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Whewww....we made it to June, anyway.
We hope that you are coping safely at home, practicing social distancing and exploring all the newest baking and teaching techniques!
Summer is here...sports around the corner, kids home for the summer (oh, wait...right) and a level of normality, or a version of it...is not far off. This month we've tried to bring a bit of fun and joy in our epistle and we hope that you enjoy it.
Please stay healthy and know that we are here if you need any help with staying cool. (To that end, we've included two chilling ideas.)
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Start Digging...
The Trundholm "Sun Chariot," was found in a bog in Denmark in 1902. It is perhaps 3,400 years old.
(
Just so you know Connecticut HAS bogs, including the Cranberry bog in East Hampton and bogs in Chester, Simsbury and Bethany. Just sayin')
Scholars believe that it depicts the sun, as Nordic myths believed, as it was pulled across the sky during the day. The idea of the sun being pulled across the sky, either on a boat or chariot, also shows up in Egyptian, Greco-Roman, Indian, and other mythology.
Now, what's in your bog?
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Beat A Retreat.
Actually, a quite positive thing to watch.
Every evening since 1959, the armed forces of Pakistan and India have performed a joint military ceremony at the Attari-Wagah border.
There is a highly-choreographed set of moves, including high leg raises, kicksteps, and a handshake, before the gates are opened.
The flags are folded, two soldiers shake hands, and the gates close again. The event is attended by crowds and occasional celebrity guests.
The ceremony is known as "Beating Retreat" and symbolizes the cooperation and the competition between Pakistan and India.
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Joy
So this has been a miserable 60 Days.
And we are looking at more tough days in the near future, so we were thinking - what we all need now is a surprise. A bit of joy. Something that leaves us with a smile. So we uncovered a few!
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"Come in.... cool off... with our new Coolerator"
-
1953 Saturday Evening Post
Daniels Has A Better Idea
Forget the Coolerator!
Get A New Trane AC System!
*$250 Daniels Energy instant rebate of $250 valid on qualifying systems only.**$200 EnergizeCT rebate available. Rebates for qualifying matched Trane AC Comfort Systems. Certain SEER restrictions apply. ***Convenient interest rate financing is available, subject to credit approval. See Daniels representative for details. Daniels Energy: CT License S1-385517 HOD#19 /Daniels Propane. LLC: 846 CT License S1-302857
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Know who this woman is?
Tell us here and you may find a $25 Amazon gift card in your mailbox!
Last month 71 of you including
Steve S. and Roxann B
recognized the singers from
Heart, Ann and Nancy Wilson.
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How Dense Are We?
Here's a visualization of the population density of the US, Australia and New Zealand. Why?
That
is a fair question.
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Since You're Going To Be Staying In...
Here's How Long Your Food
Will Actually Last
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The Edmund Fitzgerald
You probably know the song...
But do you know how
Gitche Gumee and the rest of the Great Lakes become ship killers? Here's a few visuals to go with the song.
Ways the Great Lakes try to Murder Ships illustrated
It is estimated that over 6,000 ships and over 30,000 lives have been lost in the Great Lakes. That's insane! Here are just a few of the lakes' favorite ways to murder ships.
Cresting Failure
When a large wave lifts the ship by it's middle, the ship arches or "hogs" to a point of failure.
All of the stress is concentrated here
Wave-Spanning
The opposite of cresting, when both extremes of the ship are lifted by waves, the middle is subjected to immense stress. Ships carrying taconite (steel pellets) are too heavy for this stress.
This only happens with larger ships on the Great Lakes because of close wave intervals. A sudden load loss actually makes things worse.
Swamping
While this may seem like the dumbest and most avoidable, it's also the most common. Ships loaded too heavy sit too low in the water
(called freeboard). The Edmund Fitzgerald was suspected to be too low.
It's also literally why you "batten down the hatches."
Ploughing
When riding down a wave sends you into the next. Runs a high risk of swamping the ship with more water over the deck that it can run off or pump out in a few seconds.
Worse in the Great Lakes because fresh water waves are spaced closer than salt water waves.
Ploughing to Ground Strike
Like ploughing above, but much worse.
This ploughing actually involves soil and guarantees you will have a no- good very bad day.
Bottoming
Big waves actually increase the chances of the entire ship being slammed onto the sea/lake floor.
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A Word About Jen
We hope you know how much we appreciate your reading and playing along with us. Last month we splashed a bit of Victorian slang at you and suggested that you might want to play along and respond. A few of you did and we do so thank you.
However, Jen D. took it five steps further and we thought we'd share her efforts with you. She wrote us this little epistle. Enjoy.
My dear friend,
I write to you, hoping that you are in good health. While typically I would be a gigglemug, I fear lately I've got the morbs. Here we are laying low, though we would much rather be having a benjo. It may do me well to avoid the butter upon bacon for a bit.
We are lucky with supplies so far, and will even be enjoying some bags o' mystery in the morn. I hope it doesn't come to the point where we will have to eat bow wow mutton. The silence of home is calming, though it would be nice to have a church-bell or chuckaboo around once in a while. The mister and I have had our share of collie shangles being in such close quarters but don't worry, I won't cop a mouse.
I'm trying to find uses for my daddles, but damfino if there's any good crafts or new hobbies to partake. I'm grateful not to be of the dizzy age as it's quite perilous right about now. Even with our young age and healthy family, I find myself wary of doing the bear without hand sanitizer. Our children are experiencing fifteen puzzle as to why there is no school and the hubby is growing a door-knocker since we're stuck inside. He might soon wish he had a fly rink as I will have to learn to cut his hair. Before long we will all be half-rats but without the option for mafficking or nanty narking we'll be mad as hops.
Our current leader could make a stuffed bird laugh with his dangerous skilamalink advice. Too bad the mutton shunters can't enforce safe behavior. Thank goodness for those bricky healthcare workers. Please remember, if you must go out, it's important to mind the grease. Hopefully before too much longer we'll take the egg on this crisis. If people don't practice safe habits, we'll surely shoot into the brown, in which case you'll find me smothering a parrot.
-- Jen from Clinton, CT
Glossary of terms:
bags o' mystery: sausages
benjo: a riotous holiday
bow wow mutton: meat so bad it might be dog flesh
bricky: brave or fearless
butter upon bacon: extravagance
church-bell: a talkative woman
chuckaboo: a close friend
collie shangles: quarrles
cop a mouse: get a black eye
daddles: your hands
damfino: "damned if I know"
dizzy age: elderly
doing the bear: hugging
door-knocker: type of beard
fifteen puzzle: confusion
fly rink: bald head
gigglemug: smiling face
half-rats: partially intoxicated
mad as hops: excitable
mafficking: getting rowdy
make a stuffed bird laugh: absolutely preposterous
mind the grease: let you pass
nanty narking: great fun
shoot into the brown: to fail
skilamalink: shady, doubtful
smothering a parrot: drinking absinthe
take the egg: to win
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It Was Going To Get Hot -
Now It IS!
Chill 2-Rooms For Only
With 0.99% - 10-yr. Financing
Plus Up To:
$500 Energize CT Rebate
Three truths:
One - the Corona-Virus will be with us for awhile.
Two - the heat and humidity of summer is here....
Three - For 95 years, Daniels has served Connecticut families through everything from the depression to world wars to hurricanes and recessions. Today, we're working safe, and smart so you can count on us to be there to serve you for years to come. So...
While we can't help with the first, we can absolutely help with the
second, with the installation of new Mitsubishi Electric Ductless
Systems. And - at a spectacular price!
Daniels Energy is offering the perfect cooling solution for two rooms - when breaking down walls to install ducts is not an option! Mitsubishi Electric Ductless systems are flexible, improve air quality, save you money - and can be installed in one day!
*
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*
Quieter than a human whisper
* Compatible with popular smart thermostats
PLUS DANIELS DIAMOND CONTRACTOR
12-YEAR WARRANTY!
Call: 860.813.9122
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*Offer is for one standard compressor unit and two standard Mitsubishi Ductless Split head units. $75.75 per month example predicated on $10,000 total cost for system. $1,000 customer down payment. Financing $9,000 at .99% apr. 120 equal payments of $75.75 per month. EnergizeCT offers an immediate consumer rebate of up to $500 depending on equipment selected. Minimum size restriction and SEER ratings apply. Not available on previous sales. See Daniels Energy representative for complete details. Primary Mitsubishi offer ends: July 1, 2020. Daniels Energy: CT License S1-385517 HOD#19 / Daniels Propane. LLC: #846 CT License S1-302857
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What's On?
That is the question that we get - every single night. What should we watch? Netflix, Amazon, HBO, Showtime, Vanilla TV, PBS, so many choices, so few great things to watch. Until your buds at Daniels showed up.
You can't miss on any of these. We'd like to hear your favorites and we'll share your thoughts next month. Til then, settle in, tune in and turn on.
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Quiz #2
Jonathan Swift's
Journal to Stella
, a collection of 65 letters written to his friend Esther Johnson, contains some puzzling passages, such as this one:
"He gave me al bsadnuk lboinlpl dfaonr ufainfbtoy dpionufnad, which I sent him again by Mr. Lewis."
How should the obscured phrase be read?
Tell us here
and win that fabulous Amazon gift card!
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June Art
When your author was young he stumbled onto a photo book by an extraordinary photographer, W. Eugene Smith. It had the power of inspiration. It had the power to open up a new way of seeing the world and understanding one's place in it. You've seen his work, even if you don't know him. We're glad to make the introduction.
W. Eugene Smith:
The walk to paradise garden
. USA, 1946.
W. Eugene Smith was no doubt one of the greatest war correspondents of the last century. As the photographer for Life, he followed the island-hopping American offensive against Japan, from Saipan to Guam, from Iwo Jima to Okinawa, where he was hit by mortar fire, and invalided back.
His war wounds cost him two painful years of hospitalization and plastic surgery. During those years he took no photos, and it was doubtful whether he would ever be able to return to photography. Then one day in 1946, he took a walk with his two children, Juanita and Patrick, towards a sun-bathed clearing:
"While I followed my children into the undergrowth and the group of taller trees - how they were delighted at every little discovery! - and as I observed them, I suddenly realized that at this moment, in spite of everything, in spite of all the wars and all I had gone through that day, I wanted to sing a sonnet to life and to the courage to go on living it....
Pat saw something in the clearing, he grasped Juanita by the hand and they hurried forward. I dropped a little farther behind the engrossed children, then stopped. Painfully I struggled - almost into panic - with the mechanical iniquities of the camera....
I tried to ignore the sudden violence of pain that real effort shot again and again through my hand, up my hand, and into my spine ... swallowing, sucking, gagging, trying to pull the ugly tasting serum inside, into my mouth and throat, and away from dripping down on the camera....
I knew the photograph, though not perfect, and however unimportant to the world, had been held.... I was aware that mentally, spiritually, even physically, I had taken a first good stride away from those past two wasted and stifled years."
While he was right about his stride towards recovery, Smith miscalculated the photo's importance. In 1955, a heavily-indebted Smith decided to submit the photo to Edward Steichen's now-famous Family of Man exhibit at the MOMA. There, it became a finalist and then the closing image, thus cementing its position as the ur-icon of all family photographs.
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June Philosophical Meandering
Curiosity is insubordination in it's purest form.
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Leave em' Laughing
Laurel & Hardy Joke
Funny, Ironic? Or Both?
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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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