, it is such a nuisance. It is abhorrent!
When you know, starting tomorrow, you’re going to be working for a long stretch, then today is the day to be self-indulgent and relax and lie down and take it easy, if you can.
On my day off, I generally live online. It’s so much fun to see what the rest of the world is doing.
I think my only point of reference on how to relax on my day off, is to think about my two dogs.
They live like the kings and queens of yore, with no obligations whatsoever.
The divine right of dogs is to rule over and (maybe even pee over) all they survey, and sniff.
The most thrilling part of my dogs day is when they get to traverse over sidewalks and streets with me.
We have 10,000 steps to do now!
Wherever you are, when you do get a day off, I hope you can enjoy it thoroughly too!

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Musically yours, Amy Zents

Worth the effort

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It’s worth the effort

When you are a kid you are told, and/or scolded to, “Eat your vegetables!” When you get older you realize as an adult, you can shove your face into a chocolate cake, you can drink bourbon and eat Cap’n Crunch for supper, and know that a quart of ice cream in your freezer has your name written all over it!

Then when you get older, and get fat, you repent. You realize you want to stay young at heart physically and mentally, so now you had better eat your vegetables.

I have been on a health kick lately. I have been walking at least 10,000 steps a day using my Fit Bit and I have been striving for a flat belly by eating whole-grain bread, peanut butter, and fresh strawberries for breakfast with a protein shake. For lunch I’ve been having a fresh salad.

Today was rushed and particularly hard, but I realized instead of making something fast, like a bowl of cereal with milk, or making something delicious such as oven baked french fries for lunch, I should just hop to it and put together a salad. I confess, it was worth the effort!

Move more and eat less junk

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Long ago a lady told me the best way to eat. She was a para-professional who worked with children in the public school system. She said after the age of 40, she could no longer eat like she did when she was young.
She told me she didn’t eat hardly anything for breakfast. She ate a small amount for lunch.
Supper was her main meal.
At the time, I was in my early twenties, and I basically ate whatever I liked. I was very thin, and high-strung. I was active and full of energy. I burned a lot of calories.
Those words she said to me seemed pitiful.
Who wanted to deprive themselves?
Certainly not I!
And yet, her words followed me down through time. To the place where now I understand the value of exercise and eating lightly. Nevertheless, the secret to being fit, is in the choice of your eating, and getting regular exercise.
In the future, I imagine weight will not be a problem.
Now and then we read of different treatments for people who have obesity. Some scientific tests hold out astonishing promises for the obese. But most of them come with risks we do not have to take.
Someday, medical science will find a quick and efficient way for all of us to be svelte.
Currently, the best way to get skinny is probably the healthiest, if we are willing to try hard to move more and eat less junk.

Musically yours, Amy Zents

The best of the best

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When one thinks about our grandparent’s day we think about how life was a little less complicated.
I just watched an old movie reel on YouTube that I thought was very fascinating about small city living.
A Day in the Life in the 50s
When we think about the future, we imagine advanced implants, and intricate technologies that supersede the imagination. Do you think of people being disconnected? Do we think of people lonely and suicidal? Or does the future hold a promise of exciting living with all the boring aspects of life eliminated? I think about living here in the middle of Minnesota and how life holds firmly to traditional values, on the surface, that is.
Must I decry all the blended-extended families?
What about the way revolutionary science has changed medical practices and saved lives?
I think that in some ways, the future needs to be embraced and encouraged. But with all the Marilyn Monroe wannabes, and the retro-programming in movies and TV, ( they’re even bringing the TV show The Odd Couple back!) we need not fear we will lose our past!
In fact, we standing on the shoulders of giants. We have the best of the best and it’s only going to get better!

Musically yours, Amy Zents