The Cozy Mystery List Blog

My last blog truly was about a very important issue… Society placing incredible emphasis on women to appear to “have it all” but who don’t! Making women feel like they have to conform to the stick-thin ideals that are now in vogue.

I have struggled with my weight almost all of my adult life. I am a very successful dieter (yo-yo dieter, that is!) I have taken off AND put on many pounds since I had my youngest child.

Two Christmases ago I put four women’s magazines’ subscriptions on my wish list, and was very happy to see that I received all four of them (for either my birthday or Christmas.) They were all magazines that I “knew”… magazines I had read years ago. (I thought that I would take a break from cozies for just a little bit of the time.)

As the subscriptions were for only a year, I had to decide whether or not to take the magazine’s renewals. They kept sending me cards saying I could get special deals (two for one or one for half.)The magazines had changed drastically from when I used to read them. After a year of these “Women’s” magazines (more like dieting instructional manuals with tasty, fattening recipes on the side and beautiful women getting make-overs!)  I decided that I didn’t need or want them. I had reached the point of actually making myself read the magazines every month… and it finally got to the point that I was just flipping through the pages. I simply got tired of all of the dieting advice.  (I did, however renew my cross stitch magazine… no dieting tips there!)

I think that it would be safe to say that every single one of the four women’s magazines, every single month, had at least one article about how to lose weight. And of course, on the next page they would have chocolate cake recipes made with butter and cream! (Sort of like when my Weight Watchers meeting was held right next door to a Baskin and Robbins!)

 The make-over sections and the “how to camouflage” your body’s problems were almost a source of laughter. I say almost… How distressing it must be for young women to see a size 8 trying to camouflage her hips! Good grief!

Boy! I feel much better now that I have gotten this off of my… fingertips and onto my blog! Don’t worry, this will not be an everyday occurrence… I know that two blogs in a row seem like a bit much for the “ranting and raving” theme…

Let me end on a mystery note: I just started reading a mystery by an author who I haven’t read before, and I am really enjoying it. And, I  started listening to my next Agatha Christie novel in the car.  Of course, I am really enjoying that, too!

OK… So here goes!!! (I feel like Andy Rooney on 60 Minutes! Actually, is he still on that show? I haven’t watched it in years…)

My husband set up my computer so that I get Google on my home page. It makes it really easy for me to read the headlines, since we stopped getting a “real paper” copy of the newspaper a few years ago. (I hope that I’m not offending anyone who works for the newspapers! It just seems that we can get all of our news online…)

Anyway, this whole Jessica Simpson thing has me fuming! I have caught my thoughts wandering recently (more than once) while watching a television show>>> wondering how the wardrobe people, the directors, and the producers could let some actresses wear clothes with no sleeves. I know that this sounds odd… I really do NOT have a hang-up about sleeveless arms! What I do have a hang-up about is seeing an actress whose elbow, wrist, and shoulder bones stick out of her skin! (Not to mention her chest bones sticking out… but that’s only if you can see them under the “natural” cleavage that seem to be the focus of the camera!)

Getting back to Jessica Simpson>>> I don’t own any of her CDs and I haven’t seen any of her television appearances or her movies but I do know who she is. Last week, I found it deplorable that she kept appearing on different outlets of the “news.” I use quotations marks on that word NEWS because, this was not a case of reporting the “news!”

She is a beautiful, young woman, and she finally looks like she is allowing herself to eat more than lettuce and carrots while running on a tread mill! This sort of “news” really concerns me! What type of message are we sending to our daughters, sisters, mothers, aunts, (etc)?!?!?

It’s difficult to believe we  have television shows that feature anorexic-looking women, who are actually celebrated and dressed up to be the “babes” of the shows (That word “babes” probably really dates me!) at the same time that Jessica Simpson appears all over the place, being ridiculed and laughed at because she looks like a woman with natural curves! No wonder we have little girls in elementary schools already watching their weight. I know that we want our children to eat balanced meals, but do we really want them to be subsisting on carrots, celery, and diet pops?

Well, I feel better already! I just needed to rant and rave a little about this very important issue! I wonder how long these terrible “role models” are going to be out there… (Don’t even get me started about magazines that are supposedly WOMEN’S magazines, which feature anorexic women with their “natural” curves on the covers!)

My birthday follows shortly after Christmas, so my “Wish List” is very easy for my husband to handle. He is able to pick two major items and get them at the same time. And, since I no longer have the urge that I used to have when I was younger, he is able to leave one of the items in the garage until I get it for my birthday.

The urge I am talking about is the crazy unsticking of the wrapping tape and then taping it back… in order to peek at the gift’s box. It just seems like it’s way too difficult to do that anymore and I seem to have outgrown the “need to know” what I am going to get for my birthday. Hey! I’m just glad to be celebrating another birthday!

Anyway… I waited about a week after my birthday before I actually tackled all of the styrofoam sheets and internal plastic bags in the Next Grilleration G5‘s box. I always put off opening “technical items” since I know (with my compulsive tendencies!) that I am going to have to read every word in the owner’s manual, which has probably been translated into English by a computer program in a non-English speaking country! Yes, I’m a sucker for the “IMPORTANT SAFEGUARDS”… You know the ones… “Read instructions all prior utilize this device.” (That crazy English-translating computer program…)

I took everything out of the box, vacuumed up all of the fly-away styrofoam bits and pieces, washed all five of the grilling plates, set up the grill on the kitchen counter, and decided to use the grill for making dinner that night. I went to the box that it came in, vacuumed up all of the new fly-away styrofoam bits and pieces, and went back to the “IMPORTANT SAFEGUARDS” booklet.

The owner’s manual has the settings and times, as well as the type of grilling plates that should be used to grill all sorts of items. Let me say this, we usually grill our steaks outside on our large grill. BUT>>> after grilling our steaks on the George Foreman Next Grillerations G5, that is how we will be grilling them from now on. They were delicious! And, I love that I can put the grilling plates right into our dishwasher. I am actually planning to leave our George Foreman grill right on the kitchen counter… that’s how much I foresee using it!