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The Weekly Readlines April 20 (and a Weekly Readlines Survey
Let us know if you like The Weekly Readlines arriving in your virtual mailbox every week. Our imaginary reporters and one tireless editor would like to know. I’ll be adding more surveys in the coming weeks and even having some fun with them! – Mark
QUOTE:
“It is not for nothing that among the accusations listed in the Declaration of Independence is the charge that the king is guilty of “transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended Offences.”
– Jamelle Bouis, New York Times
From the Editor’s Desk: The cruelty and vengeance of the Trump regime is matched only by its incompetence. A week after trying to slap Harvard around and having the nation’s richest university slap back, the regime now claims it was all a misunderstanding. The lesson for all of the universities, law firms, media and others who have genuflected before the mad king is that when a thug wants your lunch money and you tell him no, he’ll walk away empty handed.
BIG CUP: THE WEEK’S STOP STORIES
Sen. Chris Van Hollen Meets With Kidnap Victim In El Salvador
Finally a leaderHeckler Gets Taser Treatment at Marjorie Taylor Green Townhall
Political violence as entertainmentTrump Administration’s FEMA Cuts Off North Carolina Aid
Didn’t those folks vote for this? Dry my tearsHungary Passes Constitutional Amendment To Ban LGBTQ Public Events – NBC News
Coming to an America near youU.S. AND BEYOND
LGBT Community Center in Sacramento struggles amid federal budget cuts – YouTube
‘We Are All Afraid’: Murkowski Says Fear Of Retaliation From Trump Administration Is ‘Real’
The Bright Side: Mongolian LGBTQ Youth Use Art To Fight For Recognition – France 24
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Book Review: Books On Current Events (Various Authors)
By Terri Schlichenmeyer
The Bookworm SexBooks on Current Events by various authors
c.2025, various publishers $28 – $30 various page countsThe world seems to be moving at lightning speed.
You can hardly keep up with work and family, so current events sometimes goes on the back burner – which is why you need these great books on things that are relevant to your life now, today…
So you say that you simply cannot understand the politics of those on the other side of the debate. In “What We Value” The Neuroscience of Choice & Change” by Emily Falk (W.W. Norton, $29.99), you’ll see what goes into our thinking.
How can we know what choice is right? And if we pick wrong, why is it so darn hard to change? Read this fascinating book and see how your brain and your experiences affect who you are and how you make decisions, which will also offer insight on others’ thought processes. This is a gentle book with a path to compassion.
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Survey Says! Coming Soon to LGBTSr
Let us know if you like The Weekly Readlines arriving in your virtual mailbox every week. Our imaginary reporters and one tireless editor would like to know.
I’ll be adding more surveys in the coming weeks and even having some fun with them! It will go out with the weekly email and hopefully make opening it a bit of a surprise. And they’ll get more complicated as time goes on. For now I’ll be coming up with some simple multiple-choicers.
Joan Crawford or Bette Davis?
– Joan
– Bette
– An impossible choice
– Before my timeEventually I’ll make my way up to the 12st century. – Mark
I’ll also include these with my weekly Substack, Mark McNease on Topic. SUBSCRIBE HERE.
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Savvy Senior: Where Solo Agers Can Find Help
By Jim Miller
Dear Savvy Senior,
I’m a divorced 68-year-old childless cat lady and have been thinking a lot lately about who will look after me when I get older and my health falters. What resources are available to solo seniors like me, and where can I turn to find a reliable person to be my emergency contact, as well as lookout for my health, financial matters and living arrangements in my elder years?
Solo Ager
Dear Solo,
This is a very common concern for the 22 million solo agers across the United States who don’t have adult children or other family they can depend on to watch out for their well-being. Here are some tips and resources that can help you plan ahead.
Choosing Helpers & Decision Makers
While older adults who have children or are married usually name offspring or spouses as proxies/decision makers, solo agers most often choose a sibling, niece or nephew, or rely on a trusted friend or neighbor. Whomever you choose, talk to them first to make sure they’re up for the task.
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The Twist Podcast #291: Taser Treats, Vanishing Venezuelans, and an Interview with Madison’s Own Dina Nina Martinez-Rutherford
Join co-hosts Mark McNease and Rick Rose as we wade knee-deep in the MAGA madness, defend the Constitution, and enjoy Rick’s interview with Madison City Council’s Dina Nina Martinez-Rutherford.
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The Weekly Readlines April 12
From the Editor’s Desk: Not long ago, when people said, “It can’t happen here,” we believed it. But now it sounds like parents telling their children there’s nothing under the bed just before a claw reaches up and pulls them under. That sound you hear is the crunching of their bones. It can happen here, and it is happening here. The police state has arrived. The American Stasi now abducts people off the street for their ideas, and uses the labels of sympathizer, terrorist or just gang member to obliterate their Constitutional rights. Meanwhile, for most of us our daily lives look normal, as if none of this is happening to us. But it is. All it takes now is calling us gang members, and we will vanish. We will be herded into psychological detention centers, if not literal ones, relegated to pockets of passivity while the United States as a country we recognize is obliterated. Take your pictures now. – Mark
BIG CUP: THE WEEK’S STOP STORIES
Trump Tanks World Economy, Cashes In, Tanks It Again
A child this destructive would be sent to a reformatoryCDC’s Cruise Ship Inspectors Laid Off Amid Bad Year For Outbreaks
Washy washy! Bonus points if you know what that meansState Dept Launches “Anti-Christian Bias” Snitch Line
Snitches and witches everywhere nowSocial Security Admin Will Only Communicate with the Public on X
The agency has been taken hostage and no witnesses will be left alive -
A New Goodreads Giveaway! ‘Night Flight to Murder Town: A Marshall James Thriller’, Runs April 9 – 30
For U.S. residents only, per Goodreads
Win 1 of 100 copies of ‘Night Flight to Murder Town: A Marshall James Thriller.’
Marshall James returns for one more walk down murder’s memory lane in ‘Night Flight to Murder Town, Book 4’. Marshall is thinking of leaving New York City with his husband for a new life away from the hectic pace of the nation’s largest city. But how did he get here in the first place? After three stories detailing his harrowing Hollywood past, where lovers, losers, and a serial killer or two nearly ended his life before he could make something of it, he finally tells us how and why he left LaLa Land for Gotham.
It was 1991 and a Christmas card showed up in the mail. An old flame was inviting him to make the move. L.A. had become a ghost town for Marshall and he was ready to get as far away as he could, as fast as a plane would take him. He caught a night flight to New York, and he soon found himself on a new and deadly path to a future he never saw coming.
Money laundering, drug dealing, murder, and high stakes crimes by high-profile people all welcome him with a lethal embrace. It’s an origin story like no How did he end up here? Why did he stay? And is love possible after all that death and destruction? Find out in Night Flight to Murder Town. You’ll need to fasten your seat belts for this one. -
New Workshop Coming in July: They’re Alive! Creating Characters With Lives of Their Own
Character Creation: They’re Alive!Join us on Wednesday, July 30 from 10:00 am – 11:30 am eastern via Zoom ($30)- Limit 6This 90 minute workshop focuses on creating characters with lives of their own, from the protagonist and antagonist to the casual passerby.
Writing is Listening
It Takes a Village
Motive, Means, and Opportunity: No Character Wasted
Who was that masked woman?
Without Conflict There Is No Drama
The Character Biography
AND MUCH MORE!Lean how to welcome a character into your mind and onto the page, with award-winning author and workshop instructor Mark McNease, from the comfort of your desk. This is an online workshop with a 6-person limit.
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Book Review: Poetry Picks for Poetry Month
By Terri Schlichenmeyer
The Bookworm SezPoetry Books by various authors
c.2025, Penguin $18.99 – $20 various page countsA, B, B, A.
That’s not only how you spell the name of a popular music group. That’s also how a poem might be structured, if it rhymes, or it might be created in other ways. That’s the thing about poetry: it’s all how you perceive it when creating it and reading it. So why not think about putting these great poetry books on your shelf this month…?
When you spend time with poetry, you expect a certain kind of relationship between author and reader. That’s only part of what you get in “The Space Between Men” by Mia S. Willis (Penguin Poets, $20). It might also change the way you feel.
Here, Willis – a poet, historian, and educator – explores culture, Black history, and what it’s like to be Black, Southern, and queer. When those various experiences come together in poetry here, it invites readers to consider the width and depth of the spaces, and their mere existence.
If short but image-fueled poetry appeals to you, this book is worth a good look.
Poetry can take your thoughts in many directions, including thoughts about yourself. If you’re hungry for soul-searching, then try “Is This My Final Form?” by Amy Gerstler (Penguin Poets, $20).
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The Weekly Readlines April 6
From the Editor’s Desk: I attended a ’50 in 50’ protest on Saturday in Frenchtown, NJ (small town, big voice), and a Zoom call on Sunday to revive ACT UP, spearheaded by the Stonewall National Museum and Archives in Ft. Lauderdale. It’s become very clear that we will have to save ourselves and salvage what we can of our many-cultured country as Project 2025 barrels ahead with its destruction. Mediocrity continues to triumph with the obliteration of so many things we care about (libraries, museums, diversity, inclusion, civil rights). It may not be our last stand, but it’s getting pretty close. However … do not despair! Our spirits will never be conquered. – Mark
BIG CUP: THE WEEK’S STOP STORIES
Trump Torpedoed The American Economy Before Another Round of Golf
The patient is now in hospiceTrump Blew Off 4 Dead American Soldiers To Hang with the Saudis
He still considers them losersTrump Kills Institute of Museum and Library Services
Making America Illiterate AgainLGBTQ
Heartland Pride Behind On Sponsors Amid Midwest Decline, A Dozen Have Yet To Return
The Government Is Abandoning The Fight Against HIV
‘I Had No Choice’: Tennis Star Kasatkina Leaves Russia Over LGBTQ Rights and War Stance – MSN
Children Of American Service Members Defend Pentagon DEI Policies – Washington Blade
The Global Scientific Community Must Keep Studying LGBT+ Health – Nature
Russia Escalates Attacks On ‘Internal Enemy’ LGBT As It Expands War In Ukraine – Inews
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Hands Off Frenchtown, NJ: Small Town, Big Voice
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The Twist Podcast #290: Corey Kills It, Wisconsin Wins It, and the Fall of the Cadbury Egg
Join co-hosts Mark McNease and Rick Rose as we salute Corey Booker and the voters of Wisconsin for showing us the way, and grieve the loss of Cadbury Egg’s royal warrant after 170 years. Beyond sad.
