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One Thing or Another: Let’s Face It (Unmasked At Last)
By Mark McNease
It’s always One Thing or Another… a lighthearted look at aging, life, and the absurdities of it all.
I took the gestures we make with our faces for granted. I failed to understand how crucial a form of communication our faces are, and how strange it would become when we no longer exposed them to each other.
For fourteen months I did the right thing for myself and my community. I wore a mask despite finding it uncomfortable and inconvenient. It was required at my job, but I also wanted to be part of a solution when no one was sure what the solution was. This pandemic was a new experience for me, my country and the world. At least it was new insofar as it had been a hundred years since the last significant one.
Then the vaccines arrived, like the calvary showing up in a syringe. Most people I know managed to get appointments after sharing among ourselves how difficult it was, a form of pandemic gossip and communal anxiety. We sat in chairs, we rolled up our sleeves and offered our fleshy arms, and we walked away amazed at how anticlimactic it was. I went through this for months and all I got was this lousy vaccination card.
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The Twist Podcast #163: Vacation Nation, Shreveport Revisited, and Your Favorite Toxic Personality Types
Join co-hosts Mark McNease and Rick Rose as we thrill to the thought of a maskless summer, revisit Shreveport with Rick and his memories, and rundown America’s top toxic personality types.
Enjoy The Twist on Libsyn, iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, iHeart Radio, SoundCloud, 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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Being Well with LGBTSr: Living With Sleep Apnea
Being Well is a regular feature at LGBTSR highlighting health and wellness.
Editor’s note: This first appeared here at LGBTSr in March, 2020. After a year of pandemic comfort eating and attendant weight gain, I wanted to visit the topic again as I commit to losing the extra pounds and doing whatever I need to to free myself from the CPAP machine that has been my night time companion for three and a half years – if I’m able. Many people benefit from them and lives can be saved. I simply hope someday to no longer need one. – Mark
A few years ago I began regularly waking up with headaches. I’m also a loud snorer, as my husband reminded me several times a night with nudges to turn on my side or just wake up long enough to stop. Headaches and snoring … something was probably going on. I made an appointment with a sleep specialist and did a home test for sleep apnea. It recorded 25+ “events” per hour. An event is when the person stops breathing due to sleep apnea. It can lead to multiple health issues, with headaches and snoring being two of the most obvious.
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The Twist Podcast #163: Vacation Nation, Shreveport Revisited, and Your Favorite Toxic Personality Types
Join co-hosts Mark McNease and Rick Rose as we thrill to the thought of a maskless summer, revisit Shreveport with Rick and his memories, and rundown America’s top toxic personality types.
Enjoy The Twist on Libsyn, iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, iHeart Radio, SoundCloud, 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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Lee Lynch’s Amazon Trail: Standing On My Own Two Feet
Photo by Elaine Lynch By Lee Lynch
The Amazon Trail: Standing On My Own Two FeetI’ve always wanted to outgrow the travails of youth. Now I have, and it turns out that the body wears out as the mind wises up. Where is the balance in that?
Since childhood, I have been looking forward to growing old enough to know pretty much which end is up in life, to reaching Social Security age in order to write full-time, and to tackle mature subjects in my work. I find it strange that just when I’ve reached something like that balance, I’ve lost my relatively reliable physical balance.
I’ve never been with a lover this long, and now I’ve pledged a permanence, called marriage, that I’ve learned to respect. Since the age of eighteen, I’ve never lived in one home this long. My recent stability has enabled me, I believe, to write more complex stories that feature more thoroughly developed characters and, because of my years of travel along the roads of lesbian culture, especially with my sweetheart, I can offer readers more varied and detailed settings.
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Tasty Pride Treats from MarthaStewart.com
MarthaStewart.com It’s June, the month for rainbows, Pride, and enjoying life – especially now that we’re getting back to some kind of normal. Follow the links for 15 delicious desserts from MarthaStewart.com. Make them, share them, feel the spirit.
By
Every June, millions of people around the world celebrate Pride Month, which uplifts the LGTBQ+ community and honors the anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising in New York City. From parades to workshops to concerts, this month offers us countless chances to spread the love. Of course, every celebration deserves delicious food: In honor of Pride Month, we’re sharing 15 multi-colored dessert recipes that you’re sure to love.
If there’s one dessert that’s practically made for Pride, it’s our 12-layer Rainbow Cake. It starts with a large amount of vanilla cake batter-five large egg whites keep the cake super moist and airy. Next, the batter is divided into sections and each dyed with every color of the rainbow. The layers are baked then stacked with a thick layer of our Lemony Swiss Meringue Buttercream between each. When this beauty is sliced, everyone’s jaws will drop as they see that delectable rainbow on the inside.
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Q Audiobooks: Something to Talk About, by Meryl Wilsner, Narrated by Jorjeana Marie and Xe Sands
My newest Q Audiobooks pick is a FF romance from 2020 (more, please!), written by Meryl Wilsner and narrated by Jorneana Marie and Xe Sands. Something to Talk About tells the developing love story between a photographer and her assistant as they navigate the treacherous waters – or is it treacherous red carpets? – of Hollywood. Fasten your headphones!
About ‘Something to Talk About’
By: Meryl Wilsner
Narrated by: Jorjeana Marie, Xe Sands
Length: 9 hrs and 7 mins|
Unabridged Audiobook
4.4 out of 5 stars(270 ratings)Hollywood powerhouse Jo is photographed making her assistant Emma laugh on the red carpet, and just like that, the tabloids declare them a couple. The so-called scandal couldn’t come at a worse time – threatening Emma’s promotion and Jo’s new movie.
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Q Audiobooks: Something to Talk About, by Meryl Wilsner, Narrated by Jorjeana Marie and Xe Sands
My newest Q Audiobooks pick is a FF romance from 2020 (more, please!), written by Meryl Wilsner and narrated by Jorneana Marie and Xe Sands. Something to Talk About tells the developing love story between a photographer and her assistant as they navigate the treacherous waters – or is it treacherous red carpets? – of Hollywood. Fasten your headphones!
About ‘Something to Talk About’
By: Meryl Wilsner
Narrated by: Jorjeana Marie, Xe Sands
Length: 9 hrs and 7 mins|
Unabridged Audiobook
4.4 out of 5 stars(270 ratings)Hollywood powerhouse Jo is photographed making her assistant Emma laugh on the red carpet, and just like that, the tabloids declare them a couple. The so-called scandal couldn’t come at a worse time – threatening Emma’s promotion and Jo’s new movie.
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Savvy Senior: Helping Seniors Find Discounted High-Speed Internet Services
You can listen to my podcast interview with Savvy Senior’s Jim Miller HERE.
By Jim Miller
Dear Savvy Senior,
Do you know where I can find cheaper high-speed internet services for my home? I’m 70-years old and live strictly on my Social Security and would like to find something faster and less expensive than I currently have.
Surfing Susan
Dear Susan,
There are actually two new resources available today that can help you save money on your home internet services, but what’s available to you will depend on your income level and where you live. Here’s where to begin.
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The Twist Podcast #162: Peanut Butter Paradox, Manchin Thrills McConnell, and Happy Days Are Here Again
Join co-hosts Mark McNease and Rick Rose as we consider the proper storage of peanut butter, Joe Manchin’s extraordinary impersonation of Mitch McConnell, and the return of abnormal life in the best ways. Plus we hate cicadas.
Enjoy The Twist on Libsyn, iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, iHeart Radio, SoundCloud, 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 #162: Peanut Butter Paradox, Manchin Thrills McConnell, and Happy Days Are Here Again
Join co-hosts Mark McNease and Rick Rose as we consider the proper storage of peanut butter, Joe Manchin’s extraordinary impersonation of Mitch McConnell, and the return of abnormal life in the best ways. Plus we hate cicadas.
Enjoy The Twist on Libsyn, iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, iHeart Radio, SoundCloud, 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 #161: Emma Thompson Slays, America Unmasks, Groceries Go Brandless, and the Great GOP Betrayal
Join co-hosts Mark McNease and Rick Rose as we marvel at Emma Thompson in Disney’s Cruella, take a deep mask-less breath, consider disappearing brands in grocery stores, and weep at the GOP’s betrayal of America.
Enjoy The Twist on Libsyn, iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, iHeart Radio, SoundCloud, 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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On the Map: Laid Back in Lancaster County (PA)
This article is reprinted from LGBTSr.com
By Mark McNease
On the Map is a travelogue of places, restaurants and landscapes for your travel considerations. Sometimes near, sometimes far, always interesting.
The frequent sight of horse-drawn buggies clopping and rolling along the roads is a perfect image for Lancaster’s life in the slow lane. This is Amish country, something you don’t have to verify with a Google search because the evidence is all around you: in the buggies crisscrossing the roads, in the clotheslines with daily wash fluttering in the breeze, in the houses without electricity or cars. It’s a way of life that can be appreciated without being romanticized: the lives the Amish choose to live are not easy. They may look simple, folksy and nostalgic, but they are lives of toil and prayer. That’s my caveat – to remember when you visit that beneath the calm, relaxed surface of this country life are days of work from sunup to sundown, and a chosen detachment from the lives most of us live.
My husband Frank and I recently took our third trip to the Strasburg/Lancaster area. Frank had been there before we met, but it was all new to me. Three years ago he took me there for a surprise trip and we stayed at the Red Caboose Motel, where each room is a caboose salvaged from trains that stopped running long ago. There are small cabooses, medium-size cabooses, and large ones that can accommodate big families or friends traveling in groups. There’s a restaurant on the property, Casey Jones Restaurant, set in a replica of a dining car, with an attached gift shop. (We ate there on Monday, since it was one of the few places open that night.) I loved the novelty of it all, but there are a LOT of horse flies! Each room/caboose includes a fly swatter, and you will use them. This is not just Amish country … it’s horse country, too.