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Can you feel it? June is busting out - all over.
Don't know if it is the huge pent-up need for human contact, 70 degrees and sunshine or just the enthusiasm for any sort of normalcy but it feels good. People are smiling - we can see it through the masks and - lately - without those ubiquitous face coverings.
We hope you are all well, we thank you for reading and playing along with us through some pretty tough days and promise to be there when you need us the rest of 2021! Enjoy.
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I have a friend who hikes. A lot. So, I suggested she take a long walk. And she is. Figures it will take her 3 1/2 months to make the full trek. I will let you know how she fares. So, how many of you have made this jaunt? Any portion of it? | |
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Just Some Random
Butterfly Beauty
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French street artist Mantra works with entomologists to transform walls into massive studies of local butterfly specimens. Recently Mantra has traveled to Belgium, Denmark, and Sweden, and France, to complete the pieces. | |
Best Wedding Cake...Ever! | |
It is June. And June is for ...brides? | |
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We thought we’d bring you some ideas about “going green,” “lowering your carbon footprint,” and basically “saving a bit of green along the way.”
For instance when David Daniels started working with his dad and grandfather the average customer used 1,000 gallons of the heating oil per year. Today it’s about 640.
Much of that has been achieved by higher efficiency heating & AC equipment and weatherizing their homes.
Now when we provide a 20% blend of B-20 Bio-heat heating fuel and even more efficient heating equipment we are seeing customer reduce their use to as little as 410 gallons a year.
Bio-heat is a combination of plant based oils and – wait for it - recycled cooking oils from restaurants and food processing plants! Air conditioning energy consumption is also down by as much as 65% based on SEER ratings of 6’s and 7’s from the 70’s through the 90’s.
Today’s ultra-high efficiency systems are available up to 22 SEER – using one-third the electricity of older systems.
Remember going green can really mean a greener wallet as well. More next month.
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Who might this young man be? If you think you know, tell us here and we’ll provide you with a chance to win a $25 Amazon gift card, which everyone tells us is as cool as this dude. | |
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Will I Am
In the year 1611, when the King James Version of the Bible was published, William Shakespeare was 46 and 47 years old.
The 46th word from the start of the 46th Psalm is shake, and the 47th word from the end is spear.
Also, the 14th word is will, and the 32nd word from the end is am, preceded by I. And 14 + 32 = 46.
Remarkably, these coincidences obtain also in Richard Taverner’s 1539 Bible, which uses a different wording.
See? You didn’t know this!
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This is a survey.
We need to visit the BEST hot dog joints in Connecticut. We’ll even drive to NY or RI or, well…MA.
Tell us your favorite here and we’ll visit – take pix and feature our culinary choices next month!
Our favorite – ever – is Walter’s Hot Dogs in Mamaroneck NY.
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Yep…They do fantastic hot dogs. Have for 90+ years.
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Dirty Ducts?
Let Daniels UnDo It?
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Let's talk filth.
Let's talk efficiency.
Let's clean and seal your leaking ducts.
Have you any idea the kind of dirt, dust, pet hair, dandruff or old Cheetos may be clogging up your ducts?
Did you realize how much cool air - or heat - you may be losing into your attic if you're suffering from leaky ducts?
How about 30-50% of the cooling and heating your system is cranking out! Amazing and true. Seal those ducts!
If you haven't cleaned your ducts in 3-5 years - or more - let Daniels do a complete cleaning and sealing program this summer.
It's a full-day job that will increase the efficiency of your system, reduce pollutants that you are breathing daily and increase the comfort of your home - immeasurably.
Call us today and schedule a complete cleaning and duct sealing - you'll breathe easier (and healthier) all year long.
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Human-radar detects the location of enemy aircraft by sound. Great Britain. 1930s. Oh, those Brits. | |
Yes, this is a real house. It’s the Bennet-Deybrup House in Nyack, N.Y. Question is…What and where is the house below? | |
Tell us the name of the house and where it is located to win a chance at a $25 Amazon gift card. Last month 66 of you – and Bill P. identified Gal Gadot and Kirk Alyn as the first Superman and the most recent Wonder Woman. And 51 of you – and Bob P. – identified the Dancing House in Prague. Congratulations and thanks for playing along! | |
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Summer Reading
10 Sensational Books For Summer. No, we haven’t ready any of them. We do take suggestions, please!
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The Four Winds
In the Texas panhandle in 1934, severe drought plagues the land. With crops failing, dust storms whip up, leaving the farmers fighting for survival.
In the perilous times of the Great Depression, Elsa Martinelli must decide whether to stay and fight for her land or head west to California which offers her family a better life.
Get A Copy Here
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Fifty Words For Rain
In post World War II Japan, Nori, the illegitimate daughter of a Japanese aristocrat and a Black American GI, is hidden away on her grandmother’s estate to conceal the family shame.
All Nori knows is the attic she is confined to until she meets her legitimate half-brother, Akira, a boy who shows her the world contains so much more. A clear winner among the best historical fiction of last year, this complicated story about shame and the need for acceptance would be a perfect choice for your book club.
Get A Copy Here
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The 7 ½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle
On the 19th anniversary of their son’s murder, Lord and Lady Hardcastle throw a party with the same guests as that fateful day long ago. At 11 pm, Evelyn Hardcastle is murdered.
In a Groundhog Day-esque fashion, Aidan Bishop must relive this day 8 times, but from the perspective of eight different witnesses. His task: identify Evelyn’s murderer, or do it all over again. Evelyn Hardcastle will throw you into a brilliant game of Clue (plenty of book club ideas!) as you see the same events from multiple perspectives. Just ignore the why this happening and jump right into the mystery come to life, with plenty of fun twists and turns along the way.
Get A Copy Here
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The Foundation
In a far distant future, psycho-historian Hari Seldon has analyzed the cycle of history and realizes that after twelve thousand years in power, the Galactic Empire is headed toward collapse. A collapse that will spawn 30,000 years of Dark Ages.
To prevent complete disaster and shorten this dark period, Seldon sets up Foundation – a planet on the edge of the galaxy to contain the best minds with the knowledge of humanity. At crucial junctures in history, Seldon has set up steps to sway the course of events to protect the fledgling Foundation.
Considered one of the best science fiction books of all time, Isaac Asimov shines in this classic tale.
Get A Copy Here
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Invisible Women
This eye-opening book is by Caroline Criado Perez and shows that we live in a world designed for men that systemically discriminates against women.
With overwhelming statistics, Perez exposes the prevalent gender-data gap in countless fields, including medicine, technology, and urban planning. The staggering evidence will blow your mind and make you rethink everything you thought you knew.
If you have a chance, Perez’s audiobook narration is spectacular, catching every hint of sarcasm, disbelief, and anger in the author’s voice.
Get A Copy Here
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The Only Plane In The Sky
For the 20th anniversary of 9/11, you’ll want to include The Only Plane in the Sky among your book club suggestions for 2021. In this outstanding book, Graff compiles quotes from various people to fill out a brilliant oral history of a timeline of that fateful day.
Let me tell you, this is a powerful read. Our reviewer had to digest it in small pieces because she started to cry from the very first page. She rated it six stars!
Get A Copy Here
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Klara and the Sun
In a recent chat for the 92nd Street Y, Ishiguro claimed that his work is growing more cheerful as he ages. That’s a hard comment to square with Klara and the Sun, which follows Artificial Friend “AF” Klara — a partially self-aware, sensitive humanoid robot — from her time in a shop, waiting to be bought, to the years she spends beside Josie, the sickly teenage girl who befriends her, buys her, and takes her home.
Set in a slightly altered America, where automation has made humans redundant in their jobs and genetic fiddling has intellectually “lifted” some children, Ishiguro wades even deeper into sci-fi territory than Never Let Me Go, but asks similar questions about technology and the body, and whether self-awareness is the defining feature of humanity.
His placid prose is as cooling and seductive as always — that is, until the ghastly twist.
Get A Copy Here
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Libertie
Libertie is the dark-skinned, free-born daughter of a light-skinned doctor mother in Civil War–era Brooklyn. The story begins when an enslaved man named Ben Daisy is delivered to them in a coffin — alive.
From there, Greenidge charts Libertie’s development from college student to young wife, and then stranger among family in Haiti, wondering where she belongs and whether she belongs to someone. Every bit of Libertie is rich and vibrant, offering the best of what historical fiction can do.
Get A Copy Here
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Under A White Sky
Cornflower blue, Simpsons-esque skies may be a thing of the past if the environmental scientists get their way. In Under a White Sky, the Pulitzer-winning Kolbert examines — in terrifying detail — the measures researchers and climatologists have already taken (like electrifying the waters of the Chicago River so invasive Asian carp can’t make their way to other tributaries).
Or how those same folks are considering filling the atmosphere with light-reflecting particles to form a sunshield and, in turn, a powdery firmament to reverse-engineer the ecological mess humanity has gotten itself into.
This is definitely an “It’s Time to Worry” book, but it’s also a wise rumination on hubris — how factories and engines and our desire for Progress set a ticking time bomb on our planet, and how mankind now thinks it can mastermind a way to cut the fuse.
Get A Copy Here
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Empire of Pain
OxyContin didn’t simply assemble itself and leap off pharmacy shelves into the mouths of passersby — there was a hearty campaign to keep this noxiously potent pain medication pumping through people’s veins.
Patrick Keefe’s rigorously reported and brilliantly executed Empire of Pain hones in on the family whose company developed, unleashed, and pushed the drug on Americans, pulling in billions of dollars for themselves in the process.
Until a few years ago, the Sacklers might’ve been better known for philanthropy: Their name was all over museums and cultural institutions across several continents. But reporters like Keefe have made “Sackler” synonymous with greed, turning it into an adjective that means keeping oneself surrounded by 3,000-year-old Chinese ceramics and silk drapes at the cost of human lives.
This is an important, necessary book for understanding the opioid epidemic and how apathy became the American standard.
Get A Copy Here
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Proverbs From My Cousin Quentin | |
- Give neither counsel nor salt till you are asked for it.
- A hedge between keeps friendship green.
- A fault confessed is half redressed.
- A hungry man is an angry man.
- Please your eye and plague your heart.
- If you run after two hares you will catch neither.
- Speak fair and think what you will.
- It is not the suffering but the cause which makes a martyr.
- A fool will laugh when he is drowning.
- A foe is better than a dissembling friend.
- A disease known is half cured.
- Let your purse be your master.
- Short counsel is good counsel.
And… “Whosoever draws his sword against the prince must throw the scabbard away.”
By the way - He was scabbardless for years.
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I think I could turn and live with animals, they’re so placid and self-contained,
I stand and look at them and long.
They do not sweat and whine about their condition.
They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins.
They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God,
Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things,
Not one kneels to another, nor to his kind that lived thousands of years ago,
Not one is respectable or unhappy over the earth. –
Walt Whitman, from “Song of Myself” 1855
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Where else would you find this stuff? | |
And you thought adding a deck was a big project... | |
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Romano-Egyptian portrait of a bearded man. Such portraits were apparently kept at home during the subject's lifetime and added on his death to his mummified corpse.
The hairstyle and drapery on this example, said to come from erRubayat, Faiyum, suggest it dates from Antonine times. Roman Egypt, ca. 150-170 CE. Now in the Getty Museum.
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