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We finally burned the heavy coat and those Uggs. Gone! Spring is here and how badly did we need it? Now we are ready to embrace the sun, the birds and the bees and those exquisite moments of discovery - wherever you find them. Maybe...even here. Enjoy!
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To pass the time while waiting in the trenches of the Argonne in 1915, French infantryman Hippolyte Hodeau engraved the names of his daughters in chestnut leaves.
Think of the time. Think of the effort.
Think of the love of one dad for his daughters.
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May's Word of the Month
What's your Ikigai? What drives your life? What drives your imagination?
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Are you reflective or more impulsive?
Try this little quiz. We found it quite interesting, and hope you will as well. Answer these questions then...
go to the bottom of the newsletter for the answers.
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A bat and a ball cost $1.10 in total. The bat costs $1.00 more than the ball. How much does the ball cost? _____ cents
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If it takes 5 machines 5 minutes to make 5 widgets, how long would it take 100 machines to make 100 widgets? _____ minutes
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In a lake, there is a patch of lily pads. Every day, the patch doubles in size. If it takes 48 days for the patch to cover the entire lake, how long would it take for the patch to cover half of the lake? _____ days
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Quiz #1
We're back at it again, with this lovely lady. Can you
tell us here
who she might be? If you have a correct answer we may select it and send along a lovely $25 Visa gift card.
Last month's winners were Susan B. who correctly identified the Scott Monument in Edinburgh, Scotland
(and was actually there - when she opened April's newsletter!!!!) and Cindy L. who may - or may not - have traveled to
New Zealand's Dunedin Rail Station - which is the second most photographed place in the southern hemisphere behind...the Sydney Opera House!
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Daniels Energy's Super Amazonian Offer
Buy One
Mitsubishi Electric Cooling &
Heating Unit To Cool One Room
Get The second Room
FREE*
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Cool Two Rooms
Only
Pay For One!
PLUS...
Get Amazon Prime FREE**
Cool your family room, living room, play room or basement.
Cool a second room - Free.
Let Daniels Do It!
We'll install two new Mitsubishi Ductless Split Head Units
(
that's the one that mounts on the wall)
- but you'll only pay for one! More than 350 homeowners took advantage of this program in the last two years - Now's the time to call!
Plus: Choose 0% - 18 month or
0.99% - 10 year financing*
Plus: Up to $500 EnergizeCT* Rebate!!!
For a limited time - Daniels Energy is offering the perfect cooling solution for two rooms when breaking down walls to install ducts is not an option! Mitsubishi Ductless systems are flexible, improve indoor air quality, save you money and can often be installed in one day!
Mitsubishi Electric Ductless Cooling can keep you cool all summer long!
* Up to 40% more efficient
* Quieter than a human whisper
* Improves air quality
* Compatible with popular smart thermostats
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Save up to $750*
Plus
Up to $500 EnergizeCT Rebate*
Plus
Your Choice of 0% or 0.99% 10-Yr. Financing.*
Plus
Amazon Prime For One Year**
Plus
12-Year Mitsubishi Elite Contractor Warranty
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*Offer is for one standard compressor unit and two standard Mitsubishi Ductless Split head units. Discount depends on size of overall cooling solution. Daniels will deduct the cost of one AC head unit when installation of both units is done at the same time. **Anticipated value of head unit is up to $750. EnergizeCT offers the finance rate of 0.99% for 10 years and an immediate consumer rebate of up to $500 depending on equipment selected. Minimum size restriction and SEER ratings apply. 0%% for 18-mos. available through Synchrony Bank. **Daniels will reimburse the cost of Amazon Prime (up to $125 with a prepaid Visa card. If customer already has Amazon Prime, Daniels will provide a $125 prepaid Visa card. Amazon offer ends 6.30.19) Not available on previous sales. See Daniels Energy representative for complete details. Primary Mitsubishi offer ends: June 30, 2019 Daniels Energy: CT License S1-385517 HOD#19 / Daniels Propane. LLC: #846 CT License S1-302857
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May Art
Matteo Baroni (Florence, 1977) is an Italian artist. His work revolves around different sculpture forms, focusing on the recycling of scrap metal.
Baroni held his first exhibition in London at Thomas Williams Fine Art in 2009. His sculptures are created out of scrap metal but he does not conform to the current norms of "found-object" installations.
Instead he carefully bends and twists the metal pieces to create powerful representations of the human form, some at life size. Threading through all the work is an astonishing achievement of balance even the largest stand perfectly without support.
View more at: https://wooarts.com/matteo-baroni
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Understand, I'll slip quietly
away from the noisy crowd
when I see the pale
stars rising, blooming, over the oaks.
I'll pursue solitary pathways
through the pale twilit meadows,
with only this one dream:
You come too.
-Ranier Maria Rilke
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The superfluous man is an 1840s and 1850s Russian literary concept derived from the Byronic hero. It refers to an individual, perhaps talented and capable, who does not fit into social norms.
In most cases, this person is born into wealth and privilege. Typical characteristics are disregard for social values, cynicism, and existential boredom; typical behaviors are gambling, romantic intrigues, and duels. He is often not empathetic and carelessly distresses others with his actions.
This term was popularized by Ivan Turgenev's novella The Diary of a Superfluous Man (1850) and was thereafter applied to characters from earlier novels. The character type originates in Alexander Pushkin's verse-novel Eugene Onegin (1825-32).
Mikhail Lermontov's A Hero of Our Time (1840) depicts another Superfluous Man - Pechorin - as its protagonist. He can be seen as a nihilist and fatalist. Later examples include Alexander Herzen's Beltov in Who is to Blame? (1845-46), Ivan Turgenev's Rudin (1856), and the titular character of Ivan Goncharov's Oblomov (1859)
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This Month's Surprise Link
Starting this month we are going to add a surprise link. It could take you to a video or a set of photos or my in-laws Facebook page. In any event we promise to make it a place or thing that might interest you or amuse you or astonish you. So...here ya go...
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Visit The Basement...
Time For A Tune-up
Yes, we know, it's been years since you were down there, but alas, you must visit on occasion.
Or...better,
Let Daniels Do It.
Get your AC ready for the wicked heat to come. It's overdue and May is the perfect month to schedule that service. We can do your oil furnace while we are down there, two!
Plus you'll have time to plan your trip to Norway, New Zealand or Napal.
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We have 5 - count 'em 5 tickets to the Hartford Yard Goats game on Thursday May 16
th.
If you want them -
enter here - and we will pick a winner by May 8
th
So...Go Go Go - Goats!
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If you haven't given a lot of thought about your brain, you should. To get your started we thought we'd share with you...How Your Brain Ages. (Some of us were more than a little depressed about this, but hey...that's life.)
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Quiz #2
Yes It's beautiful. But, where is it?
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After a nature photographer dies on assignment in Venezuela, a poisonous spider hitches a ride in his coffin to his hometown in rural California, where arachnophobe Dr. Ross Jennings (Jeff Daniels) has just moved in with his wife, Molly (Harley Jane Kozak), and young son.
John Goodman to the rescue.
Oh oh!
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So we thought we'd go vegetarian for dinner:
Warm Avocado Tartine with Morel Mushrooms and Pea Salad
Recipe adapted from Ben Ford, Fords Filling Station, Los Angeles, CA
INGREDIENTS
- 1/4 pound morels - cleaned, trimmed and sliced into rounds
- 5 tablespoons, plus 1 teaspoon, olive oil, divided
- 2 garlic cloves, 1 smashed, 1 left whole
- 1 teaspoon fresh thyme, finely chopped
- Kosher salt and pepper to taste
- 1 avocado, halved and seeded
- 1 tablespoon, plus 1 teaspoon, fresh lemon juice, divided
- Two 1/2-inch slices of whole wheat bread
- 1 cup ( about 3 ounces) snap peas, stemmed and thinly sliced at an angle
- 1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
- 3 tablespoons hazelnuts, roast and chopped
- 1 tablespoon honey
- Flakey sea salt, to top
DIRECTIONS
1. In a mixing bowl, toss the mushrooms with 1 tablespoon of the olive oil, the smashed garlic clove and the thyme. Heat a grill pan over medium-high heat and add the mushrooms. Season with salt and pepper and sauté, stirring occasionally, until the mushrooms are tender, 6 to 8 minutes. Remove and discard the garlic.
2. Meanwhile, brush the avocado halves with 1 tablespoon of the olive oil and grill alongside the mushrooms, flesh-side down, until lightly charred, 2 to 3 minutes.
3. Remove the mushrooms and avocado and set aside.
4. Scoop the avocado into a bowl and smash with 1 tablespoon of the lemon juice, 1 tablespoon of the olive oil and salt. Set aside.
5. Using a pastry brush, brush both sides of the bread with 2 tablespoons of the olive oil. Grill until the bread is lightly charred, 2 to 3 minutes on each side. Remove and scrape both sides of the bread with the whole garlic clove.
6. In a small mixing bowl, combine the snap peas, remaining lemon juice, lemon zest and 1 teaspoon of the olive oil. Season with salt and toss.
7. Spread the avocado mash on top of the toast. Top with the morels, pea salad and hazelnuts. Serve the toasts with a drizzle of honey and a sprinkle of flaky sea salt
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The May Butterfly ...and Her Friends.
Not sure what came over us, but we're going all nature on you this month. There's just so much beauty out there that must be embraced.
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Thought we share this fantastic French beehive townhouse.
And these are the bees of New England - you'll be seeing a lot of them in the coming months. Be nice to them. We need them doing that pollinating thing!
BACKYARD BEES OF NORTH AMERICA
And one honey bee for your consideration.
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You Must Choose
(Not That We Are Going To Provide One of Them to a Winner....)
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--
The correct answers are 5 cents, 5 minutes, and 47 days, but each question also invites a quick, intuitive response that's wrong. In order to succeed, you have to suppress your "gut" response and reflect on your own cognition deeply enough to see the error.
Psychologist Shane Frederick devised the three-question test in 2005 to illustrate these two modes of thought, unreflective and reflective, which he called System 1 and System 2.
Scores on the CRT correlate with various measures of intelligence, patience, and deliberation, but cognitive ability alone isn't strongly correlated with CRT scores: If you're not disposed to answer impulsively then the problems aren't hard, and if you do answer impulsively then cognitive ability won't help you.
A sample of students at MIT averaged 2.18 correct answers, Princeton 1.63, Carnegie Mellon 1.51, Harvard 1.43; see the link below for more.
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Leave 'em Laughing
Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, John Burroughs, and Harvey Firestone used to take a camping trip each summer, calling themselves the Four Vagabonds. Ford liked to tell a story about stopping at a service station to replace a headlight:
He claimed to have said to the attendant, 'By the way, you might be interested to hear that the man who invented this lamp is sitting out there in my car.'
'You don't mean Thomas Edison?' the man gasped.
'Yes, and, incidentally, my name is Henry Ford.'
'Do tell! Good to meet you, Mr. Ford!'
Noting the brand of tire in the service station's racks, Ford added, 'And one of the other men in the car makes those tires - Firestone.'
The attendant's jaw dropped. Then he saw John Burroughs with his flowing beard and his voice became skeptical: 'Look here, mister, if you tell me that the old fellow with the whiskers out there is Santa Claus, I'm going to call the sheriff.'
(From Peter Collier and David Horowitz,
The Fords: An American Epic.
Pass The Salt. Please. ..
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Pass The Salt - Joseph's Longest Machine Ever |
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Daniels Energy, 8 High Street, Portland CT 06480
Daniels Energy: CT License S1-385517 HOD#19 /
Daniels Propane. LLC: #846 CT License S1-302857
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