Queenie meets her assignee’s kids over Cheesecake Factory excess, TT works through her cannabis stash while Massachusetts considers repealing recreational legalization, and a London dementia study offers real hope about THC and CBD for agitation. Also: night sweats vs. hot flashes, the triumphant zip-tie solution to a lost-key saga, a 180-pound pig who demands three Cheerios post-litter-box, and a pitch for guilt-free French Sundays — complete with an original poem.
Author Archives: tina1
S5, E14: Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word (to stop saying)
We open mid-life, mid-rain, mid-chaos — and fully on brand. Queenie’s kicking things off fresh off a family reunion that somehow pulled together around 60 people under a pavilion while the weather did its worst.
They segue into whether ants retrieve their dead, mourn their dead, or potentially require DNA evidence before accepting that a fallen comrade is really gone. Alexa is consulted. Designated undertaker workers, she reports, sense a death pheromone and remove corpses from the colony. They’re just being tidy. The ants. Just being tidy.
TT has been apologizing reflexively on the pickleball court every time she misses a shot — and so has her partner. They both caught themselves doing it and looked at each other. They agreed: stop. Nobody’s playing for money. Nobody’s walking off a cliff. Queenie points out that women apologize constantly for things outside their control. Bumping into someone. Missing a shot. Existing. The episode closes on that note — and on a song: a full musical number about the reflexive female apology. Apologizing to chairs. To waiters who brought the wrong plate. To the doctor for making you wait. To the stranger who stepped on your shoe. Every woman in the room nodded. They’ve been sorry since the age of eight.
S5, E13: Oooh, That Smell…(How to Ward Off Dementia for Midlife Women)
Queenie survived a bridal shower, a pool party, and being complimented on her “dress” (it was a bathing suit) — all in one weekend. CDQ covers smell training as a legit brain health tool, a reassuring new cannabis-and-cognitive-decline study, a TT’s Choice debate about sign language vs. Mandarin, and Queenie’s F***It List entry on finally setting expectations — not boundaries, expectations — around her availability. Aging brains, long marriages, colonoscopy prep, and ASL for “fuck you”: a perfectly normal episode.
S5, E12: Time Sure Flies When You’re Having Fun!
Queenie and TT ring in the post-Fourth of July with fireworks smoke, pickleball head injuries, and a serious conversation about reclaiming patriotism from people who turned a flag into a bumper sticker. Along the way: Weed Water upgrades, a science lesson on why time speeds up as you age (cannabis helps), and a TT’s Choice that asks whether you’d rather have great weed or a great bud tender — but not both.
S5, E11: March of the Misremembered
Queenie and TT celebrate summer’s arrival with TT’s chaotic pickleball debut, a mortifying “it’s an Indian name” moment, and a brand-new segment — Wait What? — launching with the news that a real mushroom causes consistent hallucinations of tiny mischievous people. They also debate when vs. how they’d want to know they’re dying, TT fucket-lists her own inner critic, and the episode closes out on a candid, conflicted Fourth of July reckoning. Light in places, heavy in others, and honest throughout.
S5, E10: Nobody Does It Better
Join Queenie and TT as they share their latest adventures, thoughts on current events, and humorous takes on life as seasoned queens. This episode covers everything from local events to global sports, with plenty of laughs and insights. And be sure to stay tuned for their newest podcast adventure–Pleasantly Confused!
S5, E9: Cha-cha-cha-changes
There’s a BIG announcement from Queenie and TT, once they get through some talk about softball, pickleball, and body betrayals. They aren’t on the same page with TT’s Choice, but can see each other’s perspective (of course!). And the F*** It List entry pushes back on the over-50 generations’ focus on women being “good” and “nice,” often at our own expense.
There’s lots of laughter, music and maybe too much information…at least in Honey’s opinion.
S5, E8: I Know It Sounds Absurd
Queenie went down a YouTube rabbit hole after watching Conan interview an intimacy coordinator, which led her to a segment featuring a young man whose company makes thirty-two custom condom sizes and offers a hotline where you can speak to said gentleman if you’re unsure which size to order. This leads to a bit about guidance counselors not recommending “talking about dicks all day” as a career path. Queenie’s advice: measure twice, cut once. You only want to make that mistake one time. They are crying laughing.
Also: screwworms are back, ocean monitoring equipment is being removed, and there’s no oversight of anything anymore. If you see things moving in your food, just ignore it.
The Fuck It List this week is a serious one: a friend of Queenie’s, a woman their age with significant cardiac history, had her blood pressure medication changed and spent weeks feeling terrible, voicing concern at her hospital stay, being dismissed, and only getting the medication switched back when her primary care physician called the cardiologist directly. Within a day, she felt better. The fuck it goes to not giving up, to trusting your own body, and to not allowing your problems to be minimized by a medical system that still, somewhere in its bones, operates like doctors are gods you stand up for when they enter the room. Queenie’s message: advocate for yourself, and if you can’t, find someone who can.
S5, E7: Just to Boogie with You
This episode opens the way the best ones do — mid-ramble, mid-life, totally unrushed. Queenie and TT kick things off with a digression about estate sales and thrift shops, specifically the unsettling realization that the stuff of their childhoods is now being tagged and priced at church basements across America. Harvest gold Tupperware. Avocado canisters. Country geese with blue bows around their necks. Roosters. Wallpaper you could strip with a steam iron and seventeen years of your life. They’re not mourning exactly — more like doing that thing where you laugh because the alternative is sitting with the actual weight of time passing, and who has the energy for that.
S5, E6: It’s a Family Affair
This week, TT survives a heroic (if bruising) escape from a dream assailant via an impressive mid-sleep dismount, and Queenie’s sister quits her toxic job with no safety net and full support from the hosts. The two dig into a JAMA study on why older adults are cannabis’s fastest-growing demographic — and have thoughts about whether “I just like the way I feel” counts as a valid medical reason. Plus: Conan O’Brien’s edible anxiety, Gas Pops, a commitment ceremony, and a very spirited TT’s Choice about microdosing before job interviews.