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The Twist 325: Weekly News Roundup Returns, Road Trip Fun Facts, and Rick Interviews Enjoyiana Nururdin
Episode 325 of The Twist is packed. Mark and Rick dig into the week’s biggest news stories in their Weekly News Roundup — the headlines, the highlights, and the takes you won’t get anywhere else. Then things get a little lighter with Road Trip Fun Facts, just in time for the open road season. And Rick sits down with Enjoyiana Nururdin, journalist and lifestyle content creator, for a conversation about her work, her voice, and what drives her to tell the stories she tells.
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Mark McNease’s Fearsome Fiction Podcast: Genre Classic ‘The Mystery of the Yellow Room’ by Gaston Leroux (Chapters 1 – 6)
Fearsome Fiction Podcast: Genre Classic Series The Mystery of the Yellow Room by Gaston Leroux — Chapters 1–6
Let’s talk about a book that has been quietly influencing mystery writers for over a hundred years. The Mystery of the Yellow Room by Gaston Leroux was published in 1907, and it did something so clever, so carefully constructed, that readers and writers are still talking about it. You may know Leroux from The Phantom of the Opera — but this is the book that made him a legend among mystery aficionados.
And once you spend the first six chapters inside the Château du Glandier, you’ll understand why.
An Impossible Crime
Here’s what we know. Mademoiselle Stangerson was attacked inside her laboratory — a small room with yellow wallpaper that gives the novel its name. The door was bolted from the inside. The windows were secured. No one could have gotten in, and no one could have gotten out. And yet the evidence of violence is everywhere: blood, a weapon, signs of a brutal, terrifying struggle.
Leroux doesn’t bury the lead. He plants the impossibility right in front of you in the opening chapters and essentially says: go ahead, figure it out. Most readers can’t. That’s the fun.
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On the Map: How to Prepare for a Long Road Trip with Multiple Stops
We’re about to head off on the first real road trip I’ve taken since I was a child. How it happened is a long story. The crux of it is that we’re meeting two other couples in Savannah, and I wasn’t interested in flying there for a three night stay. I suggested to my husband Frank that we make a road trip out of it, and that’s how it came to be. Our friend Michael, who often goes on cruises with us, signed on, and the three of us will heading off next Saturday for an 8 night trip with four stops: Roanoke for two nights, Savannah for three, Wilmington for two, and a final stop in Baltimore to visit friends before heading home.
So how, I wondered, does one best prepare for that much time, and that many miles, in a car? One of the reasons we’re making so many stops is because I really don’t like being in an automobile for more than several hours. We break up our annual trip to Provincetown this way, staying in Mystic or somewhere that’s basically half the distance, and doing the same on the return. But there’s more to it than just picking a halfway point on a map, so let’s take a look at some practical preparations for a serious road trip.
Road Ready: How to Prepare for a Long Road Trip with Multiple Stops
There’s something very enticing about a road trip — the open highway, the spontaneous detours, the sense that the journey itself is the destination. And the good news is that age doesn’t have to change any of that. It just means you plan a little smarter.
Whether you’re heading out for a week-long adventure across several states or a long weekend with three or four stops along the way, preparation makes the difference between a trip you’ll remember fondly and one you’d rather forget. Here’s how to get ready.
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LGBT Senior’s April eBook and Audiobook Giveaway: One Thing Or Another – Life, Aging, and the Absurdities of It All (Second Edition)
Welcome to the Second Edition of One Thing or Another, a collection of humor columns that takes a look at life, aging, and the absurdities of it all. It’s been a few years since the first edition, and even more since they were written. The Big Six-Oh is now the Big Six-Seven, and life is just as absurd as it was the first go-round.
From our culture’s refusal to use the word ‘old,’ to the sometimes comical consequences of aging in body and mind, if not always in spirit, you’re sure to enjoy this skewed look at life’s foibles for the ages. Collected from the author’s personal columns, these short essays will make you chuckle, recognize yourself, and sometimes grimace at the not-always-funny price we pay for simply staying alive.
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LGBT Senior Presents News on the Positive Side, by Cora Berke
News On the Positive Side– by Cora Berke
“It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness.” – Eleanor Roosevelt.
At any given moment we can have our fill of bad news, whether we are doom scrolling, watching our favorite news channel, listening to a podcast, or picking up a newspaper. Yet, if we look for the positive, we can find it in people who strive to make the world a better place.
International Transgender Day of Visibility was recently celebrated worldwide on March 31. It was created in 2009 by Rachel Crandall-Crocker, a psychotherapist and transgender activist from Michigan. She previously founded Transgender Michigan in 1997 for her local community and wanted to create a broader holiday for transgenders worldwide, in addition to the established solemn Transgender Day of Remembrance.
In a 2021 interview, Crocker told reporter Samantha Allen of Them,” I thought about creating the International Transgender Day of Visibility for a number of years. I was upset that the only day that we had was Transgender Day of Remembrance, because I tend to get really depressed on that day. I wanted a day when, rather than talking about those who passed away, we could talk about those of us who were alive. And I wanted a day that would bring together trans people from all over the world.” Now in its seventeenth year, it is celebrated throughout the world.
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The Twist Podcast Android News Edition: Science, Politics, Entertainment and Culture Small Plates
If you’ve been listening to The Twist Podcast for any length of time, you know that Mark and Rick have opinions about things. Science, politics, food, entertainment, and the general state of the world as it lurches forward into whatever this era is going to be called when historians get around to naming it.
So we did what any reasonable pair of podcasters would do: we cloned ourselves.
Meet the android versions of Mark and Rick — same voices, same sensibilities, significantly less coffee dependency — and they’re here every week with The Twist Podcast: Android News Edition, your weekly roundup of everything worth knowing and a few things worth arguing about. Will we go weekly? If the interest is there and we can hire more robots.
Each week we’re covering four beats: science, politics, food trends, and entertainment. Politics, because ignoring it hasn’t been working out great for anyone. Science, because it tells you more about the world than just the news does. Food trends, because you deserve to know that beef tallow is making a comeback and tiramisu is officially everywhere. And entertainment, because even in complicated times the shows we watch and the stories we tell matter.
New episodes drop every Friday. Find us wherever you’ve always found The Twist, same feed, no new subscriptions required.
— Mark & Rick
(The originals. Probably.)
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LGBT Senior Announces: One Thing or Another – Life, Aging, and the Absurdities Of It All Now A Free Audiobook
OR LISTEN AT YOUR LEISURE HERE
Getting older was supposed to come with wisdom. Nobody mentioned the absurdity.
In One Thing or Another: Life, Aging and the Absurdities of It All, Mark McNease takes a clear-eyed, warmly funny look at the indignities, surprises, and occasional revelations of growing older. With the timing of a seasoned storyteller and the honesty of someone who has lived enough to laugh about it, McNease finds humor in the everyday moments most of us are too busy — or too embarrassed — to examine closely.
From the small humiliations of a body that no longer cooperates to the baffling speed of a world that keeps changing without asking permission, these columns remind us that aging is something we’re all doing together. We might as well laugh.
One Thing or Another is the perfect companion for anyone who has ever caught their reflection and thought, when did that happen?
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LGBT Senior Announcements: Cora Berke Joins LGBTSr As Contributing Writer
Cora Burke I started this website 15 years ago with several contributing writers. The amazing Stephanie Mott, trans activist and luminous soul, passed away a few years ago, and David Webb, of Dallas Voice fame, retired. It’s been a long and sometimes lonely time, and I’m thrilled to welcome Cora Burke as a contributing writer to LGTSr. – Mark
About Cora
Cora Berke has dabbled in writing since reading Nancy Drew Mysteries in 3rd Grade.
She has written for the Bucks County Herald covering municipal and school board meetings. Cora also blogged for the Bucks County Visitor’s Center and wrote a food column for Out in Jersey Magazine.
She served on the Board of FACT (Fighting AIDS Continuously Together) and volunteered over 15 years for New Hope Celebrates to preserve LGBTQ+ history.
Born and raised in Brooklyn, NY, Cora now lives in Lambertville, NJ.An avid reader, she also loves knitting and gardening.
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Mark McNease’s Fearsome Fiction Podcast: Night Flight to Murder Town – A Marshall James Thriller (Chapters 19 – 21)
Welcome back to Mark McNease’s Fearsome Fiction Podcast, with Night Flight to Murder Town – A Marshall James Thriller, chapters nineteen through twenty-one.
It’s 1992, and Marshall James is forty blocks into his first real walk through New York City — down through Chelsea, where hope is spilling out onto the sidewalk in front of every coffee bar. He’s thirty-three, starting over, and beginning to believe that might actually be possible.
That belief gets complicated fast. A tour of Muscles Gym leads to a dinner invitation from Leland Jenner that Marshall knows he shouldn’t accept — and accepts anyway. Meanwhile, he learns that Trent has his own standing Tuesday arrangement with a certain Senator Daniel Roth.
Then we jump forward. Marshall and his partner Boo arrive in Lambertville to look into the murder of a famous author — last seen alive at the bed and breakfast where they’re now unpacking. The canal, the locked rooms, and a housekeeper with perfect comic timing are all waiting for them.
Chapters Nineteen, Twenty, and Twenty-One. Night Flight to Murder Town.
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LGBT Senior’s Health Beat: Spring Into It
By the LGBTSr blog team
I just got a bicycle, something I’ve been intending to do for several years. Luckily a friend and neighbor had one to give away, saving me the considerable cost of a new bike. My plan is to start slowly, riding up the road every day and extending the distance a little each time. Eventually I’ll be doing a few miles, and who knows from there? I want the cardio, and I love bike riding. Stay tuned for an update. – Mark
It’s warming up. Your body is ready. Here’s how to meet it where it is.
Something happens this time of year that no gym membership or fitness app can replicate. The days get longer. The air changes. The front door starts to look like an invitation instead of just an exit. For those of us who spent the winter months moving a little less and sitting a little more, spring is one of the best natural motivators there is — and all we have to do is not waste it.
Here’s how to make the most of it, sensibly and enjoyably.
Start slower than you think you need to.
This is the one everyone skips, and the one that matters most. After months of limited activity, muscles can lose strength and flexibility, so it’s important to ease back in rather than jump straight to your pre-winter routine. That enthusiasm you feel on the first warm Saturday of the year is real and good — just don’t let it write a check your knees can’t cash. A twenty-minute walk is a complete success. Build from there.
