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LGBTSr.com Subscriber Giveaway! 5 Custom Coffee Cups
What better way to start your morning than with some coffee, tea, or your favorite beverage sipped from a custom LGBTSr.com coffee cup! I’ll be giving 5 of them away on my birthday, October 28. If you’re already a subscriber to LGBTSr, you’re already entered! If not, just use the RafflePress entry, type in your email address, and voila! You’ll receive our weekly news roundup with a dash of new content every Friday, and you may win a gorgeous coffee mug just in time for that cool November chill! Please note, this is for U. S. residents only, for shipping purposes.
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The Twist Podcast #171: Pronouns R Us, DADT Remembered, Kemp’s Vaccine Fail, and the Week in Headlines
Join co-hosts Mark McNease and Rick Rose as we sort through trending pronouns, consider GA Governor Kemp’s AIDS vaccine that doesn’t exist, salute a decade without DADT, and take a look at this week’s headlines.
Enjoy The Twist on Libsyn, iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, and TheTwistPodcast.com.
Copyright 2021 MadeMark Publishing
Join Mark’s email list for updates, podcasts, giveaways, and his monthly newsletter!
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The Twist Podcast #171: Pronouns R Us, DADT Remembered, Kemp’s Vaccine Fail, and the Week in Headlines
Join co-hosts Mark McNease and Rick Rose as we sort through trending pronouns, consider GA Governor Kemp’s AIDS vaccine that doesn’t exist, salute a decade without DADT, and take a look at this week’s headlines.
Enjoy The Twist on Libsyn, iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, and TheTwistPodcast.com.
Copyright 2021 MadeMark Publishing
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One Thing or Another: Cooler Heads (Hello September)
By Mark McNease
It’s always One Thing or Another… a lighthearted look at aging, life, and the absurdities of it all.
I’m not alone in my preference for seasons. Most people have their favorites, and at least one they put up with because they have no choice.
I’m not a summer person, and when my time comes to buckle up and speed away from this crazy planet on whatever form of transportation the afterlife provides, I will depart having never liked the hot season. I tell myself it’s my Viking blood, although I can’t say I have any. Ancestry holds no interest for me whatsoever—and I’m adopted, so whose ancestors would I research anyway?
I’m not alone in my preference for seasons. Most people have their favorites, and at least one they put up with because they have no choice. For me it’s when we’re closest to the sun and farthest from a parka. When June arrives in earnest I know the humidity can’t be far behind, and with it the heat that amplifies its discomfort. If you’ve ever wondered what meteorologists mean when they offer the ‘feels like’ temperature, it’s the moisture, the dew point, that awful stickiness only a powerful air conditioner can neutralize, and only when you stay inside. Walk out the door on a hot, humid summer day, and that refreshing coolness is forgotten in an instant. Ovens are dryer, and at least you can make dinner with them. Speaking of ovens … don’t. When summer is blazing, my rule at home is no cooking that requires heat of any kind. It’s possibly the best thing about those record-setting hot temperature days.
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One Thing or Another: Cooler Heads (Hello September)
By Mark McNease
It’s always One Thing or Another… a lighthearted look at aging, life, and the absurdities of it all.
I’m not alone in my preference for seasons. Most people have their favorites, and at least one they put up with because they have no choice.
I’m not a summer person, and when my time comes to buckle up and speed away from this crazy planet on whatever form of transportation the afterlife provides, I will depart having never liked the hot season. I tell myself it’s my Viking blood, although I can’t say I have any. Ancestry holds no interest for me whatsoever—and I’m adopted, so whose ancestors would I research anyway?
I’m not alone in my preference for seasons. Most people have their favorites, and at least one they put up with because they have no choice. For me it’s when we’re closest to the sun and farthest from a parka. When June arrives in earnest I know the humidity can’t be far behind, and with it the heat that amplifies its discomfort. If you’ve ever wondered what meteorologists mean when they offer the ‘feels like’ temperature, it’s the moisture, the dew point, that awful stickiness only a powerful air conditioner can neutralize, and only when you stay inside. Walk out the door on a hot, humid summer day, and that refreshing coolness is forgotten in an instant. Ovens are dryer, and at least you can make dinner with them. Speaking of ovens … don’t. When summer is blazing, my rule at home is no cooking that requires heat of any kind. It’s possibly the best thing about those record-setting hot temperature days.
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On Dreamshaping: Get Messy
Mark McNease
For many years now people have been led to believe that decluttering is the answer, that narrowing our focus is the way to finally accomplishing what we want to: finish that project, write that last draft of a novel, plant a better garden this year. But what if that’s the wrong approach? Or at least not the approach that works for everyone.
As part of my personal dreamshaping, I’ve decided to embrace the mess. I’ve spent a lot of time in an unnecessary loop of narrowing, expanding, narrowing, expanding, narrowing … on and on, until whatever psychological fix I get from doing this becomes the reason for doing it. The novel does not get completed. The garden does not get planted. Yet the motions continue, the repetitive behavior of trying to make it all fit in the artificial space I’ve imposed on myself.
Rather than spend my life in this endless behavioral loop, and having discovered that less is not more – it is less! – I’ve accepted the messiness. I’ve accepted that I have a half dozen projects to work on, and that’s okay. The messiness is actually what energizes me in the morning! Having options on what to create today works for me. And while I do think decluttering the home, as well as the mind, has tremendous benefits, it’s not always the solution to indecision and an inability to focus. The mind, after all, and despite what we think, can only focus on one thing at time, one thought at a time. Chaos is an illusion: or, it’s everything, all the time. The universe is incredibly messy, and we are tiny reflections of it, we are the microcosms to its macrocosm. So wade in, swirl it all around you. Enjoy this incredibly messy thing called life.
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Savvy Senior: Could I Have COPD and Not Know It?
By Jim Miller
Dear Savvy Senior,
I have struggled with shortness of breath for several years now. I just thought I was getting old and fat, but a friend recently told me about COPD. So, my question is could I have COPD and not know it?
Huffing and Puffing
Dear Huffing,
Yes. COPD, or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, is a progressive lung disease that affects an estimated 30 million Americans, but about half of them don’t know they have it.
Many people mistake shortness of breath as a normal part of aging, or a result of being out of shape, but that’s not necessarily the case. COPD – a term used to describe a variety of lung diseases including emphysema and chronic bronchitis – develops slowly, so symptoms may not be obvious until damage has occurred.
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An Emmy Nomination Once Again! (It’s Only Been 20 Years)
Yes, it’s true. I’ve been nominated for an Emmy again, as a co-creator of the multiple Emmy-winning children’s TV program, Into the Outdoors. I have an Emmy on my shelf from 2002. What better way to ease into my retirement next April than with another statue?
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Lee Lynch Retires Her Amazon Trail Column
Crossposted from LGBTSr.com
For almost as long as I’ve had this website I’ve enjoyed sharing author Lee Lynch’s Amazon Trail columns. I often said, if it’s a new month, it’s a new Amazon Trail. I looked forward to each and every one, offering Lee’s wisdom, experience, humor, and passion, as she shared her perspective on the world she’s lived in and the world we share. Lee is not shy, and her candor is among the most refreshing things about her. She’s also a legend in lesbian fiction, most deservedly so, with a Golden Crown Literary Society award named in her honor. My appreciation for her wit, her talent, and her personal generosity is boundless, and I’m most pleased to call her a friend. Some people lead by simply being who they are, and Lee has always been, and will always be, one of them.
You can read many of her collected columns in her book, An American Queer: The Amazon Trail
“This collection of Lee Lynch’s columns chronicles over a quarter century of queer life in the United States, from the last decades of the twentieth century into the twenty-first.
“From the beginning of my writing career, I just wanted to write about lesbian/gay life as I experienced it. Like so many, I came from a place of great isolation. At the same time, being gay filled me with great pride and joy. Writers Jane Rule, Isabelle Miller, Radclyffe Hall, Valerie Taylor, Ann Bannon, and Vin Packer gave me inspiration and even the lesbian companionship I needed as a baby dyke. More than anything, I want to give to gay people what those writers gave me. And I want to do it well enough that my words might someday be considered literature and, as such, might endure because, as open as some societies have become, there are always haters, and cycles of oppression. Our writers strengthen us, offer a sense of solidarity and validation that we are both more than our sexualities and are among the best that humanity offers.”
About Lee Lynch
Photo by Sue Hardesty Lee Lynch is the co-curator, with S. Renee Bass, of the recent collection, Our Happy Hours, LGBT Voices From the Gay Bars, available from Flashpoint Publications. Her novel, Rainbow Gap, is available from Bold Strokes Books and other outlets. Her book, An American Queer, a collection of “The Amazon Trail” columns, was presented with the 2015 Golden Crown Literary Society Award in Anthology/Collection Creative Non Fiction. This, and her award-winning fiction, including The Raid, The Swashbuckler, and Beggar of Love, can be found at http://www.boldstrokesbooks.com/Author-Lee-Lynch.html.
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Lee Lynch Retires Her Amazon Trail Column
For almost as long as I’ve had this website I’ve enjoyed sharing author Lee Lynch’s Amazon Trail columns. I often said, if it’s a new month, it’s a new Amazon Trail. I looked forward to each and every one, offering Lee’s wisdom, experience, humor, and passion, as she shared her perspective on the world she’s lived in and the world we share. Lee is not shy, and her candor is among the most refreshing things about her. She’s also a legend in lesbian fiction, most deservedly so, with a Golden Crown Literary Society award named in her honor. My appreciation for her wit, her talent, and her personal generosity is boundless, and I’m most pleased to call her a friend. Some people lead by simply being who they are, and Lee has always been, and will always be, one of them.
You can read many of her collected columns in her book, An American Queer: The Amazon Trail
“This collection of Lee Lynch’s columns chronicles over a quarter century of queer life in the United States, from the last decades of the twentieth century into the twenty-first.
“From the beginning of my writing career, I just wanted to write about lesbian/gay life as I experienced it. Like so many, I came from a place of great isolation. At the same time, being gay filled me with great pride and joy. Writers Jane Rule, Isabelle Miller, Radclyffe Hall, Valerie Taylor, Ann Bannon, and Vin Packer gave me inspiration and even the lesbian companionship I needed as a baby dyke. More than anything, I want to give to gay people what those writers gave me. And I want to do it well enough that my words might someday be considered literature and, as such, might endure because, as open as some societies have become, there are always haters, and cycles of oppression. Our writers strengthen us, offer a sense of solidarity and validation that we are both more than our sexualities and are among the best that humanity offers.”
About Lee Lynch
Photo by Sue Hardesty Lee Lynch is the co-curator, with S. Renee Bass, of the recent collection, Our Happy Hours, LGBT Voices From the Gay Bars, available from Flashpoint Publications. Her novel, Rainbow Gap, is available from Bold Strokes Books and other outlets. Her book, An American Queer, a collection of “The Amazon Trail” columns, was presented with the 2015 Golden Crown Literary Society Award in Anthology/Collection Creative Non Fiction. This, and her award-winning fiction, including The Raid, The Swashbuckler, and Beggar of Love, can be found at http://www.boldstrokesbooks.com/Author-Lee-Lynch.html.
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LGBTSr Subscriber Giveaway: Custom LGBTSr.com Coffee Mug!
What better way to start your morning than with some coffee, tea, or your favorite beverage sipped from a custom LGBTSr.com coffee cup! I’ll be giving 5 of them away on my birthday, October 28. Yes, it’s my birthday, and I’m doing the giving! This will be for subscribers only, so subscribe HERE, and look for more details in October. I’ll be selecting 5 random subscribers and getting the cups off to them in time to curl up by a November fire. – Mark
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The Twist Podcast #170: Biden Drops the Hammer, Bush Drops the Mic, COVID Calamity, and Remembering 9/11
Join co-hosts Mark McNease and Rick Rose as we consider President Biden’s performance, appreciate the candor of George W. Bush, consider the calamity called COVID, and share some thoughts on 9/11. Plus the weekly headlines and lots of inside jokes.
Enjoy The Twist on Libsyn, iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, and TheTwistPodcast.com.
Copyright 2021 MadeMark Publishing
Join Mark’s email list for updates, podcasts, giveaways, and his monthly newsletter!
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The Twist Podcast #170: Biden Drops the Hammer, Bush Drops the Mic, COVID Calamity, and Remembering 9/11
Join co-hosts Mark McNease and Rick Rose as we consider President Biden’s performance, appreciate the candor of George W. Bush, consider the calamity called COVID, and share some thoughts on 9/11. Plus the weekly headlines and lots of inside jokes.
Enjoy The Twist on Libsyn, iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, and TheTwistPodcast.com.
Copyright 2021 MadeMark Publishing
Join Mark’s email list for updates, podcasts, giveaways, and his monthly newsletter!