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The Twist Podcast #256: Biden’s SOTU Smasher, and Our Show Topper Interview with Elise Tomashek, Miss Wisconsin Teen Volunteer
Join co-hosts Mark McNease and Rick Rose as we marvel at President Biden’s historic home run, scan the news and Personals Page, and enjoy an interview with Elise Tomashek, Miss Wisconsin Teen Volunteer competing for Miss Teen Volunteer America.
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The Weekly Readlines March 8
BIG CUP: THE WEEK’S TOP STORIES
BREAKING: Biden scorches a win with his State of the Union, reminding a country that needs it of the dangers ahead. Will we stop hearing about his age and his imagined infirmities? Perhaps in the real world where it’s needed. In the right-wing bubble? Not so much. Bravo!
2024 is now set to be among the longest years in memory. Barring the arrival of a species-ending comet, Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee. Joe Biden, as the incumbent, will face him in another cage match for the gerontocracy. One of these two men will occupy the White House for the following four years. And to think we once had a president named Obama who was younger than me.
Nikki Haley has dropped out of the race, with her expected genuflection coming soon. Even Mitch McConnell, stepping down as Senate Minority Leader, having at one time affixed blame for the assault on the Capitol squarely on Trump, and having allowed his wife to endure Trump’s and racist slurs, has kissed the ring in record time. I wouldn’t call what they’re all kissing a ring.
To absolutely no one’s disappointment, fashion hound and senatorial obstructionist Krysten Sinema has announced her retirement. Don’t let the changing booth door hit you in the ass on the way out.
LGBTQ NEWS
GLAAD Releases 2024 Voter Poll: 94% Of LGBTQ Americans Are Motivated To Vote
California survey seeks insights on LGBTQ older adults – Q Voice News
AARP-Backed LGBTQ+ Bill of Rights Takes Effect for Oregon Nursing Homes
As a Catholic Doctor, I Know Gender-Affirming Care Is Essential for Transgender Youth.
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Cathy’s Wealth of Health: Essential Oils for Mental Wellness
Narration provided by Wondervox.
By Cathy McNease, Dipl CH, RH
Essential oils are amazing for relieving uncomfortable emotions and feelings, and they work fast. The olfactory route to the brain connects the scents almost immediately. I always keep floral oils such as Lavender, Jasmine or Neroli (orange blossom) with me so that I can have an immediate reset in case a stressful event occurs. I put 1-2 drops in the palm of my hand, rub hands together, then cup them around the nose, and inhale my way to peace. I take several slow, conscious breaths. In my home office and bedroom, I like to use an atomizer for the essential oils to put their scent into the room.
I have learned so much from my Aquarian sister and essential oils expert, Tiffany Carole.* Her classes and presentations using essential oils on specific acupressure points are inspiring and informative. I will share some of what I learned from her and have been passing on to my patients. For class details and exquisite essential oils, including diluted ones for children and sensitives, please check out her website at monara.org. You can also access her classes on YouTube.
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Home Advantages: Redoing the Raised Bed Garden
What? Another new feature at LGBTSr? Of course!
Home Advantages will be a semi-regular feature highlighting our efforts to keep up a small house in the New Jersey woods, whether it’s redoing a vegetable garden or unclogging a bathroom sink! Follow along this year as I undertake small improvements here and there, and show you how you can, too! – Mark (and Frank)
How does your garden grow?
The wooden raised-bed garden frames I installed a few years ago rotted out. I’d wanted to revamp the garden anyway, and that gave me the opportunity and incentive I needed. I’m replacing them and reconfiguring them with green metal frames, much better. One down, two to go.
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I’m Finally Doing It: Fiction Writing Essentials Workshop May 4 (with Professor Mark!)
I’m finally doing it: I’ll be offering workshops and classes later this year, in Guided Autobiography, fiction writing, and more. First up is an online 2-hour ‘fiction essentials’ in May. As the little wooden sign says over my desk, “Actually, I can.” Here’s the course at my Payhip storefront. I’m keeping these to 10 participants, online and in-person when I find a space.
You can also Venmo me here ($30):
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The Twist Podcast #255: Soylent Green is Embryos, Professor Mark Talks to Students, and An Interview with Dr. Harvey Abrams
Join co-hosts Mark McNease and Rick Rose as we tut-tut the Alabama Supreme Court, celebrate Mark’s recent high school writing class talks, and hear Rick’s interview with Dr. Harvey Abrams of the Stonewall National Museum, Archives and Library.
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Professor Mark: Coming Full Circle with a High School Class
I left Indiana three days after graduation high school, leaving for California. It was my creative writing teacher, Mr. Kenton Monjon, who told me he thought I was one of the few students he’d had who he thought could make it as a writer. And here I am!
I just spoke to two senior creative writing classes yesterday, and I have two more to go. It’s great experience for me: bored high school students are a tough crowd. It’s like being a standup comedian in front of an audience that doesn’t laugh. You keep going. You learn to roll with it. These are all skills I’ll need in the coming months as I embark on Your Write Path.com, offering Guided Autobiography courses, journaling and writing workshops, and of course Dreamshaping. It’s all about living our dreams!
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The Twist Podcast #254: Kansas City Crushes It, Fani Fires Back, and a Loopy Leap Year Listicle
Join co-hosts Mark McNease and Rick Rose as we salute the Kansas City Chiefs, jaw-drop at Fani Willis’s courtroom fireworks, and offer up a loopy leap year listicle.
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All Kyle Callahan Mysteries Free on Kindle for 5 Days!
You thought I was done with the February giveaways? Not quite …
If you picked up the first in the Kyle Callahan Mysteries at our great BookFunnel giveaway, here’s your chance to get the rest free for five days.
Six more books in the series are free on Kindle from February 15 – 19, including ‘Last Room at the Cliff’s Edge,’ featuring Kyle’s best friend Linda Sikorsky, retired New Hope, PA, police detective.
Just visit the series page at Amazon for all the book, and start downloading!
And remember, reviews and ratings are an author’s best friends.
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‘I, Warlock’ Audiobook Is Out! Plus a Multi-Author BookFunnel Promo (February 15 – 29)
Listen to a 3-chapter sample at the Mark McNease Mysteries Podcast
Fasten your headphones! ‘I, Warlock’ the audiobook has arrived.
“He hoped love was eternal … because he was.”
This is my third audiobook with narrator Sean Rhead, and what a pleasure it is! Listen at Audible.
About ‘I, Warlock’ (currently on sale for $1.99, and available on Kindle Unlimited)
I, Warlock tells the story of Julius Tide, born part-vampire, destined to be all warlock. Julius is an almost accidental warlock, born into a family of witches. He meets the beautiful Charlotte one day at a country fair, and proceeds to dedicate his life to marrying her. Keeping his witching ways a secret, he becomes the night to her day, the guilt to her innocence, as he rushes to solve a mystery that has her family in danger and their futures in doubt. Good confronts evil several times over in this epic battle to save or sacrifice the world, set to the backdrop of a love story for the ages.
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The Twist Podcast #253: Skittish SCOTUS, Biden’s Brain Debacle, and Horrible Valentine’s Gifts for that Special Someone
Join co-hosts Mark McNease and Rick Rose as we consider SCOTUS’s sudden humility in the face of promised MAGA mayhem, Biden’s big bad brain day, and America’s favorite manufactured holiday. Be our Valentine!
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Adventures in Gardening: The Pleasures of Raised Bed Gardening
Narration provided by Wondervox.
By Mark McNease
Gardening is good for the soul as well as the soil. There’s something about planting and watching your vegetables or flowers grow that gives you a feeling of accomplishment.
I’m in the process of renovating our vegetable garden. We have a large back lawn, and when we first moved here permanently from New York City, I wanted to create a real vegetable garden, not the sad attempts we’d made when we were only here on weekends. I ordered three wooden raised bed kits, comprised of six 4×4 rectangles. I then immediately made the mistake of putting two of these adjacent to each other, as 8×4 beds, forming one large 8×8 box. That would be all right, if you never needed to weed or prune or in any other way work within the growing area. I had the sense to put the third long box several feet away, so you could walk between them.
Three years passed. The wood rotted. The soil wasn’t producing very well. And this year I decided to redo the whole thing. The rotted wood has all been pulled out, but the mounds of dirt remain. I’m 65, I don’t shovel snow in the winter, having read stories every year about people my age suffering heart attacks while they shovel their walkways. I’m not interested in dying in my garden, like Vito Corleone in The Godfather. If the dirt had to be moved, it would be by someone else.
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The Twist Podcast #252: Taylor Triumphant, Joltin’ Jodie Foster, and Some Twist Podcast Predictions for 2024
Join co-hosts Mark McNease and Rick Rose we we toast Taylor Swift’s conquest of the world, give mad props to Jodie Foster, and makes some fun Twist Podcast predictions for the coming year.