August, 2024

"This Just In..."

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Have we told you how much we appreciate you coming back month after month to see what madness we've created in This Just In...

Hint: It's a lot.

Every month Kristin and Jared and Joe and Mike and Gayle, Ed, Karen, David, Fred, Patty, Jackie, John and honestly there's another 6,000 of you visit and often play with us!

We would love to hear what you like about the newsetter and what you don't. That way we will give you more of this and less of that.

So, undaunted...we leap into the void. Enjoy.

It’s August.

There are no rules.

Only heat and desperation.

Let’s party!

“Fire Rainbows” or “rainbow clouds” are neither fire, nor rainbows, but are so called because of their brilliant pastel colors and flame like appearance.

Technically they are known as circumhorizontal arc - an ice halo formed by hexagonal, plate-shaped ice crystals in high level cirrus clouds. The halo is so large that the arc appears parallel to the horizon, hence the name.

They occur mostly during the summer and between particular latitudes. When the sun is very high in the sky, sunlight entering flat, hexagon shaped ice crystals gets split into individual colors just like in a prism.

The conditions required to form a “fire rainbow” is very precise – the sun has to be at an elevation of 58° or greater, there must be high altitude cirrus clouds with the aforementioned ice crystals, and sunlight has to enter the ice crystals at a specific angle.

Photos : Christa Harbig

Simply put, I would have grown to 6’3” had I not seen this film.

If you’ve stopped growing I’d recommend this incredibly scary and yes, true, film.

They could rock it with the best of them. Distinctive. Original. Unmistakable. Ones of a kind. Yeah, sure, but who are they? tell us here and maybe we’ll rock your world with an Amazon gift card!

Download PDF Here

Increase since 1981 in the median age of first-time U.S. home buyers: 7 years •Source National Association of Realtors (Chicago)

Portion of prospective U.S. home buyers who say they consider climate change when evaluating where to live: 4/5. * Source Zillow (Seattle)

Estimated percentage decrease since 2019 in the number of fire lookouts employed in the United States: 18 • Source: Forest Fire Lookout Association

Minimum number of residents who moved to Florida’s high flood-risk counties between 2019 and 2022: 383,680 • Source: Redfin (Seattle)

Percentage of Floridians who have flood insurance: 18 • Source: Insurance Information Institute

Portion of Americans earning at least $175,000 per year who consider themselves to be poor or “just getting by”: 25% • Source: Bloomberg (NYC)

Portion who have less than $200,000 in retirement savings: 25% • Source: Bloomberg (NYC)

Portion of U.S. families who have less than $100,000 in retirement savings: 80% • Source: Employee Benefit Research Institute

Percentage of American adults under the age of 25 who describe themselves as lonely: 79%. • Source: The Cigna Group

Percentage change since 2020 in the number of U.S. men aged 18 to 29 who are single: –3% The number of U.S. women who are single: +18 • Source: The Survey Center on American Life

Percentage by which U.S. women are more likely than men to have a tattoo: 41 Portion of U.S. adults with tattoos who regret getting at least one of them: 25% • Source: Pew Research Center

Percentage change since 2019 in employment assessment scores for job seekers younger than 25: –10% • Source: Criteria Corp

Minimum percentage of U.S. school districts that do not employ librarians: 35% • Source: SLIDE, Antioch University Seattle

Percentage of U.S. adults who believe parents are not “tough enough” when disciplining their children : 64% • Source: YouGov

Percentage of injuries requiring medical attention for which one fifth of the population is responsible: 78%• Source: Joshua Jackson, Washington University in St. Louis

Percentage of Americans who say that a dead relative has communicated with them in the past year: 15% Who say that they have felt a dead relative’s presence: 34% That a dead relative has visited them in a dream: 46% • Source: Pew Research Center

In 1892 at Stanford University, an 18-year-old student was struggling to pay his fees. He was an orphan, and not knowing where to turn for money, he came up with a bright idea. He and a friend decided to host a musical concert on campus to raise money for their education.

They reached out to the great pianist Ignacy J. Paderewski.

His manager demanded a guaranteed fee of $2,000 for the piano recital. A deal was struck.The big day arrived. But unfortunately, they had not managed to sell enough tickets. The total collection was only $1,600. Disappointed, they went to Paderewski and explained their plight.

They gave him the entire $1,600, plus a cheque for the balance $400. They promised to honor the cheque at the soonest possible.

“No,” said Paderewski. “This is not acceptable.” He tore up the cheque, returned the $1,600 and told the two boys: “Here’s the $1600. Please deduct whatever expenses you have incurred. Keep the money you need for your fees. And just give me whatever is left”.

The boys were surprised and thanked him profusely. It was a small act of kindness. But it clearly marked out Paderewski as a great human being.

Paderewski later went on to become the Prime Minister of Poland. He was a great leader, but unfortunately when the World War began, Poland was ravaged. There were more than 1.5 million people starving in his country, and no money to feed them.

Paderewski reached out to the US Food and Relief Administration for help. He heard there was a man called Herbert Hoover — who agreed to help and quickly shipped tons of food grains to feed the starving Polish people.

Paderewski was relieved.

He decided to go America to meet Hoover and personally thank him. When Paderewski began to thank Hoover for his noble gesture, Hoover quickly interjected and said, “You shouldn’t be thanking me Mr. Prime Minister. You may not remember this, but several years ago, you helped two young students go through college. I was one of them.”

Ave de l’Observatorie by Brassai 1931

White Umbrellas, 1961. Adger Cowans

Jean Patchett, NYC 1950, Irving Penn

3 of my favorites from Vivian Maier

Kiss Me Stupid, NYC 1960s, Unknown

Shell Gas Station, Algeria, 1962, Paul Almasy.

Croft An Righ, by Laurence Winram (Edinburgh)

Pegasus carries Bellerophon to battle. Symbol of the British Air Forces.

Just a fantastic shot I found on the internetweb.

What makes this video so special? What is it famous for?

Tell us here and you may win one of the August Amazon gift cards. Last month 71 of you plus Anne P and a different Anne P recognized Scott Wolf from Party of Five, while Mary Ann F and Lori F and 106 of you identified Devils Tower in Wyoming from Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

(Still an awesome film).

This pike was caught on the 6th of March 2006 by Dutch fisherman Ewout Blom in a big lake in the south of Holland.

For the metric-impaired (such as yours truly), 127cm and 19.4 kilos works out to right around 50 inches, and just barely shy of 43 pounds.

Lot of good eating here!

Just to help you sort out the how’s and why’s of time travel. I mean, that’s what we’re here for.

If the hurricanes of July have reminded, you that the “season” is starting a month early and if you want to be sure to have power – call us and let us top off your propane tank before the bad weather of August and September comes rolling in!

Unless you've been BBQ-ing all spring and summer - in which case you too, may need a top off.

If you're under 50% give us a call and we'll top off your tank when we are in the neighborhood.

Call

860 813 9122

PIZZA TIME. Everyone loves New Haven’s best - Pizza! This kid made some of the very best. Yeah, but WHO is he?

 Tell us here and you’ll win a gift card to buy one large with everything!

Bass Reeves (1838 – 1910), one of the first African American Deputy U.S. Marshals west of the Mississippi River, arrested over 3,000 felons and shot and killed fourteen outlaws in self-defense. 

He was the inspiration for the fictional character, The Lone Ranger. 

After fighting in the Civil War for the Union, Reeves was initially assigned as a Deputy U.S. Marshal for the Western District of Arkansas, which also had responsibility a huge area known as “Indian Territory”, where he worked for 32 years. 

Reeves brought in some of the most dangerous criminals of the time, but was never wounded, despite having his hat and belt shot off on separate occasions. Like the Lone Ranger, Reeves on many occasions rode posse with only one man, a Native American. Sometimes, you just don’t need to make this stuff up – it’s all right there in history!

When you're getting your pizza and you don't want the cat to escape out the door