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  • LGBTSR,  Restaurant Reviews

    Restaurant Review: Sergeantsville Inn Earns 4+ Yums and a Spot on the Top List (Sergeantsville, NJ)

    By Mark McNease

    Where: Sergeantsville Inn
    601 Rosemont Ringoes Rd.,
    Sergeantsville, NJ 08559
    Tel: 609.397.3700
    Cost: $$$$
    Food: 4+, service 5

    Since opening under new ownership just months ago, Sergeantsville Inn has reestablished itself as a dining destination. We hadn’t been there for several years, and we wanted to return after the Inn’s reopening following a fire in 2015 that destroyed the interior. We liked the food before, and this time it was nothing short of spectacular.

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    Located at the corner of Route 523 and Rosemont Ringoes Road in Sergeantsville, NJ, the Inn has been around for generations. It has one of those original stone facades you find in structures built in the 1800s and earlier. First named for the Sergeant family, the Inn has been a private residence, a feed store, and a local fixture in the community since its founding.

  • LGBTSR,  Savvy Senior

    Savvy Senior: When Can I Change My Medicare Coverage?

    Listen to my One Thing or Another Podcast interview with Jim Miller.

    By Jim Miller

    Dear Savvy Senior,

    Is it possible to make changes to my Medicare coverage now? I know we’ve passed the fall open enrollment period, but I’ve heard that there are other times of the year beneficiaries can make changes. What can you tell me?

    Changed My Mind 

    Dear Changed,

    Yes! The annual Medicare open enrollment period isn’t your only opportunity to swap out Medicare coverage. There are other opportunities, but the timing of when you can make those changes depends on your specific circumstances and the kind of Medicare coverage you have. Here’s what you should know.

  • LGBTSR,  Substack

    I Was a Gay Sneetch (Living in a Star-Belly World)

    Subscribe to my Substack, Mark McNease on Topic, for musings, commentary and news.

    Dr. Seuss was in the news again recently when a school administrator in Ohio stopped a reading of his classic, ‘The Sneetches,’ after a child compared the treatment of the starless Sneetches to racism. “It’s almost like what happened back then, how people were treated … like white people disrespected Black people, but then, they might stand up in the book.” It was insightful enough to startle the administrator, and she ended the reading of the book, which was being done as part of an NPR podcast.

    I don’t have any patience for terms like ‘cancel culture’ (or ‘woke’ or ‘critical race theory’ or ‘groomer’), but it’s evident that silencing others is not the terrain only of one faction or another. Unfortunately, the right is always better at finding meaningless little nuggety words and phrases with which to assault people who don’t submit to their orthodoxy. ‘Cancel culture’ is just the sort of smug accusation that works for limited minds with no capacity for introspection.  Meanwhile, right-wing extremism marches merrily along, doing its best to roll over and silence anything that challenges its privileged and fragile assumptions. There are few more potent and effective practitioners of cancel culture than Florida’s Ron DeSantis, Tucker Carlson, Libs of TikTok, and the entire right-wing echo chamber.

  • LGBTSR,  Substack

    Monday Musings: Beware the Unwoke Mind

    The following is from my Substack twice-weekly email, Mark McNease on Topic. Subscribe here for musings, commentary, and The Weekly Readlines news roundup every Friday.

    “What would you say about someone who is not WOKE? They are “asleep,” “unconscious,” “indifferent.” They are “Mind Closed, Mouth Open.”” – Diane Ravitch

    “Beware the unwoke mind.” – Amanda Marcotte

    I recently told a friend I was nominating the word ‘woke’ for the one most in need of retiring in 2023. It has become both ubiquitous and meaningless, useful only as a slur employed by right-wing types to hurl at everything they don’t like or agree with. They take great pleasure in accusing those interested in social justice, equality, and accurate history of being whatever they think ‘woke’ means. At this point it only serves as a weapon and a form of mockery. I don’t believe I can have a serious conversation with anyone using the word, since the only people still saying it are wielding it as a verbal cudgel they feel no obligation to define.

  • LGBTSR

    Monday Musings: Beware the Unwoke Mind

    The following is from my Substack twice-weekly email, Mark McNease on Topic. Subscribe here for musings, commentary, and The Weekly Readlines news roundup every Friday.

    “What would you say about someone who is not WOKE? They are “asleep,” “unconscious,” “indifferent.” They are “Mind Closed, Mouth Open.”” – Diane Ravitch

    “Beware the unwoke mind.” – Amanda Marcotte

    I recently told a friend I was nominating the word ‘woke’ for the one most in need of retiring in 2023. It has become both ubiquitous and meaningless, useful only as a slur employed by right-wing types to hurl at everything they don’t like or agree with. They take great pleasure in accusing those interested in social justice, equality, and accurate history of being whatever they think ‘woke’ means. At this point it only serves as a weapon and a form of mockery. I don’t believe I can have a serious conversation with anyone using the word, since the only people still saying it are wielding it as a verbal cudgel they feel no obligation to define.

  • Kapok,  LGBTSR

    Kapok Aging and Caregiver Resources: How to Change Your Mindset with the New Year

    The following excerpt is reprinted with permission from Kapok Aging and Caregiver Resources.

    The new year is often a time for reflection and resolutions. It’s a chance to look back on all that’s been and think about what comes next.

    Doing this as a caregiver can get a bit overwhelming though.

    If you’ve been fully immersed in this role for a while, it might feel like life is just one intense day after another. Or, it might feel like you’re going nowhere, simply spinning your wheels and waiting for things to get better.

    Maybe now is the time to do something new.

    I know, that might sound like a big ask right now. Stick with me, though, as we’re focusing on a simple idea that can make your life easier.

  • Kapok,  LGBTSR

    Kapok Aging and Caregiver Resources: How to Change Your Mindset with the New Year

    The following excerpt is reprinted with permission from Kapok Aging and Caregiver Resources.

    The new year is often a time for reflection and resolutions. It’s a chance to look back on all that’s been and think about what comes next.

    Doing this as a caregiver can get a bit overwhelming though.

    If you’ve been fully immersed in this role for a while, it might feel like life is just one intense day after another. Or, it might feel like you’re going nowhere, simply spinning your wheels and waiting for things to get better.

    Maybe now is the time to do something new.

    I know, that might sound like a big ask right now. Stick with me, though, as we’re focusing on a simple idea that can make your life easier.

  • LGBTSR

    New Release! ‘Double Trouble: 2 Maggie Dahl Mysteries’ Now Available on Amazon

    Now on Amazon! Why not start the new year with some page-turning detection? Join Maggie Dahl and the cast of characters from the Maggie Dahl Mysteries as she finds herself in a new life, new town, and new adventure searching for killers who may very well be searching for her.

    Double Trouble brings together the first two Maggie Dahl Mysteries: Black Cat White Paws, and Open Secrets. Maggie and her late husband David had left New York City for a new life in Lambertville, NJ. Soon after following their dream there, Maggie finds herself pursuing it alone after David’s sudden death. She opens Dahl House Jams, she devotes herself to success, and she comes face to face with murder.

    In Black Cat White Paws, Maggie throws herself into solving the murder of her neighbor, whose cat Checks quickly becomes part of Maggie’s family. Her sister moves from Philadelphia to help her in this difficult time and forget her own rocky relationships with men. Soon the sisters are tracking down a killer and revealing a shocking secret that has kept a notorious case unsolved … until now.

    In Open Secrets, Maggie has become a minor celebrity in town, and she suddenly finds herself trying to learn what happened to another one: local author Shanna Delaney, whose second book of essays threatens to reveal secrets someone wants kept unknown. Throughout the two books, we’re introduced to characters who all have one thing in common: life in an idyllic Delaware River community that had not seen a murder in decades … until Maggie Dahl came to town.

  • LGBTSR,  The Weekly Readlines

    The Weekly Readlines January 6

     

    Now with a side of audio!

    The Weekly Readlines (rhymes with headlines!) is a feature at LGBTSr.com, offering news you can use every Friday.  

    NEW: You can now get the unabridged Readlines with a subscription to my Substack newsletter, along with regular musings, opinion and philosophical misfires. 

      Quote for the Week: “We all look like domestic terrorists now.” – Hope Hicks, top aide to former President Trump, raging after the failed January 6 coup

      BIG CUP: THE WEEK’S TOP STORIES

    First the good news: It’s 2023! Democracy did not read its own obituary in the year gone by. America moved into its post-pandemic phase, and the DOJ has a 99.8 percent conviction rate against the Capitol rioters.

    House Republicans made history by failing to elect a Speaker for the first time in over 100 years. Kevin ‘Orange Nose’ McCarthy couldn’t get the votes, while a rebel caucus of 20 or so continued their trench warfare.

    Mitch McConnell proved the undead are among us by becoming the longest-serving party leader in Senate history, and a suspect was arrested in the horrific murders of four University of Idaho students.

  • LGBTSR,  Substack

    Suggested Substack: The Garden of Forking Paths, by Brian Klaas

    Now that I’m on Substack myself (Mark McNease On Topic), I’ve started discovering all the great writing and thinking being launched into the universe on this platform. I’ll be making occasional recommendations for anyone who likes to ponder deeply, and sometimes not-so-deeply, along with the writers putting virtual pen to paper.

    Today it’s a fascinating substack called The Garden of Forking Paths, by Brian Klaas, Associate Professor of Global Politics at University College London. His most recent post is titled The Ten Days That Didn’t Exist

    Here’s a very small sample, since the writing belongs to him! Check it out.