Michael Mackie

45 Additional Stupid Things I’ve Learned Since My Stupid Birthday Last Year

45 Additional Stupid Things I’ve Learned Since My Stupid Birthday Last Year

Photo credit: Nikki Moreno-Whipple Years ago, I learned a shockingly good piece of writing advice. “People love lists,” a middling proofreader once told me. “Doesn’t matter what the headline is—if… Read more

How Get Lost! Came To Fruition

How Get Lost! Came To Fruition

In March of 2022, I found myself at a crossroads. I was gainfully unemployed and contemplating my next move. I dutifully sought the advice of career counselors, psychics, and colleagues… Read more

PRF at Mirabile M.D. Can Be a Gamechanger For Your Hair

PRF at Mirabile M.D. Can Be a Gamechanger For Your Hair

I like to think of myself as hair aware—which sounds infinitely better than, uh, shallow or vain. But when it comes to the mop of hair follicles on top of… Read more

Everything You Didn’t Know You Needed To Know About Lake Charles, Louisiana

Everything You Didn’t Know You Needed To Know About Lake Charles, Louisiana

When the fine folks at Visit Lake Charles called me in December about visiting their fair parish, I thought I’d won the travel writer lottery. Not only have I never… Read more

Why I Need/Deserve/Want a Personalized Weight Loss Program

Why I Need/Deserve/Want a Personalized Weight Loss Program

One time my physician flatly told me, “Mackie, it didn’t take you twelve weeks to gain sixty pounds, you’re not going to lose it in three months.” I looked at… Read more

John Wesley Shipp Made Me Gay

John Wesley Shipp Made Me Gay

I didn’t come out until my late 20s. A gay trailblazer, I most certainly was not. But I pretty much knew I had a potential preference for dudes in my… Read more

My Spidey Senses Are Tingling

My Spidey Senses Are Tingling

Don’t ask me how/when/why it happened, but I have this innate ability to sense when something is going sideways in my friends’ lives. I’m not sure if it’s a sixth… Read more

How I Became the Accidental Sober Whisperer

How I Became the Accidental Sober Whisperer

Nearly eight years ago, my physician lit into me at my annual physical. Like, finger-wagging-head-shaking laid into me. He was using a tone I’d never heard. And everything he said… Read more

When You’re Not The Kid Anymore

When You’re Not The Kid Anymore

My folks had been married fifteen years before I burst onto the scene. As they so often pointed out, I was quite an unexpected surprise. (Not unlike a clearance sale… Read more

Dad Musings

Dad Musings

Two things prompted this blog: It’s Father’s Day. My friend used the word “perseverate” in a sentence. When my non-writer friends casually pepper words like perseverate into a conversation, it… Read more