The Reds On Magazines

 RHYS BOWEN: At the beginning of the new year my daughter-in-law suggested we make vision boards. I’ve done this before with her and find them very revealing. This one I made once and keep in my office to look at when I work.

The problem is that to make a good vision board you need a selection of magazines and we don’t get any magazines any more, except for Consumer Reports. And I can hardly make a vision board out of washing machines and mattresses.

I suppose one of the reasons we stopped taking magazines is that we live in two places so the magazines just pile up in California when we are in Arizona. But also it’s so much easier to look at magazines online.  I don’t even do that much any more. Magazines seem to be a thing of my past, which is a shame, as I really used to enjoy them.

When I was growing up there were several magazines for children. I got GIRL magazine and another one I can’t remember the name of. They had stories in them about adventurous girls, Patsy of the Circus who was a trapeze star, was my favorite. I played at being Patsy and made my own trapeze, doing stupidly brave things on it.

My brother had Eagle, and Boy’s Own. They had stories like Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future.

Every woman in England got Woman and Woman’s Own, and Woman’s Weekly with their recipes and knitting patterns and romance stories.

When I married and lived in California I took Redbook and Good Housekeeping. We also had National Geographic and Time and Life, oh and Reader’s Digest. I suppose now that things like Facebook make up for them… snippets of information and entertainment. But they don’t really. I miss them.   When I’m in England I browse through English women’s magazines but they are different now. Much more celebrity oriented, certainly no knitting patterns.

So, dear Reds, do you still take magazines? Do you miss them?

JENN McKINLAY: I love magazines. Probably, because I spent my teen years in my room reading Seventeen, Teen, Tiger Beat, etc. As a mom, I got all the parenting magazines - my fave was Family Fun - so many great activities. Now I get Prevention, which I got hooked on when I was a librarian for the Scottsdale Hospital and Atomic Ranch because we live in a mid-century ranch and that magazine has gorgeous houses that our humble abode aspires to be.  

LUCY BURDETTE: I love magazines too, though like Rhys I stopped ordering them because of my two addresses–impossible to keep up with the mail. My first love was Tiger Beat–I had to work to persuade my parents this would be ok to read. I remember getting MS magazine, maybe Cosmopolitan, Redbook, and Ladies Home Journal which had the column “Can this marriage be saved?” My favorite read! I also took Bon Appetit for a long time, and Cooking Light. Our Key West librarian reported recently that the most popular e-read these days is The New Yorker. I’m going to try that this year!

HALLIE EPHRON: Gosh, I haven’t gotten magazines in years. I miss The New Yorker, New York Magazine, Boston Magazine… but the truth is they just piled up unread. I am SO tempted by the Atlantic Monthly because of their stellar recent reporting, but I’d be signing up for their e-zine, nothing I could cut up for a vision board. 

On the newspaper front, I do get the Boston Globe delivered, and try not to think about how much it’s costing me. It’s just one of those luxuries I’ve agreed to give myself.

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN:  Oh, I love magazines! I used to get [MORE] and a very cool women' s magazine the name of which I can never remember but it was not Ms. Does anyone remember?  I grew up reading Vogue with my mother, we loved it,  and it was where mom taught me the difference between clothes people wore in magazines and what people wore in real life.  Now I get The New Yorker, cannot live without it, and New York, and Vanity Fair, and The Atlantic for solidarity. They all come in digital and paper, and I read bits of both depending on what's convenient.

(I have never made a vision board, though…)

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Hank, I had a subscription to [MORE] as well, and I wish there was something like it still out there. Like most politically aware adults in the pre-internet age, Ross and I got TIME and Newsweek, and for a while, he subscribed to Foreign Affairs (pricy!) Of course, we subscribed to Sports Illustrated, and had National Geographic because according to Ross, our kids would grow up illiterate without it. (He was VERY keen on geography!)

I still get HGTV Magazine and House Beautiful in the mail - to me there’s a noticeable different in photos in full-sized print as opposed to on a screen. For text-based periodicals, I have digital-only subscriptions; The Atlantic, New York Magazine and The New Yorker. One advantage of those as opposed to the print editions: you can share articles without clipping them out and mailing them!

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I do still get magazines. Bon Appetit, although I use my digital subscription more than the actual magazines. D Magazine, which my daughter sends me–great for local stuff. We also get print copies of The Economist and The Atlantic. My subscription to The New Yorker, alas, is just digital. We used to take Rolling Stone but finally cancelled it as it had become so expensive.

But my passion is print copies of the magazines that require a trip to my local B&N; the UK edition of Country Living (so good, nothing like the US version,) The English Home, UK House and Garden, UK Homes and Gardens. I don't manage to get them all every month (ouch!) but it's such fun when I can snag an issue or two.

A fun note–I was a dedicated Gourmet subscriber for many years and was heartbroken when it folded. But, now, apparently, Conde Nast has let the copyright expire and some new food writers have taken it over and are publishing a monthly digital edition, for people who really like to cook (rather than get dinner on the table in thirty minutes.) Sounds fun but they don't give you a free issue and I'm not sure I'm interested enough to pay $7 a month.

_._,_._,_

RHYS BOWEN:  It was only as I put this up to be published that I remembered what today is. How dismayed he would be to see what was happening now. But remember what he said: THE ARC OF THE UNIVERSE IS LONG, BUT IT BENDS TOWARD JUSTICE.  We'll keep hoping.

It's a TRAVESTY!

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: I’m sure some of you, like me, read the Metropolitan Diary in the New York Times. It’s just a collection of little snippets sent in by readers, tiny moments in time in the life of a New Yorker. They are sweet and adorable and sometimes laugh out loud funny.

The other day, a woman described being in line in a bagel shop in New York. The person in front of her told the bagel guy she wanted a cinnamon raisin bagel with white fish spread.

According to the paragraph, the bagel guy just looked at her, paused, and finally said, with a look of complete disgust on his face: "I can’t make that. I just can’t make that."

It makes me laugh even to write this, how apparently that combination was so not only unpalatable but SO unthinkable that the bagel guy couldn’t even make what his customer wanted. So incredibly funny. 

A food travesty. Like...a blueberry bagel. A blueberry bagel is not a thing. Bagels do not have FRUIT. Muffins have fruit.

I feel like that when someone offers me a piece of pizza with ham and pineapple on it. No, I think, no no no, I just can’t eat that. Even though my brain understands that some people might think that’s good, and that’s fine, but please don’t make me eat that.

Sausage. I have never had any kind of sausage and don’t even ask me to try it, the sound of the skin alone of it makes me want to leave the room. Lima beans. Baked beans. Any kind of food-like thing that is shaped in the shape of a lima bean.

Some people don’t like raisins in oatmeal cookies. I could go either way on that. But marshmallows in ice cream, that just seems like a bad idea. I know Sue Grafton Kinsey liked pickles and peanut butter, and I am all for Kinsey, but really?

And mayonnaise on ham. No no no. There was a battle royal at my house when I was a little girl, when my father for forced us, or tried to, in the least abusive way possible :-) to eat a ham salad sandwich. Nope nope nope. There is no mayonnaise with ham. Chopped celery and mayonnaise do not go with ham.

And then there was the big showdown over roasted chestnuts at Christmas. When I was about 10, I think, my sister and I sat at the dining room table for about two hours in utter refusal.

Jell-O molds with shredded carrots. Carrots do not go in Jell-O. Why would you do that? 

Oysters in turkey stuffing. Absolute no. Why would you put slimy stuff like that in perfectly good stuffing?

Ketchup on eggs? (I mean, does that look good to you?)

 

How about salmon lasagna? I actually saw a recipe for that. Even the chic vitello tonnato...ah, veal with tuna sauce?  I don't think so.

How about you, Read and readers, what do you consider a food travesty?

DO YOU HAVE TWO MINUTES?

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Happy Saturday, everyone!

Here’s the question of the day. Why does every transaction have to have some sort of survey after it? Why does everything we do or buy suddenly require some sort of a review?

After you talk to a real person on the phone, (imagine that happening :-)) they say "would you have time to take a survey after we finish?" "Would you have time to stay on the phone and answer a few quick questions?" "Would you have time to help us with our customer support by taking a brief survey?"

I’ll tell you how I feel about taking a brief survey! Grr.

I would be much happier with the customer service if the customer service person didn’t ask me to tell about my customer service! I barely have time to tell the person about whatever it was, let alone answer take the time to some questions about how I liked telling the person about whatever it was.

Usually I’m annoyed enough having to call whoever it is to talk about whatever it was in the first place, and I certainly am not in the mood to tell you what a good job you did taking care of the thing that didn’t work in the first place.
On the other hand.

It’s not the customer service person's fault that their bosses require them to have people answer a survey.

And I will confess to you that I have asked people in the past whether those surveys make any difference--and I am told they absolutely do.

So now I am guilted into answering every single one of them, because I feel personally responsible for the employment of the people whose performance I am reviewing. I always answer them all. To make sure the people keep their jobs.

The post office, too, asks me to take a survey at the end of each transaction. First by tapping a little green smiley face on the credit card reader, and then by scanning my receipt on my phone and going to the survey via the QR code and then filling out stuff.

Now, I love my post office people! They are fabulous! And I asked them, specifically, whether filling out those forms and tapping the little green face makes a difference, and they unanimously said they did! They said post offices get closed if people don’t respond to those surveys.

So here’s where, you know me, I got worried and involved. I pointed out to them that there was no signage in the post office indicating how important those surveys were, and that it was too easy to skip them, and that they should make it clear to other customers how much difference it makes.

And, so hilarious, the next time I went into the post office there were signs up all over the place reminding people to do the survey. (I am laughing even as I type this because what a busybody I am. But hey, if it makes a difference why not?)

And then, the companies get you, too, on the phone surveys, because they’ll change the rules mid-survey. Right?

Like questions one through five will be "on a scale of one to 10 with the 1 being the highest, how satisfied are you with whatever it is." So I start tapping one, one, one, to get out of it, and then suddenly they change the question: "Now, on a scale of one to five, with five being the highest, how do you feel about whatever it is?"

So I have to completely turn my brain around. And I feel even guiltier, because what if I make a mistake and ruin someone's life? It's a TEST!

Oh my gosh, Reds and readers, do you answer those surveys? What do you think about them?

WHATCHA WATCHING?

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: TV, anyone? We just watched DOWN CEMETERY ROAD, every single bit of it, and at one point I said to Jonathan, wow I love this, but, what again? Is the point? I completely don’t understand it. Eventually it was all made clear, ish, kind of, and some loose ends were not tied up, but it was really fun to watch. Rhys, it’s Emma Thompson’s hair you need to see. Go for it.

PLURIBUS, yes yes yes, fabulous. Thought-provoking, fantastic. Would you trade away your individuality if you could be happy and know everything? Ah, I don’t want to describe too much, but it is about (to me, at least) the dangers of AI. 

SLOW HORSES continues to be wonderfully entertaining. (Mick Herron wrote Cemetery Road, too.) And we just started watching HIJACK, with Idris Elba.

I know I am leaving something out. How about you, Reds and readers?

HALLIE EPHRON: I’m in RE-watch mode with SHERLOCK. Remembering how fabulous Benedict Cumberbatch was and how smart the writing was. But honestly there’s nary a single clue or red herring that I remember from having seen these before. The solutions are SO complicated, and sometimes I”m not even sure exactly what the crime is. Doesn’t matter… I do love Sherlock and Mary and Watson and Mrs. Hudson.

DEBORAH CROMBIE: We’ve just finished the final episode of STRANGER THINGS. We found this last season a little confusing, especially since it had been so long since the previous one, but we loved the way they wrapped everything up. It was such fun to see all the lovely kids grow up over the course of the series.

Also, we watched the ERAS tour documentary, which was fascinating. The technical side of the productions was just astounding, and the effort and dedication the tour took, not just from Taylor but from all the dancers and singers and musicians and crew, was incredibly moving. I only wish I’d had the experience of seeing it in person.

JENN McKINLAY: We are currently watching THE LOWDOWN, starring Ethan Hawke, and it is excellent - we are only two episodes in, however. Before that, we watched THE CHAIR COMPANY…um…wildly entertaining and yet soooo bizarre. We loved, loved, loved, NOBODY WANTS THIS. We also caught the movie MARTY SUPREME and it was utterly bonkers and very entertaining.

RHYS BOWEN: We haven’t been watching much because we had family around and then John was in hospital. When I’m in de-stress mode I watch the tennis channel and right now there are some good tournaments going on in Australia. It is also nostalgia for me because it reminds me of times in Australia, watching those tournaments with my mum.

But we did start one of the new Agatha Christies the other night. The Pale Horse, which was one of her really good stories. But Agatha writes in a way that is calm and genteel. No gore. No sensationalism. This rendition was horrific and we turned it off after about twenty minutes. And retreated back to old favorites. Recently discovered a Maigret with Rowan Atkinson. They are really good and it’s fun to see him playing a deep and serious character.


LUCY BURDETTE: As you know, I am the world’s fussiest television watcher. By the way, Jenn, we went to see Marty Supreme. I hated it! About 2/3 of the way through, I mentioned to John that this was hard to take. He said he didn’t like it either and let’s leave. And so we did. But then we saw Song Sung Blue, which was sad but so excellent! Now I am looking forward to watching another new one about a stand-up comic who is getting divorced. It’s called Is This Thing On?

On the television front, nix on Cemetery Road. And I haven’t gotten hooked by Slow Horses, though I know I’m in the minority. We did watch the first episode of the new season of Shetland and absolutely loved it. We also watched episode one of the new season of THE PITT. John loves it, I will give it another try. Fussy.


JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I’m also in a TV funk. I don’t feel like anything dark, but most comedies aren’t my cup of tea. I watched WAKE UP DEAD MAN when Youngest was home and we both adored it. I’d love for more series or movies in the traditional Agatha Christie vein, but it’s getting hard to find one I haven’t already seen! Happily, a new adaptation of The Seven Dials Mystery was released on Netflix yesterday, so that’s going to be my weekend watch. Now, if PBS will just let us know when MARBLE HALL MURDERS (third in the wonderful Moonflower Murders series) is being released, I’ll call myself good for the month.

HANK: Oh, yes Seven Dials, looking forward! But somehow...I think all those look to campy for me. But hope persists! And anything by Anthony Horowitz, I'm totally in. And oh, the Lincoln Lawyer is coming up.  Yay.

How about you all, Reds and Readers? Whatcha watching?

Comma comma down doo-bee-doo down down....

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: I had so much fun with Jenn’s meet-cute post, and it got me thinking about what was the opposite of meet-cute? Leave-cute? Of course, bad breakups. (I hope you recognize the song "lyrics" in today's title...)

We don’t want to go anywhere upsetting today, of course, but breakups can be pretty funny. Yes, they can.

Once I broke up with a perfectly nice guy because we went to see the Robert Altman movie Nashville, and I adored it, adored it! And he loathed it. How could that be, I wondered? And I finally said “you know, if you don’t love that movie, I can’t see a future for us”. And that was the end of that.

And on the other end, once a guy broke up with me, saying: “Hank, you may absolutely be the perfect woman, and I can’t believe I’m saying this, but you are just not a good enough tennis player, and I can’t live my life with that.” And that was the end of that.

How about you, Reds and readers? Any ridiculous breakups?

HALLIE EPHRON: My nastiest breakup came after my boyfriend dropped me at the airport for a trip to Ghana (I had a summer job) and then (I found out later) he ran off to reconnect with his ex-girlfriend. To add insult to injury, it turned out the plane I was ticketed on was over-sold and I had to find a way back to my parents’ apartment in New York, tail between my legs, and never did get to Ghana. A week later I reconnected with the boy I’d dumped … who turned out to be the keeper of a lifetime, my Jerry.

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I think the worst would be the boyfriend who dumped me for my best friend (I was sixteen, he was eighteen.) I was also friends with his younger sister, and when I would come over to see the sister, ex-boyfriend and ex-best friend would be naked in bed, holding court like John Lennon and Yoko Ono. Ouch. However, I am now friends with him on Facebook, and sort of named a character after him in A KILLING OF INNOCENTS, so I suppose time heals all wounds.

JENN McKINLAY: This reminds me of Seinfeld and all the ridiculous reasons they would have to break up with people – a close talker, a face painter, they had something off-putting like wart remover in their medicine cabinet, etc. I dumped a guy because he was a horrible tipper – inexcusable. And I was dumped because I am freakishly tall. Dude might have thought about that before he asked me out. Sheesh.

RHYS BOWEN: I was once the dumper to a very nice boy and still feel bad about it. I had a boyfriend in Germany whom I was very keen on. But I was back in England at college so I met this boy called Alex and went out with him. He started to get too keen on me so a friend told me to write him a letter to break it off saying it wasn’t fair to my regular boy friend. I did this and regretted it instantly. It really hurt Alex. I hadn’t realized until then how much he liked me. Until then I hadn’t realized that guys have feelings too!

LUCY BURDETTE: I have one for each side. I think it was in eighth grade and my sister was having a boy-girl party as she was a year older. My mother must have suggested that my friend Laura and I could also each invite one boy. Oh, the drama! Hers declined, but mine accepted, and then I went into full panic mode. He came, but I don’t think I even spoke to him because he was wearing tall white socks. Did you hear me sisters? Tall, white socks! I’m so sorry Jay I was that shallow😁

Worst dumping line, when a guy I’d been seeing for a while and liked very much, said to me: I think we could have a nice enough life. And that was the end of that!

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Lucy, talk about damning with faint praise! My silliest breakup was with the archaeology professor I started dating in my senior year. He was twenty years older than I, and though he had a lot of nice qualities (and I thought he was hot) I came to realize I was both too mature for him - yes, I’m being serious! - and also that I was too young to spend all my couple-time socializing with academics in their early forties.

I was living in DC, and he was in upstate NY, and the breaking point came after I saw a matinee of FOOTLOOSE. Walking out of the theater, I thought, “I’m wasting my youth on this guy! I want to have fun and go dancing!” So I sent him a dear John letter. And then the skunk confessed he’d cheated on me when he was at his dig the past summer!!! I was so glad I’d kicked him foot-loose.

About ten months later, I went to a GW graduate student mixer and met this curly-haired redhead named Ross. And yes, we did go dancing and had lots of fun!

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Jen, you are not freakishly tall. And SO agree about the tipping thing--that is just the "tip" of the psychological iceberg.  Julia, I love that movies were the catalyst for both of us! Lucy, “a nice enough life”?? Whoa. How about you, Reds and Readers? Any funny stories about breakups?

Let's do...LUNCH!

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Lunch, lunch, I love lunch. I’ve always loved lunch. For 40-some years as a reporter, I looked forward to it every day, it was a lifesaver and a sanity saver. I do remember, though, the franticness. Once on the way back to file a story, I was so hungry, but SO late, so I ran into a sandwich place and said:

“How long for a tuna sandwich?”

And the guy said: “Two minutes!”

And I said: “Too long!” And raced back to the car and my story.

(And that’s how stressful TV news is. That's what taught me to always carry almonds.)

But now, working from home, I am still excited about lunch. I will admit, most days I have half of a turkey and swiss sandwich on rye bread with Honeycup mustard, Siete chips and a half-sour pickle. If we have arugula, all the better. SO BORING, I know, but I am in love with it. I don't usually have lunch until 2:30, yes, 2:30. But it's perfect.

How about you, Reds and Readers? Are you a lunch fan? What's on the menu?

HALLIE EPHRON: I’m a big fan of food in general, so what’s not to love about LUNCH?! Especially a fan of last night’s leftovers. Alternatively, I love any excuse to heat a pair of frozen cheese blintzes and eat them with sour cream and canned cherry pie filling. Not healthy but very satisfying.

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Yes, I love lunch, especially when it gives me a chance to read. Love leftovers, especially soup, or (I know it’s a cliche but it’s so good) I’ll make avocado toast with good bakery sourdough, one of the tiny avocados from Trader Joe’s, olive oil, lemon juice, flakey salt, sriracha, and radish sprouts from the farmer’s market. Totally yum.

JENN McKINLAY: Big fan of lunch but I never eat it unless I’m meeting friends for lunch, which I do a couple of times each month. At home, I’m more of a snacker and a nice plate of cheese and crackers with pickles and olives can get me to dinner no problem.

RHYS BOWEN: Meeting friends for lunch is what keeps me sane! I have lovely friends both in California and Arizona whom I meet regularly (Jenn. Waving at you!) and escaping from work and concentration for lunch is just perfect. When I’m home alone it’s whatever I can grab. In winter I make big soups with whatever I can throw in. Summer it’s salad, or avocado plus whatever protein is left over.

LUCY BURDETTE: Gotta have lunch! And usually before noon. I don’t too often go out for lunch, although I love seeing friends, but it takes up a lot of time and I’ll often eat more than I should. The best thing is leftovers such as some of the delicious pea soup I made the other day or lentil soup or anything in that family. If I have a little cottage oat biscuit to eat on the side, that’s even better!

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Count me among the lunch fans, both at home (sandwiches! With fancy mustards!) and going out to a restaurant. It’s also become a bit of a trend with my friends to do lunchtime entertaining, and I love it. You go to someone’s house on Sunday afternoon, enjoy good food and conversation, and get home before dark. You don’t have to think about whether to say yes or no to a drink, because what’s on offer is coffee, tea and fruity seltzer. Honestly, it’s an ideal way to entertain.

How about you, Reds and Readers? Are you a lunch fan? What's on the menu? Your turn to order!

It's "Tell Us A Good Thing" Day!

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Oh my gosh, the NEWS. So we are not talking about any of that here.

Let me tell you some good things. And then we want to hear yours!

These are the animal tracks in the snow on our patio. Look at all the creatures! Birds (one of them going in circles, pretty funny), rabbits, squirrels, Jonathan filling the bird feeder. And I think a cat, although…whose cat? Mystery cat.

Also in our back yard, this is a cardinal in the rhododendron in the snow. What a perfect photo!


My adorable grandson has a big role in his high school musical, IN THE HEIGHTS and we are going to go to NY to see him. Aww. 


I made beef stew and it was delicious! I did not forget the beurre manie and that really makes a difference. I did not take a photo. 

So, Reds and Readers, with the power of positivity, tell me three good things in your life. NOT book things. Just other things in your life.

HALLIE EPHRON: I had to think awhile for this one since. I’m going to share 1, which is that I am thrilled to have been invited to teach mystery writing in Paris this spring. More details to come. Good thing 2: My grandson gave me a hug without me begging for it. Good thing 3: I haven’t yet slipped on the ice.


DEBORAH CROMBIE: Good thing 1) Watching my granddaughter and her team play soccer. (Indoors for the winter season.) Watching these ten -year-old girls brings me so much joy. They have such promise, and you can see their developing personalities in the way they play. And I love that although they play hard, they are not downhearted when they lose.

Good thing 2) I stepped out the back door for something last night and there was a blazing sunset. I had to watch in awe until it had faded to dark.

Good thing 3) Still meditating with a cup of tea in front of the new faux Christmas tree every morning. Must take it down this week but enjoying it so much for now.


JENN McKINLAY: Good things! I have an amazingly good thing to share but I can’t yet. Darn it! But I managed to get my Christmas tree and holiday decorations down. And I have plenty of work to keep me busy this year which I am grateful for given the crazy times we’re living in.


RHYS BOWEN: Jenn–teaser! No fair. Good thing number one for me is having John home after battling pneumonia, and a very scary time.

Good thing 2 is that Clare and I have finished our next Molly book and it’s ready to go off to Minotaur this week. And it’s good.

Good thing 3 is the sun is finally out again after a period of non stop rain, and the view from my windows always enchants me, especially as a lot of people still have their Christmas lights on.


LUCY BURDETTE: good thing number one, my dear old friend Yvonne has been visiting for the week and I’ve enjoyed seeing Key West through her eyes. (She thinks we are always always having fun, so don’t tell her how much time I spend working or watching television lol.)

Good thing number two: it’s the seventh anniversary of T-bone’s Gotcha day. I nearly didn’t select him because there were so many cats in the SPCA that it was completely overwhelming. He was the right cat for me and for us and besides, he’s gorgeous and very good at social media.

Good thing number three: (see number one above.) We saw the most gorgeous manatees on our morning walk the other day. I consider a manatee sighting to be a wonderful omen! 

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Lucy, congratulations on T-Bone’s Adoptiversary! My pets loom large in my “good things” column as well, so for number one, I’ll put how lovely it is to sit in the comfy settle next to the kitchen woodstove, reading a good book with the Shih tzus around me.

Number two - getting daily pictures and videos of my grandson “Paulie!” His moms are rightfully shy about having his face online, so you’ll just have to take my word he’s the cutest little chubby-cheeks ever (exept when he has his mobster face on.)

Number three - I’ve already started pulling together my tax info and getting everything down on a spreadsheet for my accountant. I know, most of us don’t think of getting taxes done as a good thing, but I for YEARS I was always late and had to get an extension - which I then sometimes didn’t meet! So it’s a thrill to know everything will be in Kevin’s Dropbox as soon as I get the last 1099-R form.

HANK: Taxes, argh. SO glad you are making it a postive. This is all so great! Perfect. Now your turn, Reds and Readers! Tell us a non-book good thing!

MEM-REEEEES - What Is Your Very First?

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: My new book is coming out in September, and more about that (of course) much later, but in order to write it, I needed to start thinking about things I remembered as a child. Specific things. And trying to figure out how old I was when I grasped certain concepts. (It's because in MOTHER DAUGHTER SISTER STRANGER something happened to a character when she was an infant up to the time she was five. Now she’s 11–what would she remember?)

And it was truly fascinating, and finding the answers was a bit elusive.

Here's a photo of me with a doll. I have no memory of this, except for this photo. I do look--determined.



I remember my artist- mother painted a big giraffe on my bedroom wall, lifesize. But do I remember seeing it? Or just remember her telling me about it? I think I remember seeing it, and I must have been–3?

Of course I remember my parents, but–really? Do I? I remember my father taking me to Lake Michigan, and we saw a whole fishkill, where dead alewives were strewn across the beach. I bet I was..five. And I was so terrified. But do I remember that? Or was I told that? Ah.

How old am I here? Hmmm. No memory of this. How did my tooth get broken? No idea.



I had a music box, pink, that looked like an old-fashioned radio. I totally can visualize that. At age...3? And another music box where a delicate ballerina popped up and twirled en pointe. It played Dance of the Sugar Plum fairy, I think…but when did I realize that?

And here, I have clearly figured out..something. (Sadly, I could not come close to doing this now.)





I definitely remember reading Black Beauty. I can see myself, in the classroom, and I completely remember, when it was finished, that it crossed my mind “wait, I think this book was about more than a horse.” I had clearly discovered the concept of theme! But by then I was–10.

And I clearly remember lying in bed and worrying about tornadoes. Someone has old me that tornadoes would demolish every OTHER house, and I would try to figure out how, if the tornado would skip our house and the hit the next one, and then skip the next one, etc, how the tornado would have to go so that none of my friends’ houses were hit.

So at some point, I started to think about the welfare of others. (My friends’, at least.) This must have been a result of being traumatized by The WIzard of Oz. So I was…again, 10?

My parents were divorced when I was six. I kind of remember that. And I remember an apartment building where we lived. Kind of.

You see where I am going here. What’s your very first actual memory? NOT what someone told you, but that you actually remember? How old were you?

HALLIE EPHRON: My first memory is of lying in bed and looking out into my childhood bedroom through wooden bars. So I must have been in a crib. Which means I must have been, what, two? Three?

That’s the whole memory. Not very exciting. And I never got to ask my parents whether I really ever was in a crib in that room. 

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I have a very vague memory of being in my crib–I see exactly where it is in my room in the old house. The room is blue and the light is dim, curtains drawn against afternoon sun. I’m supposed to be napping but am sitting up, having conversations with my many stuffed animals. I’m guessing I was somewhere around eighteen months or two?

JENN McKINLAY: I definitely remember my brother jailbreaking me out of my crib when I was two. It’s imprinted on my mind no doubt because we got caught and that did not go well. Lots of my memories have that hazy glow of uncertainty–did it really happen the way I remember or is this something conjured by my brain?

RHYS BOWEN: Hank, I agree that it’s hard to determine what I actually remember, versus what I was told happened. I do have some clear memories. We were looking after a relative’s cat when I was three at the oldest and the cat got away and my grandmother walked around the neighborhood calling “Beauty, Beauty.”   I do remember air raids, deep in my psyche, although I was too young to actually remember details.  But most other clear events are probably what was related to me at some point.

LUCY BURDETTE:  It is very, very hard to tell what memories come from photographs and what we were told and which ones are real. But I guarantee you I can remember I had twin boyfriends in kindergarten and one of them gave me a cone of posies. I was wearing a brown checked, drop waisted dress with a white collar. I would like that dress now!

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: My earliest memory is being allowed to go into my parents’ bedroom to meet my new baby sister. I have a vivid sensory impression of the white wicker bassinet, the eyelet lace, and the sun coming through the bedroom’s harvest gold curtains. I would have been three years and nine months, and it’s quite a gap until my next memory.

Hank, your mention of the music box that looked like a radio reminded me of a play radio we had - I could turn the dial and see different pictures, and, if I recall correctly, it could be wound up to play music. Hadn’t thought about that in well over fifty years!

HANK: So interesting! Part of my new book centers on what a five year old might remember. Any thoughts about that? What would an 11-year-old remember about being 5? And what is your earliest memory?

If the clue is COOKIE, the answer is OREO

 

HALLIE EPHRON: Pop quiz. What do these words have in common?

ACAI
ISLE
YOKO
ONO
EDEN
EMU
ERA
AREA
ALOE
EEL
ETA
OBOE
OREO

If you know the answer, you probably do crossword puzzles.

These are words that contain the letters most common in English. The letter E, for example, shows up in about 11% of the words in the Oxford English Dictionary. These words show up frequently in crossword puzzles -- far more frequently than we actually use them to express ourselves to one another.

They help crossword puzzle makers connect longer words using the most common letters in English: E, T, A, O, I, N, S, H, R.

My Jerry was the crossword puzzle maven in our house. We get two newspapers delivered daily -- the New York Times and the Boston Globe. And he'd commandeer the puzzle pages and *TIME HIMSELF* solving the puzzles (about 10 minutes for the New York Times. Snarling at me if I interrupted him.

When he was in the hospital for treatment. the doctors during rounds would compare notes with him on the day's Pangrams (Spelllng Bee), congratulating themselves if they'd found as many 7-letter words as he did.

I always assumed I couldn't do crossword puzzles, but since I now have the papers to myself, I do the Globe's crossword daily and the Times Monday through Wednesday. (After that the Times is too hard.) I also do Spelling Bee. Connections, Tiles, Pips... and more.

And, I'm embarrassed to say I watch Wheel of Fortune nightly. If you think you're good at word puzzles, it's a humbling experience. (Love Ryan Seacrest - what a cutie pie. And Vanna is lovely ...it boggles the mind to imagine how old she must be.)

Doing puzzles is a perfectly lovely way to waste spend time. I have become an expert.

Are you a puzzle-doer? Which ones have captured your fancy?

Our "pink sofas" and how we were encouraged to be readers

 

HALLIE EPHRON: Earlier this week, I posted Susan Stamberg’s essay about getting hooked on books, and reading on her family’s “pink sofa,” a happy place where she devoured books. (Here's my sweet Jerry with our granddaughter, passing the torch on a pink-ish sofa.)

Reading about it got me remembering the place where, after dinner, my mother would read to me. The couch in our living room which was covered in a red, green, and white jungle print and was oh so cool and cozy when you buried your face in one of the cushions.

I wish I could say that there was some special place I would go alone to get lost in a book, but I wasn’t really that kind of reader. And I grew up in a house packed, floor-to-ceiling with books. But being read-TO was a special thing.

What are your earliest memories of books, where are you, and is there someone who’s your reading guide??

JENN McKINLAY: Mom read to us every night as littles and it was always the couch in the living room. Maurice Sendak, Patricia Coombs, Bill Peet, Dr. Seuss, and Judith Viorst were a few of our faves. When I started reading on my own–Hello, Nancy Drew!--it was in my bean bag chair in my room or outside under the dogwood tree in the backyard (parents were less likely to find me to do chores there).

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Ah, well, I remember my father reading to me, actually, and I can still hear his voice reading MANY MOONS by James Thurber. And all the Poohs.

I kind of remember Mom and fairy tales, but I def remember how much I annoyed her, since at the end, she would say "and they lived happily ever after," and I would insist to know what REALLY happened. Like, after that. Happily ALL the time?

(Which, funnily, was the memory that inspired my upcoming book. Just saying. Thanks, Mom.)

And yes, when I could read on my own, I remember Cherry Ames and Trixie Belden, and Nancy D, and we read up in the hayloft of the barn. In the house, we had a huge blue curvy Eames chair, which was perfect. I wish I still had it.

RHYS BOWEN: I’m sad to say I don’t ever remember my mother reading to me. I was raised mainly by my grandmother and great aunt since my mother always worked ( as a teacher).

I know they read to me because when I was about three I had memorized quite a few books. I sit on a bus pretending to read, knowing exactly when to turn the pages and people would be amazed. Is she reading that? I suppose I was always a bit of a show off.

Like Hank I loved all of the Pooh stories and could recite all the poems. James James Morrison Morrison etc.

Later my grandmother would read to me. I remember Ballet Shoes. Black Beauty and the Secret Garden as favorites. I read to myself in my bedroom up on the top floor of s big drafty house. First it was fantasy like The Faraway tree. Then the Famous Five.

My parents did not read. My mother was too busy and my father had no use for fiction. But I escaped to the library and found all sorts of wonderful things.

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Moving around so much, I remember books, but not where I read them. I know my mother was passionate about reading-to, but I was an early reader, so my memories come from her sitting with my sister or my brother.

The first special reading place I can recall was one of the living room chairs in the house she bought in her mother’s home town. Happily, I inherited the mid-century beauty, and I still love sinking into its down-filled cushions.

Other than sitting in that chair, my favorite reading position was on my stomach - including, after bedtime, facing toward the hall light and undoubtedly straining my eyes, according to my grandmother.

Alas, you women who were “gifted” by the puberty fairy can understand why I had to give up reading this way around age 13.

My favorite reading chair now is an antique Stickley Morris Chair. Firm cushions, wide wooden arms perfect for holding a drink or a cup of tea - this chair is sixty years older than I am, but it’s definitely holding up better.

LUCY BURDETTE: So surprising Rhys that your parents didn’t read, considering what you’ve become! My mother loved to read, we often saw her with a magazine. I think with a job teaching kids and 4 of her own, shorter was better.

My dad often read to us–I still have my earliest hardback, The Scary Thing. I can’t tell you the author because it’s home in CT, but I can picture how I tried to write my name inside in crayon. My older sister and I usually retired to our bedroom to read after school. That’s still my favorite place to read (and write, which I know is bad for my body!)

DEBORAH CROMBIE: My grandmother was most definitely my reading guide. She'd been a teacher–now I wish I knew more about where and what she taught, but you don't think of those things as a child. We shared a room until I was about five and I think I have some vague memories of her reading to me in the double bed there. But then my parents built a separate suite for her and we read in the big, squashy armchair in her room.

Julia, we have two campaign chairs either side of a glass-topped chest in front of one of our living room windows, and I often will sit down with a book there.

HALLIE: Finishing up, I'd like to recommend a nonprofit that does a wonderful job supporting families who are raising readers. They do great work. RAISING A READER.

And please, share YOUR experiences with kids sharing with them the wonderful world of books.

Sesame noodle salad: A new lunch to share with old friends

 HALLIE EPHRON: Earlier this week I was seeing old friends for lunch and decided I'd much rather make something rather than go out. But what to make? Something healthy, could be mostly made ahead, and used mostly ingredients I already have.

I hauled out my folders of recipes that I've saved over the years, most of which I've ever actually made. And there it was, the recipe from The Boston Globe back in 2014, SESAME-NOODLE SALAD: spaghetti, raw veggies, peanut butter, tossed with a gingery peanut butter.

First I rounded up the ingredients and put them on the counter. I modified the recipe with vegetables I happened to have in the fridge and added some shrimp I had in the freezer.

Here's the ingredients for the DRESSING:
1 T soy sauce
2 T rice vinegar
1 tsp siracha
Juice of 1 lime
2 tsp honey
A two-inch piece of fresh ginger finely chopped or grated
3 T smooth peanut butter
2 T sesame oil

In a large bowl, whisk the dressing ingredients together until blended. Set aside

TOASTED SESAME SEEDS
3 T sesame seeds

In a small skillet toast the sesame seeds for 5 minutes until golden.
Set aside.

SHRIMP
Boil a dozen thawed and deveined/shelled shrimp in water for 5-7 minutes.
Drain and set aside.

VEGGIES
1 sweet red pepper, cored and seeded and cut into thin strips
1 cup sugar snap peas, trimmed
1/2 cucumber, quartered lengthwise and cut into small pieces
1/2 cup sliced daikon radish
(Or whatever else you happen to have on hand)

Prep the veggies and set aside

Noodles
8 ounces of thin spaghetti

In a large pot of boiling water, cook the spaghetti for about 7-9 minutes.
Drain into colander.

COMBINE!

In a large bowl, whisk dressing
Stir in veggies and shrimp; blend
ADD DRAINED SPAGHETTI
Toss gently to coat with dressing.
Top with sesame seeds

VOILA! Serve and enjoy. (We had it warm but you could put it in the fridge and have it later, cold.)

Where do you go looking for something serve friends, or do you stick with your favorite stand-bys or order takeout?

Vicki Delany: For the Love of Our Fictional Pets

 

HALLIE EPHRON: Today we're thrilled to welcome back Vicki Delany who, with a wink, calls herself a "one woman crime wave." And she truly is, having written more than forty books, including her latest, the new Sherlock Holmes Bookshop mystery, THE DEVIL IN THE DETAILS.

Today she brings us some observations about that extra dimension NON-human characters can bring to a mystery novel. (No, we're not talking about robots.)

VICKI DELANY: If you live in the northern part of our planet, it’s cold and dark these days. The news of the world is glum, and people are recovering from their post-holiday highs, many not too happy when they check their credit card balance.

So, let’s talk about something fun: pets in mystery novels.

I believe animals add a lot to any fiction. It’s often said you can tell a great deal about a person by how they react to friendly dogs or cats. I don’t necessarily know if that’s true, but it does provide much used fodder in books.

 Certainly, anyone who snarls at a dog who just wants to be friendly, is unlikely to be a nice person. Unless they have a reason to be afraid of dogs, no matter how tail-wagging or small they might be. And that person would be unlikely to ‘snarl’ rather than cower in fear.

We know animals, cats and dogs in particular, have far more powerful senses that we mere humans do. Does that mean they can sense a ‘bad’ person versus a ‘good’ person? Probably not, particularly considering bad and good sometimes depend on your point of view. But again, logically or not, characters in fiction often rely on signals from their pets and this helps the plot move forward, Sometimes in the wrong direction.

Pets also provide much needed action to a scene. Imagine people sitting around a kitchen table talking over the case. That can get rather boring, but put a dog sniffing around looking for dropped crumbs, or a cat where it isn’t supposed to be, and you have some movement and action to accompany the dialogue.

And, again, a good opportunity to show how the characters interact with animals. Maybe that’s a clue!

A pet can add some humor, particular to lighter mysteries. In the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop series, the shop cat, Moriarty, strongly dislikes our protagonist (and the ‘Sherlock’ character) Gemma Doyle.

Why is he antagonistic to her, who after all houses and feeds him, but friendly to everyone else? I see him as a master criminal trapped in an eight-pound body. She is the Sherlock Holmes to his Moriarty.

Unfortunately, being a cat there’s not much he can do about that other than occasionally try to trip her as she comes up the stairs.

Another way of using animals is to show a softer, perhaps kinder side of a character who might try to present a stern face to the world.

As Gemma is my interpretation of Sherlock Holmes as a modern young woman, she is sometimes blunt to the point of rudeness, scornful of others’ opinions at times, and inclined to interfere where she is not wanted. Too sure of herself, perhaps. I’ve tried to lighten Gemma’s character, soften her in the minds of my readers, with her loving interaction with her two dogs, Violet and Peony. Peony only came onto the scene, and into Gemma’s home, when his owner died and he was abandoned, and Gemma took pity on the little guy.

What’s not to love about that?

No matter the type of book, pets help move plots forward. In an earlier Sherlock Holmes Bookshop book, A Curious Incident, Gemma is walking the dog late at night when she sees a historical building on fire. And thus, the plot begins. Don’t forget what the curious incident was!

Walking her dogs gives Gemma time to think. She calls those late night dog walks ‘a two dog problem’ – comparable to Sherlock Holmes’ ‘three pipe problems.’

Of course, in cases where the pet has strong instincts about people, the writer has to use that very carefully. Otherwise, the moment the killer walks into the room, and the cat starts hissing, the reader knows who the killer is.

Violet, Peony, and Moriarty, don’t react like that, but the cat in the Lighthouse Library books I write under the pen name of Eva Gates, Charles (named for Mr. Dickens) does. Lucy Richardson is aware that Charles has strong instincts about people.

Sometimes she misjudges his reaction and sometimes she can be fooled. Did the bad guy slip treats to Charles and therefore gain his approval? You never know.

I love writing the animals in my books. Matterhorn, the Saint Bernard owned by Merry Wilkinson in the Year-Round Christmas books is a deliberate and amusing contrast to Ranger, her boyfriend’s Jack Russell terrier. If you’ve ever known a Jack Russell, you’ll know what I mean. Éclair, the labradoodle in the Tea by the Sea mysteries gives Lily plenty of opportunity to walk the BandB property at night, and her grandmother’s cat, Robert the Bruce, keeps a keen eye over goings on.

I love writing pets and I know many people can become very attached to the animal characters in books.

Do you have a favourite animal in fiction?

 HALLIE: I can't wait to see the animals our readers call out as their favorites.