August, 2025

"This Just In..."

Having trouble viewing this email? Click here to read online.

August. Nope. Not going to say something bad about August.

It is a perfectly good month. It allows us to cling to summer and lament how fast it is speeding by, while reminding us to prepare for football, turkey-day and making sure to check the amount of fuel in our oil tank.

August, the least admired, most-often vilified. month but still one that holds great pleasures. I'm thinking tomatoes. Corn on the cob. Last days at the beach. Not getting heatstroke on a hike. Yeah, lots to love about August.

Enjoy it all and this month's "This Just In..."

When you do – you find these sorts of gems.



Memorable passages from the pulp detective stories of Robert Leslie Bellem (1902-1968):

• “There were tears brimming on her azure peepers, and tremulous grief twisted her kisser.” (“Forgery’s Foil”)
• “She wrapped her arms around my neck; glued her crimson kisser to my lips. She fed me an osculation that sent seven thousand volts of electricity past my tonsils.” (“Design for Dying”)
• “And then, from the doorway, a gun barked: ‘Chow-chow!’ and I went drifting to dreamland.” (“Design for Dying”)
• “The rod sneezed: ‘Chow! Ka-Chow!’ and pushed two pills through Reggie’s left thigh.” (“Murder Has Four Letters”)
• “Against a backdrop of darkness the heater sneezed: Ka-Chowp! Chowp! Chowp! and sent three sparking ribbons of orange flame burning into the pillow.” (“Come Die for Me”)
• “From the window behind her, a roscoe poked under the drawn blind. It went: ‘Blooey — Blooey — Blooey!’” (“Murder on the Sound Stage”)
• “From the window that opened onto the roof-top sun deck a roscoe sneezed: Ka-Chow! Chowpf! and a red-hot hornet creased its stinger across my dome; bashed me to dreamland.” (“Lake of the Left-Hand Moon”)
• “From the front doorway of the wigwam a roscoe stuttered: Ka-chow! Chow! Chow! and a red-hot slug maced me across the back of the cranium, knocked me into the middle of nowhere.” (“Killer’s Keepsake”)
• “A while ago you mentioned my hardboiled rep. You said I’m considered a dangerous hombre to monkey with. Okay, you’re right. Now will you come along willingly or do I bunt you over the crumpet till your sneezer leaks buttermilk?” (“Murder Has Four Letters”)
• “A thunderous bellow flashed from Dave Donaldson’s service .38, full at the prop man’s elly-bay. Welch gasped like a leaky flue, hugged his punctured tripes, and slowly doubled over, fell flat on his smeller. A bullet can give a man a terrific case of indigestion, frequently ending in a trip to the boneyard.” (“Diamonds of Death”)
• “‘Dan Turner squalling,’ I yeeped. ‘Flag your diapers to Sylvia Hempstead’s igloo. There’s been a croaking.'” (“Come Die for Me”)

“From the doorway a roscoe said ‘Kachow!’ and a slug creased the side of my noggin. Neon lights exploded inside my think-tank. … She was as dead as a stuffed mongoose. … I wasn’t badly hurt. But I don’t like to be shot at. I don’t like dames to be rubbed out when I’m flinging woo at them.”

In 1764 Oxfordshire squire Edward Horne decided that the parish church of St Leonard on Watlington Hill would look more impressive with a spire.

So he gave it one: By cutting a narrow mark 270 feet long into the chalk soil beyond the building, he was able to perch a foreshortened triangle atop the church when it was viewed in perspective from his house. Local residents maintain the mark to this day.



What did you do this week?

They went together. Both became legendary. Just tell us who the woman is and you may win enough to buy an album or three of hers.

Siesta, by J. Fredrick Lewis

John Frederick Lewis  (1804–1876) was an English Orientalist painter. He specialized in Oriental and Mediterranean scenes in detailed watercolour or oils, very often repeating the same composition in a version in each medium.

He lived for several years in a traditional mansion in Cairo, and after his return to England in 1851 he specialized in highly detailed works showing both realistic genre scenes of Middle Eastern life.

He was visited by William Makepeace Thackeray, an old friend, who described him in the comic account of his travels he published as a "languid Lotus-eater" leading a "dreamy, hazy, lazy, tobaccofied life" in a version of local dress that included a "Damascus scimitar" – Lewis was often photographed in such a costume in later life. More…worth a peek – here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Frederick_Lewis

Send us your best version of any of these and win a gift card.

You KNOW we’re easy. We’ll except pretty much anything.

Got a big house? Or something a bit smaller? If you need whole house air conditioning or just one room – Let Daniels Do It. If you need a new heating system (large or small) Let Daniels Do It. Wait…how about propane for heating, cooking, BBQ, the pool heater, the cabana (doesn’t everyone have a cabana that needs heating?) – Let Daniels Do It. We’ll help you with replacing that old oil tank or if you are interested in solar – Let Daniels Do It. See a pattern here?

Unusual personal names collected by the Society for the Verification and Enjoyment of Fascinating Names of Actual Persons, listed by curator Allan Fotheringham in 1991:

• Procter R. Hug
• Polly Wanda Crocker
• Sexious Boonjug
• Philander Philpott Pettibone
• Zilpher Spittle
• Petrus J.G. Prink
• Burke Uzzle
• Pansy Reamsbottom
• Dunwoody Zook
• Bastion Hello
• Fang W. Wang
• Montague Tyrwhitt-Drake
• Nimrod Spong
• Dulcie Pillage
• Jake Moak
• Sir Tufton Beamish
• Sir Basil Smallpiece
• Sir Malby Crofton
• St. Bodfan Grufydd
• Hon. Sir Reginald Aylmer Ranfurly Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax
• Sir Ranulph Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes
• Selmer Hafso
• Addylou Ebfisty Plunt
• Oscar U. Zerk
• Titus Cranny
• Noble Puffer
• J. Flipper Derricoate
• Ovid Parody
• J. Boxter Funderback
• Middlebrook Polly
• Lester Ouchmoody
• Spencer Hum
• A. Smerling Lecher

Only thing worse that losing power in a storm – is losing your generator because you’ve run out of propane. Simple solution for you – Let Daniels top you off. 

If you’re at 30-40-50% give us a call and we’ll top off your propane so you’ll have it when…Hurricane Whomever hits. Give us a call at

860 813 9122

Add the same three letters, in order, both before and after the following to make a familiar English word:    ERGRO

(Hint: Think Quiz 1)

Tell us here and you may win a $25 Amazon gift card.

Mea Culpa - so, yeah, last month there was a quiz about Casey at the bat. The question was: How many runs did Casey's team score. Problem was that I took the quiz from a math site I found and they had CHANGED the 9th inning situation. Thanks to Becky K - who called me out on this! (she is a math wizard herself)

PLUS - the poem tells us the score was 4-2 when Casey struck out. Duh!

So...I included everyone who guessed 0 or 2 runs and the winner this month was D.L while Michele G, Ann P-B, Sara M and Katy C (along with 106 of you recognized Martin Short. Good luck this month.

On New Year’s Eve 1914, an enormous wave struck the lighthouse on Trinidad Head outside Trinidad, California

At 4:40 pm. I observed a sea of unusual height. When it struck the bluff the jar was very heavy. The lens immediately stopped revolving. The sea shot up the face of the bluff and over it, until the solid sea seemed to me to be on a level with where I stood in the lantern.

The sea itself fell over onto the top of the bluff and struck the tower about on a level with the balcony. The whole point between the tower and the bluff was buried in water.

If keeper Fred L. Harrington’s report is accurate, this was the highest recorded ocean wave ever to have struck the west coast of the United States. The lighthouse stood on a bluff 175 feet high, and the wave had managed to extinguish the light at its top, 196 feet above the sea.

Anfora Amber, by Cesear Toffolo. His hand-made glass work must be seen – at the Corning Glass Museum in Corning, NY. Highly recommend a visit, the works are astonishing. Take a trip, so worth it.

(This one costs about $10K)