From Steve Hayes’s Tired Old Queen at the Movies

Patty Duke, Barbara Parkins, Sharon Tate, Lee Grant and Susan Hayward ripping the lid off Tinseltown in Mark Robson’s film version of Jacqueline Susann’s blistering bestseller VALLEY OF THE DOLLS (’67). Sex, drugs, booze & ruthless ambition fuel this story of the underside of show business and have made it a cult classic, maybe a camp classic. It’s a wild ride and one you won’t want to miss!

By Mark McNease

One of the things I’ve been proudest of achieving since we moved to our little house in rural New Jersey six years ago is setting up our raised-bed garden. It felt almost like an artwork, but a living one. It’s getting a little worn-down now, but we have at least one more year of a bountiful tomato, squash, zucchini, and (this year) lettuce harvest. I may tear it down and start over next year … or not. I’ll let nature and my own ambition tell me what to do next spring.

I’m just about two weeks away from publishing the new book. So exciting! This video says it all, and there will be three books in the series.

Join co-hosts Mark McNease and Rick Rose as we consider the Supreme Court’s recent flame throwing, debate what to call a ketchup mustard hybrid, and enjoy an interview with actor and comedian Jason Stuart.

More about Jason Stuart

JASON STUART is a prolific character actor & stand-up comic. Born in the Bronx and raised in the Fairfax district of Los Angeles, and now residing in Palm Springs and lives next door to his 85 year old Jewish mother Gloria, but does not live with her! Stuart is a self-described insecure Jewish kid who turned to theatre and performing to mask his emerging sexual identity. He confesses, “Barbra Streisand in “Funny Girl” saved my life”.

Hollywood began to take notice by casting him in films like “Kindergarten Cop,” “Vegas Vacation,” and TV shows like “The Closer” and “My Wife & Kids.”  Frustrated by years of living in the closet, Jason chose to come out publicly on an infamous episode of Geraldo Rivera focused on “Unconventional Comedians.” He went on to guesting on shows as “Goliath” opposite J.K. Simmons, “Love” from comedy guru Judd Apatow, and indie films like “Tangerine” from filmmaker Sean Baker and “Love is Strange” opposite John Lithgow and Alfred Molina.

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By Mark McNease

This seems like a good time to address our most recent bogeyman, or should I say bogeyrobot? AI (artificial intelligence) is all the rage these days, with a great deal of misunderstanding and fear around it. Like every new technology – and AI isn’t really new at all – it can be used for nefarious purposes, such as impersonating people, their voices and images in service to someone’s agenda, and it can be used for the good in innumerable ways.

When we ask Alexa or Siri or Google to research something, we are essentially using AI. The technologies in our cars are reliant on forms of AI. It is, frankly, already pervasive in our lives and has been for a long time, and it will only increase. Autocorrect. GPS. Word suggestions when we type. Algorithms everywhere. These are all forms of AI, and we’ve gotten used to them. We will get used to its other, newer, forms too. It’s all about adapting and, for me, embracing these new technologies.

Fasten your headphones for the final ten chapters of Kill Switch: A Kyle Callahan Mystery. This was perhaps the darkest book in the series, in terms of its psychology. Kyle and his friend, retired homicide detective Linda Sikorsky, solve the cold case of a murdered teenage girl. As they reveal the truth, they bring answers to her grieving father, even as they bring down the New York City District Attorney. The shock waves will reverberate in the city for years to come.

Fasten your headphones for another three chapters of Kill Switch: A Kyle Callahan Mystery. This was perhaps the darkest book in the series, in terms of its psychology. We have Kyle traumatized and seeing a therapist. We have a cold case involving the brutal, seemingly random murder of a teenage girl. But was it random? Follow along as Kyle and his friend, retired detective Linda Sikorsky, try to solve the case, for Kyle’s own well-being, and to provide answers to a grieving father. The shock waves from what they discover will reverberate all the way to the New York City District Attorney’s office and beyond.

Fasten your headphones for another three chapters of Kill Switch: A Kyle Callahan Mystery. This was perhaps the darkest book in the series, in terms of its psychology. We have Kyle traumatized and seeing a therapist. We have a cold case involving the brutal, seemingly random murder of a teenage girl. But was it random? Follow along as Kyle and his friend, retired detective Linda Sikorsky, try to solve the case, for Kyle’s own well-being, and to provide answers to a grieving father. The shock waves from what they discover will reverberate all the way to the New York City District Attorney’s office and beyond.

Fasten your headphones for another three chapters of Kill Switch: A Kyle Callahan Mystery. This was perhaps the darkest book in the series, in terms of its psychology. We have Kyle traumatized and seeing a therapist. We have a cold case involving the brutal, seemingly random murder of a teenage girl. But was it random? Follow along as Kyle and his friend, retired detective Linda Sikorsky, try to solve the case, for Kyle’s own well-being, and to provide answers to a grieving father. The shock waves from what they discover will reverberate all the way to the New York City District Attorney’s office and beyond.

We’ve belonged to a local CSA for several years now, and from late-May through October we enjoy a bountiful harvest of fresh vegetables we choose ourselves on bi-weekly trips to the location just across the river in Pennsylvania. The one we joined is called Tinicum CSA, and everything they offer is grown by the owners. The way our CSA works is that you can by shares – a small share or a big share – and when you go to pick them up you are allowed an assortment of vegetables based on which share you paid for. We get the big share … and it’s a lot! Today we brought home two kinds of cabbage, a bunch of turnips, green onions, chard, arugula, and lettuce. The types of vegetables available depend on what is coming to harvest at that time of year. Later in the summer there will be more tomatoes that you could eat, potatoes, beets, parsnips, okra, you name it. We get so much, in fact, that we give some away to our neighbors. (One of those neighbors trades us eggs from her truly free-range chickens, and when we buy them off-season we pay $3 a dozen! We love getting eggs from chickens whose lives are spent outside who are given love along with their chicken feed).