November 1, 2024 • 39 mins
We kicked off the program with four news stories and different guests on the stories we think you need to know about!
8:05PM: Dr. Michelle DiBlasi – Chief of Inpatient Psychiatry at Tufts Medical Center: Seasonal affective disorder and the effects of daylight-saving time on your mood/health.
8:15PM: Jenny Johnson – Author, Food Personality/Broadcaster – Cohost of weekend WBZ show called “Food for Thought: : "A Taste of Boston" Cookbook Filled with recipes from the city's most legendary chefs and restaurateur.
830PM: Mark Schieldrop - Senior Spokesperson for AAA - Evening Commute Becomes More Dangerous as Daylight Saving Time Ends
8:45PM: Laurel Huston - Relationship Expert - Is Politics a Dating Deal Breaker?
8:05PM: Dr. Michelle DiBlasi – Chief of Inpatient Psychiatry at Tufts Medical Center: Seasonal affective disorder and the effects of daylight-saving time on your mood/health.
8:15PM: Jenny Johnson – Author, Food Personality/Broadcaster – Cohost of weekend WBZ show called “Food for Thought: : "A Taste of Boston" Cookbook Filled with recipes from the city's most legendary chefs and restaurateur.
830PM: Mark Schieldrop - Senior Spokesperson for AAA - Evening Commute Becomes More Dangerous as Daylight Saving Time Ends
8:45PM: Laurel Huston - Relationship Expert - Is Politics a Dating Deal Breaker?
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
It's night Side with Dan Ray. I'm doubly busy Boston's
news radio.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Thanks very much, Nicole, as we open up a Friday
night edition of Nightside. My name's Dan Ray, and I'm
here all the way until midnight. It is now November first.
Halloween is over, ladies and gentlemen. Let's now start thinking
about turkeys and Thanksgiving and all of that we got.
We're not gonna be talking about turkeys of Thanksgiving tonight.
(00:28):
We will get to that at some point later this month.
But we have an interesting, really good show lined up
for you tonight, so I hope you'll stick with us.
We have four interesting guests coming up with at nine o'clock,
we will have a debate, not a debate, a conversation,
a discussion, if you will, on two points of view
on question number four, and that is the question that
(00:48):
deals with the legalization of psychedelics here in the state
of Massachusetts, one of the five ballot questions you'll be
if you are going to be voting on Tuesday, if
you've voted already, that you will have to consider. I
have considered it. And then later on tonight we're going
to talk with one of my I have three favorite polsters,
(01:09):
Dave Paleologus obviously, Spencer Kimball, David at Suffolk, Spencer Kimball
at Emerson, and John Zogby. John has been doing this
for about forty years. We'll see what he thinks. As
we enter the weekend before the election of twenty twenty four,
and then in the twentieth hour tonight, got a special
treat for I'm going to ask people to call in
if you are having some anxiety over whether or not
(01:31):
your candidate is going to win the presidency on Tuesday,
Whether you're a supporter of Vice President Harris, a former
President Trump, and you are committed to that person, but
you're not confident they're going to win, you know, call in.
We're gonna we're gonna do sort of a group session
here which we're going to try to make everybody get
(01:54):
the anxiety level down a little bit. We'll deal with that.
I'll explain that a little bit later on tonight, but
first we're going to start off, as you know this weekend.
One of the other things this weekend, besides worrying about
the presidential election, we have to worry about moving the
clocks backwards. We get an extra hour of sleep. But
one of the byproducts of moving the clocks backwards something
(02:15):
called the seasonal effective disorder. And with us is doctor
Michelle Deblosi. She's the chief of inpatient Psychiatry Tufts Medical Center.
Doctor Deblase. Some days I think I need you, I
have to call you off here. But with everything that's
going on, I think all of us need some help.
(02:36):
At this point, let's talk about seasonal effective disorder. This
is actually something that affects a lot of people and
affects them dramatically. First of all, welcome to Night's side,
and please explain to people who have never heard of it,
and I think most of them audience, have heard of it.
What exactly do you mean by seasonal effective disorder?
Speaker 3 (02:58):
Well, first of all, thanks so much for having me.
This is really a great honor. So in terms of
seasonal effective disorder.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
It's actually doctor, but it's my honor to have you
trust me. They call you to say, Doc, I need
some help here. Remember I'm always.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
Happy to help, always happy to help. So seasonal effective
disorder does affect a fair amount of people. You know,
I think for most of us, we tend to get
kind of like the seasonal blues. You know, when it's
like late fall, early winter, it's kind of less sunlight,
it's darker outside, it's darker earlier, it's cold out. You know,
(03:41):
we start to kind of feel like a little bit down,
maybe like isolating a little bit more. But for some
people this can be really severe. So and that's what
we call it seasonal effective disorder, where people actually get
a true depressive episode, like they're not sleeping while they
you know, lose interest in things they used to enjoy.
They feel really down, really sad, and so you know,
(04:04):
it can be a really tough time of year for
a lot of people.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
So what causes it? Is it the lack of sunlight?
Is there a chemical reaction or or merely a psychologue
I shouldn't say merely, but obviously if it's a chemical reaction,
that's even I think medically more serious than if it's
a psychological reaction.
Speaker 4 (04:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
So, I mean I don't think we know exactly what
causes it, but there are several theories, you know, one
of which is that with the decrease sunlight this time
of year, we actually have less access in our brains
to our feel good foremone which is called serotonin so
that's one contributing factor. The other thing is, you know,
with sunlight, we get more vitamin D in our bodies,
(04:50):
and so with less lunch sunlight, there's less vitamin D
that's available to us, and that can kind of worsen
our mood. And then kind of this third theory is
that with less only our bodies actually are going to
be producing more melatonin, which is something that some of
us take us supplement at night to help us sleep,
but it can make you just feel more like sluggish
and down. So those are kind of like the leading theories,
(05:14):
but I do think there's probably also a psychological component.
You know a lot of people kind of like isolate,
don't go outside a lot, maybe don't spend as much
time with people, and so that can kind of worsen
the symptoms.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
Yeah, and the symptoms for some people can be really tough.
Probably the person who I know was impacted by it
most severely was the former first Lady of Massachusetts, Kitty Ducaccus,
Governor Michael Decaucus's wife. And I don't know if you're
(05:47):
a familiar or even if you were living here back
when Governor Ducaccus was the governor, but after his time
as governor and as a Democratic presidential candidate in nineteen
eighty eight, Missus Ducaucus spoke pretty openly about having been
impacted this way by this, and I actually did a
piano discussion with her in Worcester with her and with
(06:09):
Governor Decaucus. So tremendous impact on her and on the
Dacaccus family. And that's when it was driven home to me,
this was about twenty twenty five years ago, that this
is not something that's in someone's head. This is a
real This has a real impact on different people, and
on Missus Dacaccus it really adversely impacted and she had
(06:33):
to fight through it. And Governor Dedcaccus was very supportive
of his wife and understood early on that this was
not just a mood swing. This was something that could
be predicted the with the onset of less daylight. And again,
the daylight doesn't change, It just swishes on Sunday. As
I'm sure you know, it's not as if we lose
it hours of daylight. It just gets rearranged on our schedule,
(06:57):
and that is what kicks it off. I believe in
a lot of people if I'm wrong here, and I've
put out some bad information. Please correct me.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
No, you know, you're absolutely right, and you know there's
a whole range of severity, and some people do get
really sick from this and can be really crippling, So
it's important to be aware of that.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Yeah, this is this is something that is there other
than sort of like just feeling down or feeling blue.
Is there any way that people can on their own
figure out Hey, is it the timing of it? Is it?
Is it sort of certain certain activities that you no
(07:38):
longer want to put How can people sort of self
diagnose and realize that maybe they need to talk to
someone about this, because I think you have to almost
sense that you got an issue before you pick up
the phone and get in touch with someone to help
you out on something like this. What are some of
the obvious signs that most people would be able to recognize.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
Yeah, you know, I think you mentioned a few of
the symptoms. I think the biggest thing is when you
start to feel like you just aren't like yourself anymore,
Like you're you're not wanting to like get out of bed,
You're not wanting to do things you used to like
to do, like go out with friends or doing activities
you kind of lose interest. But the biggest signs of
a depressive episode are also going to be objective measures.
(08:23):
So I mean things like changes in your appetite like
either eating like way too much or just like not
being interested in eating anymore, or you know, sleeping a
lot less, like having trouble sleeping or like over sleeping
you know into mid afternoon. You know, things like that
are going to be a sign that something might be,
you know, seriously wrong. And certainly if it gets really
(08:45):
severe in terms of your mood where you're feeling totally
hopeless or you're having thoughts about ending your life, like
you absolutely need to get help immediately.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Such good advice, Such such good advice. Doctor Michelle de Blassie,
Chief of Impatient Psychilgy Psychiatry a Tough Medical Center. Is
there any program or books that you'd like to refer
people to. I mean, oftentimes people either have written a paper,
written a book, or there's a program that people can
(09:15):
reach out to. Sometimes it's the information that you're provided
that's most important. I just want to give you an
opportunity if there's any way, any any way you want
to refer people to to get more information about this.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
Yeah, you know, it's a really good you know question.
I do think in this situation there is a lot
of information, you know, on the internet, just just basic
websites can kind of give you sort of the layout
of what it could be. So I don't have anything specific.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Well, thank you very much, but your time tonight was
really invaluable. And if there are people who in the
next few days or even now are beginning to feel
this way, I use the word feeling blue, which covers
a variety of feelings and conditions, pay attention to it
and seek some help. Doctor Michelle de Blasi really enjoyed
the conversation with you. Thank you very much for making
(10:06):
an understandable even of someone like me. I appreciate it
so much.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
Absolutely, you have a great night. Thank you you toube.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
I enjoy the weekend. When we get back, we're going
to talk about a new cookbook filled with recipes from
the city's most legendary chefs and restauranteurs, A Taste of
Boston co written by Jenny Johnson along with Billy Costa.
You know them from Nessen's Dining Playbook. And also they
(10:34):
have a show here at WVZ every Saturday Night Food
for Thought. We'll be talking with Jenny on the other
side of the news break here on Nightside.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
Night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's News Radio.
Now back to Dan ray Line from the Window World
Nightside Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
Back on Nightside. I'm delighted to welcome a very familiar
name and a very familiar voice, very familiar personality. She's
an author of Food Personality broadcast, co host of the
weekend WBZ show called Food for Thought, and also co
host of Nesson's Dining playbook Jenny Johnson. Jenny, welcome to
Night's Side. So glad to have you here.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
Dan, It's so nice to be with you.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
You have written a book called A Taste of Boston,
and I think that you and Billy Costa, who is
your co author of the book here, are particularly situated,
well situated. This is the definitive cookbook of the city
we love. Tell us how you come up with the idea,
and tell us it's just out. Tell us how people
(11:40):
can get it. It sounds like a great book for
holiday gift giving and for bringing to people's homes. If
you're going to Thanksgiving dinner. This is something people should
should be aware of. Tell us, tell us how it
came to be, and tell us what it contains.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
You're right, Dan, So, Billy and I have been working
together for twenty just this month actually, and in anticipation
of that, we wanted something to sort of celebrate twenty
years of promoting hospitality in Boston and really New England.
And you know, television shows and radio shows that we do,
we spend a lot of time on them, and then
(12:16):
they air and then they're over, you know, And I
think we both had this desire to have something really
tangible to hold in our hands, to be able to
promote the industry that we love so much. So we
launched a Taste of Boston cookbook. It has sixty of
Boston's chefs, It has sixty recipes, and then it has
sixty stories. Because you're right, we are kind of uniquely
(12:38):
situated in a place where these chefs are not just
people that we have admired from afar. These are not
just chefs that we have watched build their careers over
these twenty years. But the majority of these chefs are
some of our closest friends, and so we have sort
of the unique opportunity to tell some of those stories
that you certainly might not know, and gives them a
(13:00):
little bit more color and tell us a little bit
more about who they are as humans.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
So I assume the book is readily available, but give
us a couple of just ideas of who the chefs
are and how complicated the recipes are. For example, I'm
going to get out of the vibe. I'm going to
go find one of these books and get them myself,
because I'm not a good cook, and I'm hoping that
some of the recipes are things that I'll be able
(13:25):
to follow along working on my shift. I'm always looking
too often, am I having a can of soup at
five o'clock at beach? Because you're really you know, you
got four hours you kind of have a big meal.
But it would be great to be off in a
book like that that you can put together pretty quickly.
Do you have recipes for the gourmet chefs as well
(13:46):
as people like me who have a tough time growing Yeah, hamburger.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
I think that's the great part about this book is
we broke it up into breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert,
so very simple. All of the you know, different meals
that we enjoy so well. Some of them not gonna
lie little bit complicated. You really got to put your
your chef's hat on for some of them. Most of
them are very approachable. So what's really interesting is you're
seeing some of the most well known Boston chefs, everyone
(14:14):
from Lydia Shire to Ken Oranger to Michael Schlau, you know,
to Jeremy Seoul. You're seeing Joanne change in here on
the sortoon, some of our favorite you know, and very
sort of at this point historic because they're so steeped
in the culinary world of Boston chef. And then you
have some newer names Aaron Miller, Jose d'Arte, Michael Lombardi,
(14:35):
but all chefs that have really honed their craft here
in Boston, and so they totally range. The other day,
Billy and I for a dining playbook our television show,
we made Cottage Cheese Pancakes by Anthony Caterano. He's a
chef at Presa and has some other chefs in the city,
and it was really fun and very kind of bizarre.
You know, you might like cottage cheese, you certainly love pancakes,
but you haven't thought of putting those two together. It
(14:55):
was very simple and it was very fun.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
Something that I firstly considered I personally considered chocolate chip
pancakes a health food. Now I don't know if I'm
categorizing that correctly, but I could do that one, that's
for sure. I actually love sometimes some nice I make
pancakes for my dinner at five o'clock at night.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
There's nothing wrong with breakfast for dinner, Dan, nothing at all.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
I know. I just want to I just want to
make sure that I'm not breaking any rules here. But
I'm here for the most part by myself during the week,
and so it's I can do whatever I want.
Speaker 3 (15:29):
Well, well, do you have a sweet tooth?
Speaker 2 (15:31):
Oh? Please? I have thirty two sweat?
Speaker 3 (15:34):
Yeah, okay, that's good. Well, I want to tell you
if there's this one that is so I fight it
very unique. There are unique flavors, but it's a pistachio
Terry Misdew And there's something about the flavor of the
pistachio that took this team sew to a completely different level.
This was mother and son actually, so Kathy Sidell and
Ben Sidell, and they have restaurants all over This is
(15:56):
from actually Salty Girl. They also own Stephanie's in the
Back Bay, but we made that and it was so
rich and well, not overly rich, so like perfectly rich
and creamy, with this tang that you're just not used
to in terraormists do. And then you know Joann Shang,
who I mentioned, does kind of the classic Boston quam pie,
but does it in her own unique way. And so
it's kind of nice to be able to think, how
would I be able to make Joean Shang's recipe. She's
(16:18):
so famous with multiple flowers all over the city and beyond,
and yet you have that recipe in this book. And
I one thing I want to say is one of
the greatest things about this is also how you see
the overlap between these chefs. Okay, so you think of
your chef and you think of that restaurant that you love.
What you might not know is that a lot of
these chefs are very close friends, and they are all
(16:40):
friends who support one another. They support the nonprofits that
they support. They do a lot of philanthropy within our city,
a lot of supporting our hospitals or education centers and
our nonprofits in the area. And so you are through
the story, you're really able to get sort of the
richness that is so much of the camaraderie that is
this industry.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
Well, I know that there's a lot of cities that claim,
you know, New Orleans, they talk about the great New
Orleans cuisine, and you know Chicago, the great steak places
in Chicago, and of course New York City. But I
think Boston's right up there. And I think that you
and Billy over the years have really made people aware
of that twenty years on television. Who there's probably no
(17:18):
other city that has some a couple like you guys
who have done so much with it for the dining industry,
and so it's only appropriate. So the book is called
A Taste of Boston. It's a cookbook filled with recipes
from cities most legendary chefs and restaurant toys. You got
a forward written by Mark Wahlberg, as I understand that's correct.
Speaker 5 (17:37):
We do.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
Mark has known Billy for a lot of years, and
I at one point was an extra in one of
his movies here, and he's just been a big supporter,
and we've also been a big supporter of his brother Paul.
We were close with his mom and what's nice about
be forward? Did you hear Mark talk about how much
he loves food? We all love food, and I think
this is a nice celebration of both the city that
you love and a lot of different culinary flavors from
(17:59):
the chefs that you us.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Well, that's that's so great. I'll be looking forward to
watch the Dining in Essence Dining playbook. Yeah, even more closely.
I always enjoy the personality that both you and Billy
have because you make it fun to watch, and you're
a great guest, and we'll have you back. And how
can people get this? I'm assuming it's available? Thank you?
Speaker 3 (18:21):
Yes, so it is available on Amazon. You just go
to a Taste of Boston cookbook on Amazon. It's also
available on Meet Boston dot com slash Cookbook where you
can learn a little bit more about it. And it
is as you said on the top, it's a great
gift for the hostess event that you're going to this
holiday season, and a great gift for anyone who loves
food and who loves Boston.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
Sounds great. Give me I stepped on your line there.
I know Amazon, you know is easy. What was what's
the other website you were sending people to.
Speaker 3 (18:51):
Yeah, Amazon, of course is probably the easiest. But you
also can go to meet Boston dot com slash cookbook,
where we give a little bit more color and flavor
to everything that's inside the buck.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
Okay, and when you say meet to Boston, you mean
meet Boston.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
That's correct.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
All right. I just want to make sure. I want
to get anybody lost on the internet. That's but sure.
Jenny enjoyed it so much, Please say I had to
Billy cost it for me.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
He's a I definitely will Dan, thank you so much
for having on talk soon.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
Absolutely, all right, we come back. We're going to talk
about it more. Well. I think it's a serious topic.
And that is, believe it or not, beginning Monday night, actually,
I guess Sunday night. The beginning Monday night, the evening
commute is going to become a little more dangerous because
we will lose daylight savings time and it's going to
get darker. About an hour earlier. You're going to be
(19:40):
talking with Triple A senior spokesperson, Mark shield Drop, just
to kind of make you a weird what's going on?
And I think it's going to be an important conversation,
right here on night Side WVS Boston ten thirty and
your AM dial. You can always get the iHeartRadio app
if you haven't any trouble picking us up. And by
the way, I had a lovely I hope. A couple
(20:01):
in Montreal sent me a lovely text today, not a text,
an email. Suzanne Sizzek up in Montreal. She said that
her husband and I listened. My husband and I listened
to your excellent show daily from Montreal. Congratulations on hosting
a fair, honest and enlightening talk show. No easy feat
(20:21):
I'm sure so thank you so much, Susanne. I hope
you're listening, and I certainly will answer your email over
the weekend. But in the meantime we'll step aside and
we'll be back. We'll step aside for the news at
the bottom of the Arron, and we're going to be
back with another great guest here Nightside on November first.
November first, think about that. November one, twenty twenty.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
Four, it's night Side with Dan Ray. Hey, Dan Boston's
news Radio. Night Side with Dan Ray. I'm telling you
Boston's news Radio.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
Big weekend coming up here. This is the first weekend
of November. Today being November first, as have reminded you
a couple of times, and one of the big events
in the weekend, besides all the football games and things
like that and outdoor events as we hang on to
some of this really fine fall New England weather, one
of the big events of the weekend is going to
be that theoretical one hour extra sleep that all of
(21:22):
us will get Saturday night Sunday morning when the clocks
are rolled back and we leave daylight Savings time and
we move back into Eastern Standard time. That sounds great,
but there's a problem, and that is that the evening
commute is going to become a little more dangerous as
we all of a sudden go from driving in relative
(21:44):
daylight to now driving in darkness, particularly in the evening commute.
With us is Mark shield Drop, senior spokesperson for Triple
A here in New England, and Mark, I guess there
are some statistics that back you up on this, that
this can be a little danger added to the to
the commute, the evening commute in the next few days
of early next week at least.
Speaker 4 (22:05):
Welcome back, hey, Dan, and thanks for having me. And
you're right, the numbers are pretty interesting really as soon
as we set the clocks back, we see a pretty
decent increase in the number of crashes in that five
pm hour. So that's you know, peak commute time, that's
when people are coming home it's suddenly dark. So we
saw thirty eight percent increases in crashes in Massachusetts last
(22:27):
year alone, and when we look at pedestrian crashes, it's
really troubling. There was one hundred and fifty nine percent
increase in pedestrian crashes in the five pm hour when
we compare November to October. So basically, you know the
time change.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
Okay, so is this a function of that all of
a sudden we're driving in in the morning and things
happened dramatically changed. If anything, that's got a little lighter
depending upon what time you commute into work. But when
you're coming home you walked into you get in your
car and you realize, hey, it's a little different than
it was on it last Friday last week, And is
(23:02):
that people are not paying attention? Have they not cleaned
their windshields? What can we do to mediate this situation
to make it a little safer for everybody drivers and pedestrians.
Speaker 4 (23:13):
Yeah, well, you're starting to list off a lot of
the factors that come into play, and I think we're
in the habit of driving in daylight after the evening commute,
all of a sudden, it's dark. We're not used to it.
Speaker 3 (23:22):
You know.
Speaker 4 (23:23):
The reality is we have way less experience driving at
night by the time we get to the same are
because it's been light, you know, most of the day.
So there's that adjustment period where we kind of realize like, oh, okay,
I need to make sure my lights are on. I
gotta be a little extra careful, and I'm whipping around
that corner because I'm not going to see that pedestrian
right away they're trying to cross the street. So there's
(23:43):
definitely that the glare is a factor. People are getting
a little blinded, and from the headlights that are coming
on your windshield, if it's a little grindy on the inside,
all of a sudden, it's a little bit tougher to see.
The other factor is, and I'm not a sleep expert,
but sleep experts do say that after the time change,
even though we think we're getting an extra hour sleep
(24:04):
in the morning over the weekend, the reality is circidian
rhythms can be affected, and we can find ourselves drowsy.
And we've done some research at Triple A where we
ask folks, you know, how drowsy do you feel, and
a lot of them say, I don't feel too drowsy.
But in these studies that we've done, they're actually moderately
to severely drowsy. So people don't realize how tired they
(24:25):
really are. So I think this is the kind of
thing that just kind of catches up with you when
you're behind the wheel, it's a cool night, you've got
the heat on, you're heading home, you've got a long
day of work, and your eyelets are a little heavy,
and next thing you know, you're not off for a second.
So I think that has a lot.
Speaker 3 (24:41):
To do with it.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
So, without drilling down too deeply in the stats that
you've kept, are we talking about an uptick in minor
fender benders, which of course is bad, But are we
talking about something more serious than that? And you know,
fatal crashes again, I hope it's the latter for the former,
not the latter.
Speaker 4 (25:02):
Yeah, you know, crashes of all types at five pm
and many roads in Massachusetts, Look, they're not going to
be moving too fast because of the traffic. So that
does kind of reduce the number of fatal crashes that
we see on the highways. You know, most of the
really bad fatal crashes on our roadways happened really in
the overnight, in the very early morning hours, in dinner
(25:24):
as the fatalities. But we are worried about pedestrians, especially
pedestrians at that five PM because there's a lot of
people walking around and that's when people they had that
evening routine, you know, they walk the dog before they
come back in and cook dinner. You know, so maybe
instead of taking that walk at five pm, if you
have the ability, if you're home already, maybe move it
to like three point thirty, get it a little bit earlier.
Change you routine up so you're not out when drivers
(25:45):
are on the road in that newfound darkness. We think
that drowsy driving crashes are severely under reported too. So
last year, just the entire year in Massachusetts, there's a
total of three and twenty two crashes where police checked
the box it said drowsiness or a driver falling asleep
was the cause of the crash. There were nine fatalities
in those crashes. I think those numbers are way higher.
(26:07):
You know, when we wake up in the morning and
you see that story of that single car crash at
five in the morning, that beard off the roadway and
police aren't really sure what happened somebody. You know, it
turns out they weren't impaired on alcohol, but you know,
that person sadly had passed away, so we can't ask
what happened. Those are drowsy driving crashes in many cases,
but we just aren't able to actually record it as
(26:29):
such because we can't really tell if someone fell asleep.
So this is a big issue overall. And it happened
to me. I've started to drift off on the road
and thankfully my car beated at me blink keep the
cyst kicked on, and that really kind of rattled me awake.
But that was a big, stark reminder for me. As
somebody goes and you know, tries to practice what he preaches,
(26:50):
it can happen to anyone and it comes up on
you quickly.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
Well, I can let me tell you, I worked for
a long time the early morning news and television of
the Channel four, about eleven years, and you were up
at three o'clock a quarter three in the morning. You
might have been coaching, you know, hockey the night the
night before at nine o'clock at a rink, and instead
(27:14):
of getting six hours sleep, you got four and a half.
And that would be the day. Particularly, I knew, like
in the spring, you'd be driving back from stories and
it's sunny out and it's you know, all of a sudden,
the warm weather has hit sometime in April, and I
can remember a couple of days actually realizing, okay, you
just you just nodded off and now you're yeah, twelve
thirty one o'clock, and boy, if that doesn't if that
(27:38):
doesn't shake up. But these these crashes that you're talking about,
which you are eminently predictable, and these accidents, there are
people who are listening to us right now who if
everybody just was a little more careful, particularly the first
week or so, once you get back, and it's like,
you know, it reminds me of Mark when there's a
first snowstorm and it's like one inch of snow or
two inches of snow. The whole city gets tied up
(28:01):
because nobody remembers how to drive in the snow. A
couple of months later, we'll have a ten inch snowstorm,
No problem. Everybody's doing perfectly. So just next week, people
be a little careful and beer in mind what Mark
had to say. A lot of very sobering statistics that
you're brought up for us tonight, Mark, and hopefully they'll
be some people out there who will take it to
(28:22):
heart and just be a little more careful. Look, take
another look before you pull out of the because the
other person might be not paying attention, either when you
pull out of a parking space or you pull out
of a parking garage. Make sure there's not some little
kid floating around on a bike, because you know it's
all of us have done, have been driving and at
(28:43):
some moment, oh my god, I wish I had seen
that earlier. So just to realize that next week is
going to be a little bit of a danger area,
get that extra hour of sleep, Enjoy the extra hour
of sleep, whether it helps you or not. But next week,
be especially careful. Mark. As always, thank you so much
for joining us much.
Speaker 4 (29:00):
Dan, appreciate you getting the traffic safety message out for Yeah, he's.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
So borant, because guess what it could be me walking
across the street and someone Yeah I could This is
This is self protection for all of us. So thank
you for joining us, particularly on a Friday night. Hope
you had a good Halloween. Don't need too much. Yeah, okay,
thanks man. All right, when we get back on the
other side, we're going to talk. Look, politics is we're
(29:23):
in the midst of the political season here, hopefully it'll
be over by Tuesday night, Wednesday morning and all of that.
But we're going to talk with a relationship expert who
will answer the question is politics a dating deal breaker?
I suspect that politics has never been a greater dating
deal breaker than it's been in the last couple of years.
(29:44):
We'll talk with Laurel Houston right after the break here
on Nightside.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Nightside Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
All right, welcome back everybody, and we are we're going
to mix dating with politics. Could be a bad mix
with us. It's Laurel Houston. She's a relationship expert, and
the question is is politics a dating deal breaker? When
I was dating back in the day, when I was
a single guy, politics were really not a factor. But
(30:20):
my sense is they're becoming a much more important factor.
Laurel Houston, Welcome to Nightside. How are you good?
Speaker 5 (30:26):
Thank you for having me on the show.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
Well, thanks so much for joining us. So my question is, look,
we all know that the temperature, the political temperature, has risen.
We're a badly divided nation right now. A lot of
people on both sides of the equation, are of the spectrum,
are not tolerant of people who have different viewpoints? And
(30:50):
has it impacted dating relationships? I'm sure it has tell
us how.
Speaker 5 (30:55):
Oh very much so. And I think one of my
favorite things to tell people right at the beginning, whether
it is your dating partner, your parent, whoever it is,
when I start this conversation about politics, religion, money, whatever
it is, will this conversation help build the relationship or
will this conversation build resentment? Because if you start the
(31:20):
conversation with that in mind, that tells you more than
you need to know than what the conversation is actually about.
Am I trying to build connection? Am I trying to
find common ground? Or am I trying to persuade and manipulate?
And course, because when we are in relationships and it
is not about building relationships, that's when it just builds
(31:42):
resentment and more often than not. That happens a lot
when politics come into it, because we're trying to build connections.
Speaker 2 (31:50):
Ideally, you would like to think that people would fall
in love because they like each other's values and they
have common interests and all of that, and then yeah,
if there's some differences in politics, so be it. But
politics has become such a hot button issue. I'll play
devil's advocate for a second. Isn't it better just to
(32:10):
get it out of the way and say, Okay, you know,
I'm this, You're that it's never going to work. Really
nice to meet you and move on. Or is it
better to to build that relationship and hope that when
all of a sudden there is a presidential election and
you find out that your new best friend, you're someone
(32:31):
who might become your life partner, is just diametrically opposed
to virtually everything you believe in. It's kind of a
Hobson's choice, isn't it. Oh?
Speaker 5 (32:41):
Absolutely, And that's why having these conversations are actually very important.
But far too often we steer away from these conversations
because what we're actually asking when we have these conversations
is whether we agree or disagree. Do you still want
to be in my life? Do we still want to
have a relationship once the conversation is over? And so
(33:03):
I think these conversations are far more important than we think.
They only come up once every four years, but these
should be common in ongoing conversations. We need to know
where you see on, what your values are, and are
we in alignment with it together?
Speaker 2 (33:18):
Okay, So let me ask you this. You study this.
I don't, although I study it five nights a week
here because I'm doing a show that has a lot
of politics in it, and I get people on each
extreme who are tough to deal with because they're so
committed to this set of beliefs and their core values
that they don't even want to have They just want
(33:40):
to make a speech on my show. And I tell people,
let's have a conversation, okay, whether you agree with disagree.
So here's my question. I don't think again, back in
the seventies and eighties, even though there were you know,
divisive political issues and divisive political figures, I don't think
(34:01):
that the political differences had so interacted with your personal relationships.
I mean, it was almost it was put to the side.
What percentage of people do you think at this point
on either side of the political spectrum just are so,
(34:29):
you know, intent with their beliefs that they could not
have a normal personal relationship with someone from the other
side of the political spectrum. Is there been any studies
done on this that you know, twenty percent of the
people have saying, look, I want nothing to do with
anyone who would disagree with me politically.
Speaker 5 (34:50):
So that's actually interesting. You're actually pretty close as twenty
four percent. They have them studies on them, and it's
more than just most of people don't cite that it's
a political point of view. They say what you said earlier,
it's a value based point of view, and so it's
not necessarily whether they are right wing, left ring, republic democrat, whatever.
(35:16):
It's more of identified this as one of my core values,
and so if you can't accept this political value, they
actually take it as a because you won't accept this
political value, you're also rejecting part of my core value
and personality. So one of the things that they're finding
(35:36):
now is that people are taking opinions far more personalized.
Instead of it being a statement, you have a lot
of people who take it as a criticism instead of
a comment. And they take it very that they internalize it,
and so it is a big thing. And that's why
with these conversations, they're important conversations that even if and
(35:58):
no one likes to hear me say this, but even
if the conversation makes you go, this isn't going to
work out for the best, that's really important information to have.
And sometimes these conversations just lead you to another conversation
that helps you find common ground that you didn't know
you needed to find. So they're very valuable conversations to
have as long as they're done respectfully.
Speaker 2 (36:21):
When I think of values, I think if if if
a couple meets and they talk about values, I think
it's for me. Values mean, you know, what's your relationship
with your family, if you if you still have family,
how important is it for you to be able to
(36:41):
you know, be in touch with your siblings, with your
you know, your parents, if you're lucky enough that they're
still alive. Because some people might say, look, I've really
had a bad situation, and I mean there's values there.
How much how much do I want to do to
help other people? And uh, how how many times a
year do I want to travel? How much am I
(37:05):
somebody who wants to save some money, or am I
somebody who just wants to go paid? You know, those
are sort of the economic values and the social values.
But when you get into the political values, I just
see that as a huge minefield and one step and
the whole thing blows up. I don't know.
Speaker 5 (37:22):
So, and that's very much it can be. Those conversations
very much can be if you have These are the
things that I've noticed when they become explosive, is the
person you're having a conversation with someone who sees manipulation
and coercion as part of a regular relationship. So that's
kind of a I'm not even having this conversation with
(37:42):
you because it's not a conversation. It's a manipulation, and
I'm trying to get you on their side. I will
say this though, a lot of people when they bring
these up, it's because they really deep down or asking
will we connect deeper through this or is this something
that's going to break us? A part A simple My
(38:02):
husband and I love to travel. He travels one way,
I travel another way. So we find the common ground.
We love to travel. We're going to go places we
want to go together. When you bring politics in it,
and you bring up economics into it, and you bring
all of the very divisive parts that make up the
different political parties, that's when, all of a sudden, it's
(38:23):
not about traveling, it's not about politics, It's about can
we still find common ground together?
Speaker 2 (38:29):
You know, Laura, La, I wish I had more time.
We're coming up on our nine o'clock news. Maybe love
to have you back and take some phone calls from
people as well, if that's possible, maybe after the election.
Is there a book that you could refer people to.
Have you written a book on this at all? Or
you have a biology I have not.
Speaker 5 (38:50):
I have not written a book that's published yet. It
is with my editor right now actually. But a great
place to find me. I'm on YouTube and all of
our social is a great place to find where I
talk more intently on relationships, how to navigate them communication.
Speaker 2 (39:07):
Great. Okay, so it's Laurel like Laurel Wreath l A
U R E L Houston like the city of Houston.
But no, oh so it's h U S T O
N like the like the great movie producer John Houston. Right, yeah, yeah, great,
thanks Laurel. I'm gonna have my my folks reach back
and maybe get you to come in. We'll do an
hour and we'll take some phone calls from people. I think,
(39:29):
I think would have a great time. I think it
would be a fun hour. Okay, thanks so much for
joining us. Okay, Happy election, Happy Election Day. Thanks Laurel.
It's night Side with Dan Ray. I'm doubly busy Boston's
news radio.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Thanks very much, Nicole, as we open up a Friday
night edition of Nightside. My name's Dan Ray, and I'm
here all the way until midnight. It is now November first.
Halloween is over, ladies and gentlemen. Let's now start thinking
about turkeys and Thanksgiving and all of that we got.
We're not gonna be talking about turkeys of Thanksgiving tonight.
(00:28):
We will get to that at some point later this month.
But we have an interesting, really good show lined up
for you tonight, so I hope you'll stick with us.
We have four interesting guests coming up with at nine o'clock,
we will have a debate, not a debate, a conversation,
a discussion, if you will, on two points of view
on question number four, and that is the question that
(00:48):
deals with the legalization of psychedelics here in the state
of Massachusetts, one of the five ballot questions you'll be
if you are going to be voting on Tuesday, if
you've voted already, that you will have to consider. I
have considered it. And then later on tonight we're going
to talk with one of my I have three favorite polsters,
(01:09):
Dave Paleologus obviously, Spencer Kimball, David at Suffolk, Spencer Kimball
at Emerson, and John Zogby. John has been doing this
for about forty years. We'll see what he thinks. As
we enter the weekend before the election of twenty twenty four,
and then in the twentieth hour tonight, got a special
treat for I'm going to ask people to call in
if you are having some anxiety over whether or not
(01:31):
your candidate is going to win the presidency on Tuesday,
Whether you're a supporter of Vice President Harris, a former
President Trump, and you are committed to that person, but
you're not confident they're going to win, you know, call in.
We're gonna we're gonna do sort of a group session
here which we're going to try to make everybody get
(01:54):
the anxiety level down a little bit. We'll deal with that.
I'll explain that a little bit later on tonight, but
first we're going to start off, as you know this weekend.
One of the other things this weekend, besides worrying about
the presidential election, we have to worry about moving the
clocks backwards. We get an extra hour of sleep. But
one of the byproducts of moving the clocks backwards something
(02:15):
called the seasonal effective disorder. And with us is doctor
Michelle Deblosi. She's the chief of inpatient Psychiatry Tufts Medical Center.
Doctor Deblase. Some days I think I need you, I
have to call you off here. But with everything that's
going on, I think all of us need some help.
(02:36):
At this point, let's talk about seasonal effective disorder. This
is actually something that affects a lot of people and
affects them dramatically. First of all, welcome to Night's side,
and please explain to people who have never heard of it,
and I think most of them audience, have heard of it.
What exactly do you mean by seasonal effective disorder?
Speaker 3 (02:58):
Well, first of all, thanks so much for having me.
This is really a great honor. So in terms of
seasonal effective disorder.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
It's actually doctor, but it's my honor to have you
trust me. They call you to say, Doc, I need
some help here. Remember I'm always.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
Happy to help, always happy to help. So seasonal effective
disorder does affect a fair amount of people. You know,
I think for most of us, we tend to get
kind of like the seasonal blues. You know, when it's
like late fall, early winter, it's kind of less sunlight,
it's darker outside, it's darker earlier, it's cold out. You know,
(03:41):
we start to kind of feel like a little bit down,
maybe like isolating a little bit more. But for some
people this can be really severe. So and that's what
we call it seasonal effective disorder, where people actually get
a true depressive episode, like they're not sleeping while they
you know, lose interest in things they used to enjoy.
They feel really down, really sad, and so you know,
(04:04):
it can be a really tough time of year for
a lot of people.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
So what causes it? Is it the lack of sunlight?
Is there a chemical reaction or or merely a psychologue
I shouldn't say merely, but obviously if it's a chemical reaction,
that's even I think medically more serious than if it's
a psychological reaction.
Speaker 4 (04:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
So, I mean I don't think we know exactly what
causes it, but there are several theories, you know, one
of which is that with the decrease sunlight this time
of year, we actually have less access in our brains
to our feel good foremone which is called serotonin so
that's one contributing factor. The other thing is, you know,
with sunlight, we get more vitamin D in our bodies,
(04:50):
and so with less lunch sunlight, there's less vitamin D
that's available to us, and that can kind of worsen
our mood. And then kind of this third theory is
that with less only our bodies actually are going to
be producing more melatonin, which is something that some of
us take us supplement at night to help us sleep,
but it can make you just feel more like sluggish
and down. So those are kind of like the leading theories,
(05:14):
but I do think there's probably also a psychological component.
You know a lot of people kind of like isolate,
don't go outside a lot, maybe don't spend as much
time with people, and so that can kind of worsen
the symptoms.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
Yeah, and the symptoms for some people can be really tough.
Probably the person who I know was impacted by it
most severely was the former first Lady of Massachusetts, Kitty Ducaccus,
Governor Michael Decaucus's wife. And I don't know if you're
(05:47):
a familiar or even if you were living here back
when Governor Ducaccus was the governor, but after his time
as governor and as a Democratic presidential candidate in nineteen
eighty eight, Missus Ducaucus spoke pretty openly about having been
impacted this way by this, and I actually did a
piano discussion with her in Worcester with her and with
(06:09):
Governor Decaucus. So tremendous impact on her and on the
Dacaccus family. And that's when it was driven home to me,
this was about twenty twenty five years ago, that this
is not something that's in someone's head. This is a
real This has a real impact on different people, and
on Missus Dacaccus it really adversely impacted and she had
(06:33):
to fight through it. And Governor Dedcaccus was very supportive
of his wife and understood early on that this was
not just a mood swing. This was something that could
be predicted the with the onset of less daylight. And again,
the daylight doesn't change, It just swishes on Sunday. As
I'm sure you know, it's not as if we lose
it hours of daylight. It just gets rearranged on our schedule,
(06:57):
and that is what kicks it off. I believe in
a lot of people if I'm wrong here, and I've
put out some bad information. Please correct me.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
No, you know, you're absolutely right, and you know there's
a whole range of severity, and some people do get
really sick from this and can be really crippling, So
it's important to be aware of that.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Yeah, this is this is something that is there other
than sort of like just feeling down or feeling blue.
Is there any way that people can on their own
figure out Hey, is it the timing of it? Is it?
Is it sort of certain certain activities that you no
(07:38):
longer want to put How can people sort of self
diagnose and realize that maybe they need to talk to
someone about this, because I think you have to almost
sense that you got an issue before you pick up
the phone and get in touch with someone to help
you out on something like this. What are some of
the obvious signs that most people would be able to recognize.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
Yeah, you know, I think you mentioned a few of
the symptoms. I think the biggest thing is when you
start to feel like you just aren't like yourself anymore,
Like you're you're not wanting to like get out of bed,
You're not wanting to do things you used to like
to do, like go out with friends or doing activities
you kind of lose interest. But the biggest signs of
a depressive episode are also going to be objective measures.
(08:23):
So I mean things like changes in your appetite like
either eating like way too much or just like not
being interested in eating anymore, or you know, sleeping a
lot less, like having trouble sleeping or like over sleeping
you know into mid afternoon. You know, things like that
are going to be a sign that something might be,
you know, seriously wrong. And certainly if it gets really
(08:45):
severe in terms of your mood where you're feeling totally
hopeless or you're having thoughts about ending your life, like
you absolutely need to get help immediately.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Such good advice, Such such good advice. Doctor Michelle de Blassie,
Chief of Impatient Psychilgy Psychiatry a Tough Medical Center. Is
there any program or books that you'd like to refer
people to. I mean, oftentimes people either have written a paper,
written a book, or there's a program that people can
(09:15):
reach out to. Sometimes it's the information that you're provided
that's most important. I just want to give you an
opportunity if there's any way, any any way you want
to refer people to to get more information about this.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
Yeah, you know, it's a really good you know question.
I do think in this situation there is a lot
of information, you know, on the internet, just just basic
websites can kind of give you sort of the layout
of what it could be. So I don't have anything specific.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Well, thank you very much, but your time tonight was
really invaluable. And if there are people who in the
next few days or even now are beginning to feel
this way, I use the word feeling blue, which covers
a variety of feelings and conditions, pay attention to it
and seek some help. Doctor Michelle de Blasi really enjoyed
the conversation with you. Thank you very much for making
(10:06):
an understandable even of someone like me. I appreciate it
so much.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
Absolutely, you have a great night. Thank you you toube.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
I enjoy the weekend. When we get back, we're going
to talk about a new cookbook filled with recipes from
the city's most legendary chefs and restauranteurs, A Taste of
Boston co written by Jenny Johnson along with Billy Costa.
You know them from Nessen's Dining Playbook. And also they
(10:34):
have a show here at WVZ every Saturday Night Food
for Thought. We'll be talking with Jenny on the other
side of the news break here on Nightside.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
Night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's News Radio.
Now back to Dan ray Line from the Window World
Nightside Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
Back on Nightside. I'm delighted to welcome a very familiar
name and a very familiar voice, very familiar personality. She's
an author of Food Personality broadcast, co host of the
weekend WBZ show called Food for Thought, and also co
host of Nesson's Dining playbook Jenny Johnson. Jenny, welcome to
Night's Side. So glad to have you here.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
Dan, It's so nice to be with you.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
You have written a book called A Taste of Boston,
and I think that you and Billy Costa, who is
your co author of the book here, are particularly situated,
well situated. This is the definitive cookbook of the city
we love. Tell us how you come up with the idea,
and tell us it's just out. Tell us how people
(11:40):
can get it. It sounds like a great book for
holiday gift giving and for bringing to people's homes. If
you're going to Thanksgiving dinner. This is something people should
should be aware of. Tell us, tell us how it
came to be, and tell us what it contains.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
You're right, Dan, So, Billy and I have been working
together for twenty just this month actually, and in anticipation
of that, we wanted something to sort of celebrate twenty
years of promoting hospitality in Boston and really New England.
And you know, television shows and radio shows that we do,
we spend a lot of time on them, and then
(12:16):
they air and then they're over, you know, And I
think we both had this desire to have something really
tangible to hold in our hands, to be able to
promote the industry that we love so much. So we
launched a Taste of Boston cookbook. It has sixty of
Boston's chefs, It has sixty recipes, and then it has
sixty stories. Because you're right, we are kind of uniquely
(12:38):
situated in a place where these chefs are not just
people that we have admired from afar. These are not
just chefs that we have watched build their careers over
these twenty years. But the majority of these chefs are
some of our closest friends, and so we have sort
of the unique opportunity to tell some of those stories
that you certainly might not know, and gives them a
(13:00):
little bit more color and tell us a little bit
more about who they are as humans.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
So I assume the book is readily available, but give
us a couple of just ideas of who the chefs
are and how complicated the recipes are. For example, I'm
going to get out of the vibe. I'm going to
go find one of these books and get them myself,
because I'm not a good cook, and I'm hoping that
some of the recipes are things that I'll be able
(13:25):
to follow along working on my shift. I'm always looking
too often, am I having a can of soup at
five o'clock at beach? Because you're really you know, you
got four hours you kind of have a big meal.
But it would be great to be off in a
book like that that you can put together pretty quickly.
Do you have recipes for the gourmet chefs as well
(13:46):
as people like me who have a tough time growing Yeah, hamburger.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
I think that's the great part about this book is
we broke it up into breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert,
so very simple. All of the you know, different meals
that we enjoy so well. Some of them not gonna
lie little bit complicated. You really got to put your
your chef's hat on for some of them. Most of
them are very approachable. So what's really interesting is you're
seeing some of the most well known Boston chefs, everyone
(14:14):
from Lydia Shire to Ken Oranger to Michael Schlau, you know,
to Jeremy Seoul. You're seeing Joanne change in here on
the sortoon, some of our favorite you know, and very
sort of at this point historic because they're so steeped
in the culinary world of Boston chef. And then you
have some newer names Aaron Miller, Jose d'Arte, Michael Lombardi,
(14:35):
but all chefs that have really honed their craft here
in Boston, and so they totally range. The other day,
Billy and I for a dining playbook our television show,
we made Cottage Cheese Pancakes by Anthony Caterano. He's a
chef at Presa and has some other chefs in the city,
and it was really fun and very kind of bizarre.
You know, you might like cottage cheese, you certainly love pancakes,
but you haven't thought of putting those two together. It
(14:55):
was very simple and it was very fun.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
Something that I firstly considered I personally considered chocolate chip
pancakes a health food. Now I don't know if I'm
categorizing that correctly, but I could do that one, that's
for sure. I actually love sometimes some nice I make
pancakes for my dinner at five o'clock at night.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
There's nothing wrong with breakfast for dinner, Dan, nothing at all.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
I know. I just want to I just want to
make sure that I'm not breaking any rules here. But
I'm here for the most part by myself during the week,
and so it's I can do whatever I want.
Speaker 3 (15:29):
Well, well, do you have a sweet tooth?
Speaker 2 (15:31):
Oh? Please? I have thirty two sweat?
Speaker 3 (15:34):
Yeah, okay, that's good. Well, I want to tell you
if there's this one that is so I fight it
very unique. There are unique flavors, but it's a pistachio
Terry Misdew And there's something about the flavor of the
pistachio that took this team sew to a completely different level.
This was mother and son actually, so Kathy Sidell and
Ben Sidell, and they have restaurants all over This is
(15:56):
from actually Salty Girl. They also own Stephanie's in the
Back Bay, but we made that and it was so
rich and well, not overly rich, so like perfectly rich
and creamy, with this tang that you're just not used
to in terraormists do. And then you know Joann Shang,
who I mentioned, does kind of the classic Boston quam pie,
but does it in her own unique way. And so
it's kind of nice to be able to think, how
would I be able to make Joean Shang's recipe. She's
(16:18):
so famous with multiple flowers all over the city and beyond,
and yet you have that recipe in this book. And
I one thing I want to say is one of
the greatest things about this is also how you see
the overlap between these chefs. Okay, so you think of
your chef and you think of that restaurant that you love.
What you might not know is that a lot of
these chefs are very close friends, and they are all
(16:40):
friends who support one another. They support the nonprofits that
they support. They do a lot of philanthropy within our city,
a lot of supporting our hospitals or education centers and
our nonprofits in the area. And so you are through
the story, you're really able to get sort of the
richness that is so much of the camaraderie that is
this industry.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
Well, I know that there's a lot of cities that claim,
you know, New Orleans, they talk about the great New
Orleans cuisine, and you know Chicago, the great steak places
in Chicago, and of course New York City. But I
think Boston's right up there. And I think that you
and Billy over the years have really made people aware
of that twenty years on television. Who there's probably no
(17:18):
other city that has some a couple like you guys
who have done so much with it for the dining industry,
and so it's only appropriate. So the book is called
A Taste of Boston. It's a cookbook filled with recipes
from cities most legendary chefs and restaurant toys. You got
a forward written by Mark Wahlberg, as I understand that's correct.
Speaker 5 (17:37):
We do.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
Mark has known Billy for a lot of years, and
I at one point was an extra in one of
his movies here, and he's just been a big supporter,
and we've also been a big supporter of his brother Paul.
We were close with his mom and what's nice about
be forward? Did you hear Mark talk about how much
he loves food? We all love food, and I think
this is a nice celebration of both the city that
you love and a lot of different culinary flavors from
(17:59):
the chefs that you us.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Well, that's that's so great. I'll be looking forward to
watch the Dining in Essence Dining playbook. Yeah, even more closely.
I always enjoy the personality that both you and Billy
have because you make it fun to watch, and you're
a great guest, and we'll have you back. And how
can people get this? I'm assuming it's available? Thank you?
Speaker 3 (18:21):
Yes, so it is available on Amazon. You just go
to a Taste of Boston cookbook on Amazon. It's also
available on Meet Boston dot com slash Cookbook where you
can learn a little bit more about it. And it
is as you said on the top, it's a great
gift for the hostess event that you're going to this
holiday season, and a great gift for anyone who loves
food and who loves Boston.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
Sounds great. Give me I stepped on your line there.
I know Amazon, you know is easy. What was what's
the other website you were sending people to.
Speaker 3 (18:51):
Yeah, Amazon, of course is probably the easiest. But you
also can go to meet Boston dot com slash cookbook,
where we give a little bit more color and flavor
to everything that's inside the buck.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
Okay, and when you say meet to Boston, you mean
meet Boston.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
That's correct.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
All right. I just want to make sure. I want
to get anybody lost on the internet. That's but sure.
Jenny enjoyed it so much, Please say I had to
Billy cost it for me.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
He's a I definitely will Dan, thank you so much
for having on talk soon.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
Absolutely, all right, we come back. We're going to talk
about it more. Well. I think it's a serious topic.
And that is, believe it or not, beginning Monday night, actually,
I guess Sunday night. The beginning Monday night, the evening
commute is going to become a little more dangerous because
we will lose daylight savings time and it's going to
get darker. About an hour earlier. You're going to be
(19:40):
talking with Triple A senior spokesperson, Mark shield Drop, just
to kind of make you a weird what's going on?
And I think it's going to be an important conversation,
right here on night Side WVS Boston ten thirty and
your AM dial. You can always get the iHeartRadio app
if you haven't any trouble picking us up. And by
the way, I had a lovely I hope. A couple
(20:01):
in Montreal sent me a lovely text today, not a text,
an email. Suzanne Sizzek up in Montreal. She said that
her husband and I listened. My husband and I listened
to your excellent show daily from Montreal. Congratulations on hosting
a fair, honest and enlightening talk show. No easy feat
(20:21):
I'm sure so thank you so much, Susanne. I hope
you're listening, and I certainly will answer your email over
the weekend. But in the meantime we'll step aside and
we'll be back. We'll step aside for the news at
the bottom of the Arron, and we're going to be
back with another great guest here Nightside on November first.
November first, think about that. November one, twenty twenty.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
Four, it's night Side with Dan Ray. Hey, Dan Boston's
news Radio. Night Side with Dan Ray. I'm telling you
Boston's news Radio.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
Big weekend coming up here. This is the first weekend
of November. Today being November first, as have reminded you
a couple of times, and one of the big events
in the weekend, besides all the football games and things
like that and outdoor events as we hang on to
some of this really fine fall New England weather, one
of the big events of the weekend is going to
be that theoretical one hour extra sleep that all of
(21:22):
us will get Saturday night Sunday morning when the clocks
are rolled back and we leave daylight Savings time and
we move back into Eastern Standard time. That sounds great,
but there's a problem, and that is that the evening
commute is going to become a little more dangerous as
we all of a sudden go from driving in relative
(21:44):
daylight to now driving in darkness, particularly in the evening commute.
With us is Mark shield Drop, senior spokesperson for Triple
A here in New England, and Mark, I guess there
are some statistics that back you up on this, that
this can be a little danger added to the to
the commute, the evening commute in the next few days
of early next week at least.
Speaker 4 (22:05):
Welcome back, hey, Dan, and thanks for having me. And
you're right, the numbers are pretty interesting really as soon
as we set the clocks back, we see a pretty
decent increase in the number of crashes in that five
pm hour. So that's you know, peak commute time, that's
when people are coming home it's suddenly dark. So we
saw thirty eight percent increases in crashes in Massachusetts last
(22:27):
year alone, and when we look at pedestrian crashes, it's
really troubling. There was one hundred and fifty nine percent
increase in pedestrian crashes in the five pm hour when
we compare November to October. So basically, you know the
time change.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
Okay, so is this a function of that all of
a sudden we're driving in in the morning and things
happened dramatically changed. If anything, that's got a little lighter
depending upon what time you commute into work. But when
you're coming home you walked into you get in your
car and you realize, hey, it's a little different than
it was on it last Friday last week, And is
(23:02):
that people are not paying attention? Have they not cleaned
their windshields? What can we do to mediate this situation
to make it a little safer for everybody drivers and pedestrians.
Speaker 4 (23:13):
Yeah, well, you're starting to list off a lot of
the factors that come into play, and I think we're
in the habit of driving in daylight after the evening commute,
all of a sudden, it's dark. We're not used to it.
Speaker 3 (23:22):
You know.
Speaker 4 (23:23):
The reality is we have way less experience driving at
night by the time we get to the same are
because it's been light, you know, most of the day.
So there's that adjustment period where we kind of realize like, oh, okay,
I need to make sure my lights are on. I
gotta be a little extra careful, and I'm whipping around
that corner because I'm not going to see that pedestrian
right away they're trying to cross the street. So there's
(23:43):
definitely that the glare is a factor. People are getting
a little blinded, and from the headlights that are coming
on your windshield, if it's a little grindy on the inside,
all of a sudden, it's a little bit tougher to see.
The other factor is, and I'm not a sleep expert,
but sleep experts do say that after the time change,
even though we think we're getting an extra hour sleep
(24:04):
in the morning over the weekend, the reality is circidian
rhythms can be affected, and we can find ourselves drowsy.
And we've done some research at Triple A where we
ask folks, you know, how drowsy do you feel, and
a lot of them say, I don't feel too drowsy.
But in these studies that we've done, they're actually moderately
to severely drowsy. So people don't realize how tired they
(24:25):
really are. So I think this is the kind of
thing that just kind of catches up with you when
you're behind the wheel, it's a cool night, you've got
the heat on, you're heading home, you've got a long
day of work, and your eyelets are a little heavy,
and next thing you know, you're not off for a second.
So I think that has a lot.
Speaker 3 (24:41):
To do with it.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
So, without drilling down too deeply in the stats that
you've kept, are we talking about an uptick in minor
fender benders, which of course is bad, But are we
talking about something more serious than that? And you know,
fatal crashes again, I hope it's the latter for the former,
not the latter.
Speaker 4 (25:02):
Yeah, you know, crashes of all types at five pm
and many roads in Massachusetts, Look, they're not going to
be moving too fast because of the traffic. So that
does kind of reduce the number of fatal crashes that
we see on the highways. You know, most of the
really bad fatal crashes on our roadways happened really in
the overnight, in the very early morning hours, in dinner
(25:24):
as the fatalities. But we are worried about pedestrians, especially
pedestrians at that five PM because there's a lot of
people walking around and that's when people they had that
evening routine, you know, they walk the dog before they
come back in and cook dinner. You know, so maybe
instead of taking that walk at five pm, if you
have the ability, if you're home already, maybe move it
to like three point thirty, get it a little bit earlier.
Change you routine up so you're not out when drivers
(25:45):
are on the road in that newfound darkness. We think
that drowsy driving crashes are severely under reported too. So
last year, just the entire year in Massachusetts, there's a
total of three and twenty two crashes where police checked
the box it said drowsiness or a driver falling asleep
was the cause of the crash. There were nine fatalities
in those crashes. I think those numbers are way higher.
(26:07):
You know, when we wake up in the morning and
you see that story of that single car crash at
five in the morning, that beard off the roadway and
police aren't really sure what happened somebody. You know, it
turns out they weren't impaired on alcohol, but you know,
that person sadly had passed away, so we can't ask
what happened. Those are drowsy driving crashes in many cases,
but we just aren't able to actually record it as
(26:29):
such because we can't really tell if someone fell asleep.
So this is a big issue overall. And it happened
to me. I've started to drift off on the road
and thankfully my car beated at me blink keep the
cyst kicked on, and that really kind of rattled me awake.
But that was a big, stark reminder for me. As
somebody goes and you know, tries to practice what he preaches,
(26:50):
it can happen to anyone and it comes up on
you quickly.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
Well, I can let me tell you, I worked for
a long time the early morning news and television of
the Channel four, about eleven years, and you were up
at three o'clock a quarter three in the morning. You
might have been coaching, you know, hockey the night the
night before at nine o'clock at a rink, and instead
(27:14):
of getting six hours sleep, you got four and a half.
And that would be the day. Particularly, I knew, like
in the spring, you'd be driving back from stories and
it's sunny out and it's you know, all of a sudden,
the warm weather has hit sometime in April, and I
can remember a couple of days actually realizing, okay, you
just you just nodded off and now you're yeah, twelve
thirty one o'clock, and boy, if that doesn't if that
(27:38):
doesn't shake up. But these these crashes that you're talking about,
which you are eminently predictable, and these accidents, there are
people who are listening to us right now who if
everybody just was a little more careful, particularly the first
week or so, once you get back, and it's like,
you know, it reminds me of Mark when there's a
first snowstorm and it's like one inch of snow or
two inches of snow. The whole city gets tied up
(28:01):
because nobody remembers how to drive in the snow. A
couple of months later, we'll have a ten inch snowstorm,
No problem. Everybody's doing perfectly. So just next week, people
be a little careful and beer in mind what Mark
had to say. A lot of very sobering statistics that
you're brought up for us tonight, Mark, and hopefully they'll
be some people out there who will take it to
(28:22):
heart and just be a little more careful. Look, take
another look before you pull out of the because the
other person might be not paying attention, either when you
pull out of a parking space or you pull out
of a parking garage. Make sure there's not some little
kid floating around on a bike, because you know it's
all of us have done, have been driving and at
(28:43):
some moment, oh my god, I wish I had seen
that earlier. So just to realize that next week is
going to be a little bit of a danger area,
get that extra hour of sleep, Enjoy the extra hour
of sleep, whether it helps you or not. But next week,
be especially careful. Mark. As always, thank you so much
for joining us much.
Speaker 4 (29:00):
Dan, appreciate you getting the traffic safety message out for Yeah, he's.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
So borant, because guess what it could be me walking
across the street and someone Yeah I could This is
This is self protection for all of us. So thank
you for joining us, particularly on a Friday night. Hope
you had a good Halloween. Don't need too much. Yeah, okay,
thanks man. All right, when we get back on the
other side, we're going to talk. Look, politics is we're
(29:23):
in the midst of the political season here, hopefully it'll
be over by Tuesday night, Wednesday morning and all of that.
But we're going to talk with a relationship expert who
will answer the question is politics a dating deal breaker?
I suspect that politics has never been a greater dating
deal breaker than it's been in the last couple of years.
(29:44):
We'll talk with Laurel Houston right after the break here
on Nightside.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Nightside Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
All right, welcome back everybody, and we are we're going
to mix dating with politics. Could be a bad mix
with us. It's Laurel Houston. She's a relationship expert, and
the question is is politics a dating deal breaker? When
I was dating back in the day, when I was
a single guy, politics were really not a factor. But
(30:20):
my sense is they're becoming a much more important factor.
Laurel Houston, Welcome to Nightside. How are you good?
Speaker 5 (30:26):
Thank you for having me on the show.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
Well, thanks so much for joining us. So my question is, look,
we all know that the temperature, the political temperature, has risen.
We're a badly divided nation right now. A lot of
people on both sides of the equation, are of the spectrum,
are not tolerant of people who have different viewpoints? And
(30:50):
has it impacted dating relationships? I'm sure it has tell
us how.
Speaker 5 (30:55):
Oh very much so. And I think one of my
favorite things to tell people right at the beginning, whether
it is your dating partner, your parent, whoever it is,
when I start this conversation about politics, religion, money, whatever
it is, will this conversation help build the relationship or
will this conversation build resentment? Because if you start the
(31:20):
conversation with that in mind, that tells you more than
you need to know than what the conversation is actually about.
Am I trying to build connection? Am I trying to
find common ground? Or am I trying to persuade and manipulate?
And course, because when we are in relationships and it
is not about building relationships, that's when it just builds
(31:42):
resentment and more often than not. That happens a lot
when politics come into it, because we're trying to build connections.
Speaker 2 (31:50):
Ideally, you would like to think that people would fall
in love because they like each other's values and they
have common interests and all of that, and then yeah,
if there's some differences in politics, so be it. But
politics has become such a hot button issue. I'll play
devil's advocate for a second. Isn't it better just to
(32:10):
get it out of the way and say, Okay, you know,
I'm this, You're that it's never going to work. Really
nice to meet you and move on. Or is it
better to to build that relationship and hope that when
all of a sudden there is a presidential election and
you find out that your new best friend, you're someone
(32:31):
who might become your life partner, is just diametrically opposed
to virtually everything you believe in. It's kind of a
Hobson's choice, isn't it. Oh?
Speaker 5 (32:41):
Absolutely, And that's why having these conversations are actually very important.
But far too often we steer away from these conversations
because what we're actually asking when we have these conversations
is whether we agree or disagree. Do you still want
to be in my life? Do we still want to
have a relationship once the conversation is over? And so
(33:03):
I think these conversations are far more important than we think.
They only come up once every four years, but these
should be common in ongoing conversations. We need to know
where you see on, what your values are, and are
we in alignment with it together?
Speaker 2 (33:18):
Okay, So let me ask you this. You study this.
I don't, although I study it five nights a week
here because I'm doing a show that has a lot
of politics in it, and I get people on each
extreme who are tough to deal with because they're so
committed to this set of beliefs and their core values
that they don't even want to have They just want
(33:40):
to make a speech on my show. And I tell people,
let's have a conversation, okay, whether you agree with disagree.
So here's my question. I don't think again, back in
the seventies and eighties, even though there were you know,
divisive political issues and divisive political figures, I don't think
(34:01):
that the political differences had so interacted with your personal relationships.
I mean, it was almost it was put to the side.
What percentage of people do you think at this point
on either side of the political spectrum just are so,
(34:29):
you know, intent with their beliefs that they could not
have a normal personal relationship with someone from the other
side of the political spectrum. Is there been any studies
done on this that you know, twenty percent of the
people have saying, look, I want nothing to do with
anyone who would disagree with me politically.
Speaker 5 (34:50):
So that's actually interesting. You're actually pretty close as twenty
four percent. They have them studies on them, and it's
more than just most of people don't cite that it's
a political point of view. They say what you said earlier,
it's a value based point of view, and so it's
not necessarily whether they are right wing, left ring, republic democrat, whatever.
(35:16):
It's more of identified this as one of my core values,
and so if you can't accept this political value, they
actually take it as a because you won't accept this
political value, you're also rejecting part of my core value
and personality. So one of the things that they're finding
(35:36):
now is that people are taking opinions far more personalized.
Instead of it being a statement, you have a lot
of people who take it as a criticism instead of
a comment. And they take it very that they internalize it,
and so it is a big thing. And that's why
with these conversations, they're important conversations that even if and
(35:58):
no one likes to hear me say this, but even
if the conversation makes you go, this isn't going to
work out for the best, that's really important information to have.
And sometimes these conversations just lead you to another conversation
that helps you find common ground that you didn't know
you needed to find. So they're very valuable conversations to
have as long as they're done respectfully.
Speaker 2 (36:21):
When I think of values, I think if if if
a couple meets and they talk about values, I think
it's for me. Values mean, you know, what's your relationship
with your family, if you if you still have family,
how important is it for you to be able to
(36:41):
you know, be in touch with your siblings, with your
you know, your parents, if you're lucky enough that they're
still alive. Because some people might say, look, I've really
had a bad situation, and I mean there's values there.
How much how much do I want to do to
help other people? And uh, how how many times a
year do I want to travel? How much am I
(37:05):
somebody who wants to save some money, or am I
somebody who just wants to go paid? You know, those
are sort of the economic values and the social values.
But when you get into the political values, I just
see that as a huge minefield and one step and
the whole thing blows up. I don't know.
Speaker 5 (37:22):
So, and that's very much it can be. Those conversations
very much can be if you have These are the
things that I've noticed when they become explosive, is the
person you're having a conversation with someone who sees manipulation
and coercion as part of a regular relationship. So that's
kind of a I'm not even having this conversation with
(37:42):
you because it's not a conversation. It's a manipulation, and
I'm trying to get you on their side. I will
say this though, a lot of people when they bring
these up, it's because they really deep down or asking
will we connect deeper through this or is this something
that's going to break us? A part A simple My
(38:02):
husband and I love to travel. He travels one way,
I travel another way. So we find the common ground.
We love to travel. We're going to go places we
want to go together. When you bring politics in it,
and you bring up economics into it, and you bring
all of the very divisive parts that make up the
different political parties, that's when, all of a sudden, it's
(38:23):
not about traveling, it's not about politics, It's about can
we still find common ground together?
Speaker 2 (38:29):
You know, Laura, La, I wish I had more time.
We're coming up on our nine o'clock news. Maybe love
to have you back and take some phone calls from
people as well, if that's possible, maybe after the election.
Is there a book that you could refer people to.
Have you written a book on this at all? Or
you have a biology I have not.
Speaker 5 (38:50):
I have not written a book that's published yet. It
is with my editor right now actually. But a great
place to find me. I'm on YouTube and all of
our social is a great place to find where I
talk more intently on relationships, how to navigate them communication.
Speaker 2 (39:07):
Great. Okay, so it's Laurel like Laurel Wreath l A
U R E L Houston like the city of Houston.
But no, oh so it's h U S T O
N like the like the great movie producer John Houston. Right, yeah, yeah, great,
thanks Laurel. I'm gonna have my my folks reach back
and maybe get you to come in. We'll do an
hour and we'll take some phone calls from people. I think,
(39:29):
I think would have a great time. I think it
would be a fun hour. Okay, thanks so much for
joining us. Okay, Happy election, Happy Election Day. Thanks Laurel.
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