September, 2025

"This Just In..."

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Ahhh, September. 

"Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall,” at least according to F. Scott Fitzgerald. Of course, Virginia Wood said, “All the months are crude experiments, out of which the perfect September is made"

So, hopefully life is starting over again (it is if your kids are in school, or you just retired!) and may this September be the culmination of all the crude experiments of other months.



Oh, “This Just In…: has another batch of info, quizzes and “I didn’t know that,” stuff for this beautiful month of September. Enjoy.

The Chief Joseph Scenic Byway in Wyoming

“The Japanese art of kintsugi, which means “golden joinery,” is all about turning ugly breaks into beautiful fixes.

The story goes that a 15th-century Japanese shogun, Ashikaga Yoshimasa, sent a broken tea bowl to China to have it fixed. When the bowl came back, it was held together with metal staples.

Disgusted, he set out to find a better, more aesthetically pleasing way to repair broken pottery. His eventual solution? Adding gold dust to adhesive resin, so that cracks are emphasized and made attractive.”

Kintsugi is not just a repair method; it's a philosophy that embraces the beauty of imperfection and the history of an object. More here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kintsugi

It’s late January and late in the day. Light is ebbing away and you have a 2,500 gallon oil truck ready to make a delivery at 49 Whatever Ave.

But, you can’t find 49 because the owner hasn’t left a light on or worse – doesn’t have a number on the house. HELP! If you’d be so kind, please make it easy on our drivers this season.

Put a number on your house and a light on your number. Or, maybe just on your mailbox. A tired driver will really appreciate it.

This month we show how you can stay warm with America's best boiler - for only $150 a month. Challenge our numbers. Call Tina and ask her to have someone come out and "do your numbers." You'll be surprised.

Looking for some great chocolate and we know – that YOU KNOW – where the best chocolate can be found. (There are some needs that must be met).

Tell us here – where your favorite chocolate shop is – and we’ll pony up a few bucks and you’ll be able to buy some!

(We’re favoring a new one in West Hartford on Park Road – called: Chocolate Diva)

We’re all about making this as easy as pie. These are four of the greatest horror actors of all time. Name them here and you may win a $25 gift card which will be shocking in its own way. 

One additional thought here. For all the many, many regulars who play our quizzes each month – and don’t win – I feel terrible. Seriously.

I see Frank, Lucinda, Jared, Joe, Jen, and Lynne. And, Fred, Dan, Valerie, Karen, T, Patty, John, Chris, Jackie and Christin.

And…at least 100+ more. You know who you are. We put all the names in a hat and shake it up and pick out a few.

So…stick with us and … thanks very much for playing.

A self-portrait of Ray Lichetenstein. Yeah….yeah, I see it….oh, those eyes!

We’re going all in on Labor Day with a bunch of thoughts, observations and reminders of where we were and where we are today.

So as to help us – never forget.

Josie (6 years old), Bertha (6 years old) and Sophie (10 years old) worked regularly at the Maggioni Canning Company.

Work began at 4 AM, and the three would make from $9 to $15 a week.

Sophie would do six pots of oyster a day, and her mother, who also worked with her, said, "She don't go to school. Works all the time."

Through such photos, Lewis Hine documented the harsh working conditions borne by thousands of children, who were sent to work soon after they could walk and were paid based on how many buckets of oysters they shucked daily.

Mr Hines wrote of one photograph: ‘All but the very smallest babies work. Begin work at 3:30am and expected to work until 5pm.’ He covered around 50,000 miles a year, photographing children from Chicago to Florida working in coal mines and factories.

These photos helped to raise an outcry against child labor and made the American public widely aware of the scope of the problem. More on Lewis Hine here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_Hine

If your nose is close to the grindstone

And you hold it there long enough

In time you’ll say there’s no such thing

As brooks that babble and birds that sing

These three will all your world compose

Just you, the stone and your poor old nose.

— “From a two hundred-year-old stone in a country cemetery,” quoted in Christina Foyle, So Much Wisdom, 1984



And…

When I was 15, I spent a month working on an archeological dig. I was talking to one of the archeologists one day during our lunch break and he asked those kinds of “getting to know you” questions you ask young people:

Do you play sports? What’s your favorite subject? And I told him, no I don’t play any sports. I do theater, I’m in choir, I play the violin and piano, I used to take art classes.

And he went WOW. That’s amazing! And I said, “Oh no, but I’m not any good at ANY of them.”

And he said something then that I will never forget and which absolutely blew my mind because no one had ever said anything like it to me before: “I don’t think being good at things is the point of doing them. I think you’ve got all these wonderful experiences with different skills, and that all teaches you things and makes you an interesting person, no matter how well you do them.”

And that honestly changed my life.

Because I went from a failure, someone who hadn’t been talented enough at anything to excel, to someone who did things because I enjoyed them.

I had been raised in such an achievement-oriented environment, so inundated with the myth of Talent, that I thought it was only worth doing things if you could “Win” at them.”

And…

Or...

Or...

Or...

Or…you just might be lucky and catch this job…and wave

So many of you have added your kind words to our Google Review page. To send you our thanks we need…a…name. And, not surprisingly, an address.

So…if you sign on to Google with one of these lovely nom de plumes – please click here – and send me your actual name and mailing address so I can show our appreciation accordingly:

J,

Mike,

Laurie F,

Thelma,

JJWXY123,

Sally P,

Vicki B,

Bob,

 Victoria,

Carolyn V.,

Neal,

Luanna and….of course: Snoopy.

Thank you for helping us keep our good name.

So many of you have called to ask how to make a nice post on our Google reviews page.

Thank you very much. It is seriously, appreciated. For those who need to know the process here’s an (hopefully) easy guide:

So many of you have called to ask how to make a nice post on our Google reviews page.

Thank you very much. It is seriously, appreciated. For those who need to know the process here’s an (hopefully) easy guide:

1.  Go to Google.
2. Type in Daniels Energy
3. Search for Daniels Energy in Google search or Google Maps.
4. Find the review section (often within the business profile that appears alongside the search results).
5. Click the "Write a Review" button.
6. If prompted to sign in, you can typically choose to "create an account," and then opt for the "use my current email address instead" option.
7. Provide your details and complete the verification process, which usually involves a code sent to your email.
8. Once you're verified, you can proceed to rate and write your review. 

That pretty much completes the process. And, again, as we enter our 100^th year we do thank you for your support.

It’s a volcanic rock. 240 people live there. It has no airport. People speak some dialect of English and subsist on a diet of potatoes. The question is: Where Is The Nearest Inhabited Island (name and distance from THIS place.) Yeah, go! Tell us here.

Last month 147 of you recognized the fabulous rocker Patti Smith, including Ron C., John B, Caroline D, Linda B, and Karen S.

Kristin H and Maureen McD were UN-believably lucky in identifying UN as the two letters needed to complete the magic word: UNdergroUNd. So did 54 of you.

And thank you Denise Smith for sending in the fantastic shell sculpture below. Thank you Denise!

Peaches.

Gotta love ‘em in September. Grab a bunch and make this delectable treat.

Ingredients

• 10 large, ripe peaches (about 4 1/2 pounds, pitted but not peeled, cut into 1-inch chunks
• 1 large lemon
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 2 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 3/4 cup whole milk
• 1/2 cup hot water
• Heavy cream, for serving

Directions

• Step 1

Heat oven to 350°F rack in the center. Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil.

• Step 2

Arrange the peaches in a 9 by 13-inch (23 by 33cm) or similar-size baking pan or gratin dish. Using a zester zest about 2 teaspoons of lemon zest evenly over the fruit. Cut the lemon in half and squeeze about 1⁄4 cup of lemon juice over the top.

• Step 3

In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and 1 1/2 cups of the sugar on medium speed until creamy but sandy, about 1 minute. Add the flour, baking powder, and salt and beat on medium speed until all the flour is incorporated and the mixture is evenly crumbly, about 30 seconds more. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. With the mixer on low speed, slowly pour in the milk. Increase the speed to medium and beat until the batter is light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.

• Step 4

Scoop the batter in about 6 large blobs over the peaches. With an offset spatula or the back of a big spoon, carefully spread the batter evenly over the fruit so it’s no more than about 1/2 inch thick in any one place. 

• Step 5

Sprinkle the remaining 1/2 cup sugar over the batter. Drizzle the hot water evenly over the sugar, using it to melt the sugar topping. 

• Step 6

Set the pan on the foil-lined baking sheet and bake the cobbler until the top is golden brown and cracked, 70 to 80 minutes. A toothpick stuck in the topping should come out clean or with just crumbs clinging—be sure to check in a few places. 



• Step 7

Let the cobbler cool for about 30 minutes to firm up. Serve warm, scooping it into big bowls and pouring a little heavy cream over the top. Refrigerate any leftovers airtight.

Others….Don’t