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The Twist Podcast #211: Our Very Own Rick Rose Birthday Celebration! Plus Terror in the Heartland
Join co-hosts Mark McNease and Rick Rose as we celebrate Rick’s presence on Earth another year! The terror stuff is just for kicks. We’ve got news, listicles, food faves and more. Put your headphones over your party hats and join the fun.
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The Twist Podcast #211: Our Very Own Rick Rose Birthday Celebration! Plus Terror in the Heartland
Join co-hosts Mark McNease and Rick Rose as we celebrate Rick’s presence on Earth another year! The terror stuff is just for kicks. We’ve got news, listicles, food faves and more. Put your headphones over your party hats and join the fun.
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The Weekly Readlines January 20
The Weekly Readlines (rhymes with headlines!) is a feature at LGBTSr.com, offering news you can use every Friday.
Quote for the Week: “People come up to me, they actually want to work longer.” – GOP Rep. Rick Allen, speaking from another planet to defend his push to raise the Social Security eligibility age. Nowhere does he mention that no one is forced to stop working.
BIG CUP: THE WEEK’S TOP STORIES First the good news: As of January 22, we’ll be entering the Year of the Rabbit. The rabbit is a symbol of longevity, peace and prosperity in Chinese culture. 2023 is predicted to be a year of hope. In the words of the great intergalactic philosopher Jean-luc Picard, “Make it so!”
SCOTUS issued its report on the investigation into who leaked the Dobbs decision, determining to no one’s surprise that we will never know the culprit. In the words of Chief Justice John Roberts, “Make it so!” Georgia Rep. Rick Allen claims people want to work longer before retirement, in his defense of raising the eligibility age for Social Security. House Republicans have brought back smoking in Congressional offices, ensuring that if Covid didn’t get them cancer will. Nothing demonstrates masculinity like smelling like an ashtray at last call.
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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: $$$$
Food: 4+, service 5Since opening under new ownership just months ago, Sergeantsville Inn has reestablished itself as a dining destination. We hadn’t been there for several years, and we wanted to return after the Inn’s reopening following a fire in 2015 that destroyed the interior. We liked the food before, and this time it was nothing short of spectacular.
Located at the corner of Route 523 and Rosemont Ringoes Road in Sergeantsville, NJ, the Inn has been around for generations. It has one of those original stone facades you find in structures built in the 1800s and earlier. First named for the Sergeant family, the Inn has been a private residence, a feed store, and a local fixture in the community since its founding.
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Restaurant Review: Sergeantsville Inn Earns 4+ Yums and a Spot on the Top List (Sergeantsville, NJ)
By Mark McNease
Where: Sergeantsville Inn
601 Rosemont Ringoes Rd.,
Sergeantsville, NJ 08559
Tel: 609.397.3700
Cost: $$$$
Food: 4+, service 5Since 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.
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.
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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.
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Book Review: How to Sell a Haunted House, by Grady Hendrix
By Terri Schlichenmeyer
The Bookworm Sez“How to Sell a Haunted House” by Grady Hendrix
c.2023, Barkley $28.00 432 pagesYou forgot that there were strings.
You forgot who was doing the talking, too. No, your eyes were stuck on the puppet with a funny voice that made you forget that this was a show, that a bit of cloth and a wooden face were only objects of theater. Didn’t you see the puppeteer’s lips move? As in the new book “How to Sell a Haunted House” by Grady Hendrix, wasn’t there a human holding the strings?
Driving by it, her parents’ house looked smaller then she remembered.
Then again, it had been some time since Louise Joyner had been home. Years ago, she’d escaped the place and never looked back, returning only when necessary – like now, when she and her brother, Mark, had a double-funeral to plan and that shabby old house to clear out.
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The Weekly Readlines January 13
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: “I had such big dreams and expectations as a younger person, but what happened is they get sort of fizzled by life.” – Jennifer Coolidge, accepting her Golden Globe for White Lotus BIG CUP: THE WEEK’S TOP STORIES First the good news: CA Democratic Rep. Robert Garcia was sworn into office on the U.S. Constitution, beneath which were a photo of his parents lost to Covid, his citizenship certificate, and an original Superman #1 from the Library of Congress. Light and spirit in a dark world.
The GOP House of Horrors Show begins, with endless hearings on hot MAGA buttons guaranteed to exhaust us for the next two years. Classified documents continue to be found at properties once occupied by Joe Biden, providing the mainstream media lots of opportunity to parrot the right-wing echo chamber. And a 6-year-old shot his teacher in Newport News, VA, probably with the gun Mommy left on the kitchen table.
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The Twist Podcast #210: Special Guest Susie Hobson Joins the Fracas!
Join co-hosts Mark McNease and Rick Rose as we welcome our guest Susie Hobson for a lively conversation about the day’s top news, listicles, conversation and comedy.
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The Twist Podcast #210: Special Guest Susie Hobson Joins the Fracas!
Join co-hosts Mark McNease and Rick Rose as we welcome our guest Susie Hobson for a lively conversation about the day’s top news, listicles, conversation and comedy.
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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.
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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.