February, 2022

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"This Just In..."

Help!

So as we enter the 6th year of "This Just In..." we need a bit of reader input. What do yo like? What can you live without?

What do you never want to hear about again?

Super Daniels offers? (OK, those are going to stay)

Recipes?

Books?

Quizes?

Absurdly lyrical, but arcane in the extreme, quotes?

We want to make this something that you look forward to each month and not a "click and be gone, ye foul odor." Ya know?

Tell us here and we'll do our best to reflect your choices!

February Art

Coldwell Ice House by Lawren Harris 1923

Lawren Stewart Harris (October 23, 1885 – January 29, 1970) was a Canadian painter, best known as a leading member of the Group of Seven who asserted a distinct national identity combined with a common heritage stemming from early modernism in Europe in the early twentieth century.

He played a key role in art in Canada, both as a catalyst and as a visionary of Canadian landscape art.



1920's Shopping List

How much would you love owning one of these? I love that Delicatess and Cake took precedence over toilet paper!

Dude was huge back in the day. 1997 was the day. So who is he?

Tell us here and you may win a $25 Amazon gift card just like Charlene D, Rob K, Becky K and George K did by identifying Max Headroom last month. There were 171 correct answers so David thought we needed more winners!

Or Mary Ann M and Nanci H who won for identifying the magnificent Duomo Cathedral in Florence. Or…the one and only Bill S. who identified the palindrome (that I saw one now. As it stood open) in the special super hard quiz. One of only 8 people to do so. Good luck.

From the acclaimed historian and bestselling author H. W. Brands: a page-turning account of the epic struggle over slavery as embodied by John Brown and Abraham Lincoln—two men moved to radically different acts to confront our nation’s gravest sin.

We just finished this book. Loved it. Easy read and an important one.

Brown has been vilified over the years as “the crazy zealot” but actually he was following his conscience. Lincoln…interesting to see how he was prepared to accept slavery to keep the Union. If you’re interested in history - or how we got to where we are now…this is the book for you.

Seamstress By - David “Chim” Seymour, Naples 1954

A watch for left-handed people has been invented by a Kalamazoo jeweler, who believes that the left-handed look at things in a ‘left-handed’ fashion.

The left-handed watch runs backward. The dial is arranged so that the numeral 1 is on the left hand of 12 instead of on the right as in the case of the ordinary watch.

The hands also run from right to left instead of in the usual fashion. Mechanically, with the exceptions given, the left-handed watch differs very slightly from the ordinary time-piece.

The inventor constructed the unusual watch for the benefit of his daughter, who is left-handed. Alas, his name has been lost to posterity.

— Popular Science Monthly, January 1916

A Corner Piano.

Of course.

Chopin anyone?

Last month – a giant piece of art made from toast. This month…

If you’re on a tight budget (inflation is at 8%) – might we suggest a toast sandwich. It’s a sandwich made with two slices of bread in which the filling is a thin slice of toasted bread, which may be heavily buttered. You may add salt and pepper to taste.

In November 2011, the toast sandwich was recreated by the Royal Society of Chemistry in a tasting almost 150 years after the release of Beeton's Book of Household Management. 

The society sought to revive the forgotten dish in wake of the Great Recession after calculating the cost as low as 2 cents per sandwich. They named it "the country's most economical lunch", offering $275 to whoever could create a cheaper meal.

No one could beat the price.

Today, we figure the cost to be about 20 cents.

Building Blocks, by Kumi Yamashita. “I sculpt using both light and shadow. I construct single or multiple objects and place them in relation to a single light source.

The complete artwork is therefore comprised of both the material (the solid objects) and the immaterial (the light or shadow).” More here: http://kumiyamashita.com/light-shadow

However self-serving this may sound, we are going to say it.

Don’t lower that thermostat.

Already this winter – a winter with really only a few very cold days – we’ve had three homes suffer burst water pipes because someone lowered the temperature in the house. Imagine the costs associated with a deluge of water falling from the third floor to the first. Huge damage.

Remember in most houses with baseboard heating the pipes are very often on an outside wall. Depending upon the insulation in your home, those pipes can cool very, quickly. If the water doesn’t move in the baseboard piping for a period of time it is more likely to freeze if it is very cold outside.



The same is often true with the pipes in the kitchen which is why, especially if you are going to be away for an extended period, you should leave your kitchen faucet dripping slightly – just enough to keep the water moving – moving water is much harder to freeze. 

And leave open under-sink cabinets and bathroom vanities so that relatively warmer air can circulate to those pipes. (who knew?).

If you are going to be away – please don’t lower it below 55. And lower it to that number – gradually – over a day or two -- rather than all at once if it is well below freezing outdoors. 

Also, If you are away from your home for more than a couple of days, have someone check it daily when outdoor temperatures are well below freezing. 

Or you can install WiFi thermostats and watch the temperature in your home from your smart phone. This will help you prevent an unpleasant surprise of frozen pipes when you return back home.



What is this? No one quite knows.

Plaques such as this have been found embedded in the streets of 24 major American cities since the late 1980s. Typically they read:

TOYNBEE IDEA

IN MOViE `2001

RESURRECT DEAD

ON PLANET JUPITER

But what that means, and who’s been placing them, are unknown. TOYNBEE may be British historian Arnold J. Toynbee, and MOViE `2001 is likely Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 film.

What do these have in common? One possibility is Ray Bradbury’s 1984 short story “The Toynbee Convector,” which appeals to Toynbee’s idea that humans must adopt ambitious goals in order to advance even slightly (colonizing Jupiter might be such a goal).

But that’s just a guess, and even if it’s right it’s not clear how someone thought that impressing it in asphalt would advance this cause. Maybe some sort of Phase 2 is coming.

We just ran across this in Hurd and Hurd’s Treasury of Great American Letters. Kept from home on his daughter’s 10th birthday, Ogden Nash left her this poem:

My sweet, although you were divine

When you were just a child of nine,

I’d be the happiest of men

If I could see you change to 10.

I do not like to be away

On such a stupendiferous day.

Now that you’re old enough to caddie

I’m a very happy daddy.

Many happy returns and

I love you.

Ingredients for Dark Chocolate Cupcakes:

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup granulated sugar

2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 egg, at room temperature

1/2 cup buttermilk

2 Tbsp plain Greek yogurt

1/3 cup extra light olive oil or canola oil

1/2 Tbsp vanilla extract 

1/2 cup strong brewed coffee, hot

How to Make Chocolate Cupcakes:

1. Preheat oven to 350˚F. Line muffin pan(s) with 18 liners.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together dry ingredients: 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar, 2/3 cup cocoa powder, 1 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp salt.

3. In the bowl of your mixer (or using a hand mixer), beat together: 1 egg, 1/2 cup buttermilk, 2 Tbsp Greek yogurt, 1/3 cup oil, and 1/2 Tbsp vanilla for 1 minute on med/high speed or until well blended.

4. With mixer on low, slowly add dry ingredients into wet ingredients until no clumps of flour remain. You’ll be really tempted to eat the batter.

5. Whisk in coffee and continue mixing until combined.

6. Divide batter equally between 18 prepared cupcake liners.  Filling about 1/2 full. Bake 18-20 mins or until tops are set and a toothpick comes out clean. Remove from oven and let cool 5 minutes before removing from cupcake pan then cool completely to room temp before applying frosting.

White Chocolate Frosting Ingredients:

(Enough to very generously frost 18 cupcakes, but you can reasonably frost 32 cupcakes with this frosting):

1 (8 oz) pkg cream cheese, softened at room temp

1 cups powdered sugar

4 oz white chocolate bar, melted & cooled slightly (white chocolate chips work equally well)

1.5 cups cold heavy whipping cream

Chocolate shavings or sprinkles, optional for garnish

Tips for the BEST Cupcakes:

• Room Temperature Ingredients – eggs, buttermilk and butter must be at room temperature to keep your batter an even consistency.
• Alternate Adding Flour and Buttermilk – this keeps the mixture uniform and well blended. If you add in all of the flour or buttermilk at once, it can saturate the creamed butter and cause the mixture to separate. Mix well between each addition.
• Measure Correctly – be sure to use the proper measuring cups for wet and dry ingredients. Watch our video on measuring ingredients to ensure great results every time.
• Don’t Overfill – Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full or they will overflow and cause a muffin top. If you divide evenly between 12 cupcakes, you should have exactly enough batter. Complete info – here:

https://natashaskitchen.com/dark-chocolate-cupcakes-with-white-chocolate-frosting/

Distinctive? Clearly.

So, who designed these fabulous hiking boots, err…heels?



We thought we’d design a quiz just for the fashion-conscious. Think you know? Tell us here and you’ll win a $25 Amazon gift card

which will pay 1/100^th the cost of those precious pedal pushers.

Please be sure, once that final flake falls, to carve out a path to your fill pipe and make sure that the driveway is clear. Our delivery men will be ever so grateful! Hope you all saw this before last Saturday!

It's February. Valentines Day is around the corner so, ya know, we gotta give you something...romantic. We kept it simple. Enjoy.

Knock, Knock

Who’s there?

Police

Police, who?

Police tell me I’m your type!

Knock, Knock

Who’s there?

Norma Lee

Norma Lee who?

Norma Lee I don’t say this, but I’m falling in love with you.

Knock, Knock

Who’s there?

Snow

Snow, who?

Snow use – I just can’t stop thinking about you

And one limerick…

A couple from London were courting,

Though it may not have seemed very sporting.

When they drove to the lake,

His clothes off he'd take,

Then she'd run away laughing and snorting.