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Cozy Mystery (and Other Favorite) Books, Movies, and TV

New Tricks – British Television Mystery Series

July 3, 2011

If you want to watch a tongue-in-cheek police procedural television show that makes light of aging “coppers” while also showing that people with age and experience make the best workers >>> then the British television series called New Tricks is probably exactly what you are looking for. (I happen to be a big fan of this British, humorous police procedural dramedy.)

New Tricks features one middle-age detective (Amanda Redman) who recently botched a large hostage operation. Because of this embarrrasement to the police force, she is assigned to head a cold case department. The three men she is assigned to work for her are policemenn who retired years ago… years and years ago! (Dennis Waterman, James Bolam, and Alun Armstrong play the retired coppers.)

Alun Armstrong plays Brian – a manic/depressive (I believe). He is a sort of walking computer. He can recall facts, names, dates, just about everything that was pertinent to the cases when they occurred years ago. Brian is fine… when he’s on his medications.

Dennis Waterman plays Gerry, an aging Lothario. I have lost count of how many ex-wives he has. He is the (somewhat) tough copper… who still considers himself to be quite the lady’s man.

Jack Halford’s character (James) is still in love with his best friend and wife… who has been dead for several years. He has built a shrine to her in his back yard, which he visits regularly.

As for Amanda Redman’s character (Sandra) – while she respects these older men, she also has to keep them in check >>> reign them in, make them follow the politically correct rules that are enforced in today’s police department. These three … I guess “codgers” is the term I’m looking for – policed during the days when it was “acceptable” to rough-up suspects. Sandra has her work cut out for her!

Of course, this cold case squad has a tremendous success rate. What else could we expect? But, the cases aren’t as important (to me!) as the characters’ interactions. What is that old saying? “Getting there is half the fun.” Well, in this case, all the fun is getting there!

If you would like to see more TV and Movies suggestions, click here.

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Robin Allen, Sofie Kelly, Leslie Kohler, & Roz Siegel : Four New Authors to the Cozy Mystery Site

July 1, 2011

Here are the four newest additions to the Cozy Mystery site. Remember that they have been recommended for me to add to the site by site readers. I have asked people to only recommend Cozy Mystery authors, as I add authors to the site without having actually read them … yet!

Robin Allen: Poppy Markham: Culinary Cop Mystery Series. I believe that this is actually the first of its “culinary type” mystery. This series features a health inspector in Austin.

Sofie Kelly: Magical Cats Mystery Series. This series is set in Minnesota, and features a librarian who solves mysteries with the help of her two previously stray, magical cats.

Leslie Kohler: Kohler writes Stand Alone mysteries. The first (Sins of the Border) is set in Scottsdale, Arizona. It features a suburbs’ mom who uses her ex-reporter skills in this case regarding illegal immigration.

Roz Siegel: Emily’s Place Mystery Series. The sleuth in this series is the owner of a high-end shoe shop that serves as a meeting place for lovers of fashionable shoes. Unfortunately, one of the stilettos is used for more than its intended purpose.

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Thank You, All! & A Switch from Time Warner to DirectTV…

June 30, 2011

Thank you, all for your very kind posts about Sprite. She was our very special “best girl puppy” for many, many years. (I always have to add the “PUPPY” part >>> My daughter is gone so often that she has caught me calling Sprite my “best girl” a few times when she is home visiting, and prefers it when I add the “PUPPY” when referring to Sprite.)

I know I mentioned that my husband wants to move my computer desk from “Sprite’s bedroom” to our kitchen. We still plan to do that, but we are going to be moving my desk next weekend, because, it turns out that my husband has decided to get DirectTV installed in our house this weekend.

We have been getting a lot of blue screens with messages from Time Warner – in lieu of the shows we expected to tape. The message always says something about the network not being available, or some such thing. From all of the boards my husband has checked out online that deal with this very same problem, it means, quite simply, that Time Warner has too many people trying to access the high definition channels at the same time. When this happens, apparently Time Warner’s computer system simply cannot handle transmitting all of the channels, so they simply don’t allow you access to some of the non-network shows.

I tape several shows on the ID channel (Investigation Discovery), which is a channel that is consistently short-changed by Time Warner. I feel like we will be doing our part to help Time Warner with their problem of not being able to service all their paying customers during the peak television-viewing times. >>> At least this way, after this weekend, there will be one less home trying to access high definition channels, helping perhaps one other family get the service they expect!

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Good Bye Sprite… We ALL Miss You…

June 28, 2011

Sixteen and a half years ago, my parents came for their yearly vacation – accompanied (as usual) by my father’s Cocker Spaniel. We all loved Aspen, except my daughter was quite hesitant about him. She would try to pet him, but was always on-guard… quite literally! She had always had a… should I say “hesitancy” when it came to dogs. She had never been hurt by a dog, she simply didn’t feel comfortable when they were around. She always HAD to know exactly where they were.

My father felt sorry that she was missing out on the childhood fun of enjoying a family pet. He absolutely NEVER offered any constructive parent-rearing tips or corrections, except to tell us that he thought we should add a family dog to our family, so that our daughter could become comfortable around dogs.

We actually added Sprite to our family on one of his trips to visit us… and I can tell you that Aspen was not delighted with having to compete with this little, white fur-ball we had brought into HIS vacation domain. Sprite thought Aspen was the greatest, and wouldn’t leave him alone… even when he let her know he did not appreciate her little razor-sharp puppy teeth excitedly nipping at his big, floppy ears.

That was sixteen and a half years ago, and I can tell you that Sprite has been the center of all of our universes since that day. Aspen had to make due with staying in Colorado Springs for the rest of the times my dad visited us, which I know was a hardship on my dad, as he loved that dog a whole lot.

Over this past weekend, we had to say our final good byes to Sprite, which is why I haven’t been on the computer these past few days. Because she was not able to go up and down the stairs, or jump on furniture the last few years, I literally took her with me from room to room, always having her by my side or on the couch or bed while I did housework. She was a comfort to me when both of my children moved to college, and has remained a very close “best girl puppy” to me since then.

I have tried to work at the computer since we said good bye to Sprite, but I keep looking over to the bed, where she has been my constant companion while I am at the computer for the last few years. I know I wrote about us having to bring my computer desk downstairs so that she would be comfortable on the guest bed while I worked on the computer. It is very difficult for me to sit at the computer without her on the bed.

I am home alone much of the day. I talked to her literally all day long, and find the house so VERY quiet now…

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