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One Thing or Another Column: Comparatively Speaking
Narration provided by Wondervox

By Mark McNease
“The more things change, the more they stay the same.” Five years after writing this, it’s still true that so many of the conversations I have with friends and peers is about comparing—not so much to one-up each other with our aches, pains, and fears about our future health issues, but to simply share these things we have in common. Perhaps ‘age is just a number,’ as the platitude insists, but the body has a different opinion.
What is it about aging that has so many of us comparing aches and pains, as if we’re war veterans comforted by knowing we’re not the only ones wounded? Life can feel like combat when you’ve survived enough of it, and maybe the time simply comes when the scars we show each other are the result of putting so many decades behind us.
I remember hearing people my age talk about knee stiffness, back pain, inflamed joints, and the malaise that comes from knowing you won’t die young. “It’s better than the alternative,” we say, assuming the alternative is a cemetery plot or an urn from the local crematorium. We console ourselves with having outlasted and outlived so much, but the body knows better the prices we pay. Friends long gone. Parents a memory that somehow becomes more cherished with the erosion of time. The increasing effort needed to get into a car, climb a staircase, and some days just get out of bed.
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A House in the Woods 2: The Devil’s Due – Chapter 5 (Audio)

CHAPTER 5
Welcome to the episodic audio edition of A House in the Woods 2: The Devil’s Due. Fasten your headphones and enjoy one new chapter each week. You can find all the episodes here.
A House in the Woods 2: The Devil’s Due picks up where A House in the Woods left off. Laurel Calloway is still in the mysterious town of Strickland, New Jersey, where nothing is as it appears to be. Two years have gone by, and they’ve been good to the Calloways. Laurel and her husband Jeremy have a new house, and a new family with baby Isabel about to celebrate her first birthday. Everything seems perfect, until Laurel begins to have dreams. Bad dreams. Something tells her these dreams could really be memories. But of what? Of whom, and of when?
Did she really run over a woman in the road at night? Had they once had a dog? Why are these things trying so hard to surface, swimming slowly up from her subconscious? The more she begins to tell the people around her about these dreams, the more convinced she is that they’re part of it, and that these nightmares aren’t really dreams at all. Page after page, the pace escalates as Laurel begins to learn the truth and plot her escape. But will she succeed? The Devil is in the details.
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The Twist Podcast Turns 300! Take the Survey
Help Mark and Rick Rose celebrate our 300th episode of The Twist Podcast on July 25! Take our weekly survey and be part of the show. You can also send listener pix and facts to: TheTwistPocast @ gmail. com. This week’s survey: What skill would you master instantly if you could?
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The Twist Podcast #299: Disappearing Client Lists, New Wisdom of Jo Audio, and Emma Zoe Lyons Reviews HBO’s ‘Enigma’
Join co-hosts Mark McNease and Rick Rose as we hunt for Jeffrey Epstein’s mysteriously vanishing client list, share more fan facts and photos, dig the Wisdom of Jo in her own words, and enjoy Emma Zoe Lyons’ review of HBO’s ‘Enigma.’

Last Week’s Survey Results
If you could be one of these things, what would you be?
Thinner 18.75 percent
Younter 31.25 percent
Richer 18.75 percent
Kinder 31.25 percentTwo ‘others’:
“Only if I could also still have all my experiential wisdom from 86 years.”
“Wiser” -
The Twist Podcast #298: Big Monstrous Bill, ‘Poop Cruise’ Movie Review, Fan Photos, and a Rick Rose Chat with Adele George
Join co-hosts Mark McNease and Rick Rose as we choke on the Big Ugly Bill, take our wins where we can get them, learn about the ‘Poop Cruise’ from Emma Zoe Lyons, and enjoy Rick’s conversation with author Adele George. Plus our weekly survey and new fan photos!

This Week’s Survey
New weekly survey! Only ONE answer preferred this time. Would you be thinner, younger, richer, kinder? Or something else.
A View from Our Listeners

These are pix of your co-hosts Mark and Rick with fans of the Twist.Send us your photo(s) and a line or two to: TheTwistPodcast AT gmail.com

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A House in the Woods 2: The Devil’s Due – Chapter 4 (Audio)

CHAPTER 4
Welcome to the episodic audio edition of A House in the Woods 2: The Devil’s Due. Fasten your headphones and enjoy one new chapter each week. You can find all the episodes here.
A House in the Woods 2: The Devil’s Due picks up where A House in the Woods left off. Laurel Calloway is still in the mysterious town of Strickland, New Jersey, where nothing is as it appears to be. Two years have gone by, and they’ve been good to the Calloways. Laurel and her husband Jeremy have a new house, and a new family with baby Isabel about to celebrate her first birthday. Everything seems perfect, until Laurel begins to have dreams. Bad dreams. Something tells her these dreams could really be memories. But of what? Of whom, and of when?
Did she really run over a woman in the road at night? Had they once had a dog? Why are these things trying so hard to surface, swimming slowly up from her subconscious? The more she begins to tell the people around her about these dreams, the more convinced she is that they’re part of it, and that these nightmares aren’t really dreams at all. Page after page, the pace escalates as Laurel begins to learn the truth and plot her escape. But will she succeed? The Devil is in the details.




