March, 2024

"This Just In..."

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We’re going to be like March.

All over the place.

Art and sculpture, sci-fi, techno-trash cans and techno-tiles.

Birds of a particular feather and a place where poets rest.

And the Good Night Moon story.

Lest we leave here without saying our most sincere thank you for reading – and playing along with us at “This Just In…”

One of the most popular bedtime stories ever published is, “Good Night Moon.” You have/had at least one copy. Gave one to be read to your grandchild or your best friends new baby.

It was written by an amazing woman, Margaret Wise Brown.

Her life, her poetry and her loves are chronicled in a number of stories ranging from a biography, The Green Room, by Amy Gary to this fantastic, infuriating and glowing piece in Marginalia. We so recommend the read.

 https://www.themarginalian.org/2022/08/28/margaret-wise-brown-michael-strange-poems/

Michael Strange, the love of her life.

One poem, however, just struck us as so contemporary and so hauntingly sad and true that we thought we should share it for that first ray of spring sunshine.

WHEN THE CHERRIES ARE RED

by Margaret Wise Brown

When the time comes around

When the cherries are red

And the songs are all sung

And the sweet words all said

Then the cherries are red

And the promise of spring

In that wild blooming tree

And the wild birds that sing

In the wild cherry tree

Has been realized

And I am with you

And you are with me

And the cherries are ripe

On the red cherry tree

But the time will soon come

When the cherries are gone

And the end will have come

To our own gentle song

When the cherries were red

And I lie on the grass

And leaves fall on my head

And I dream of the time

When the cherries were red

Oh there once was a time

When the cherries were red

When I was with you

When the cherries were red

And the words were all said

More about Ms. Brown and her life, here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Wise_Brown

It’s called a piano coat rack. How wicked smart is this thing?

"They look exactly like the terracotta tiles used by the Romans, but they produce the electricity that we need to light the frescoes," says Gabriel Zuchtriegel, Director of the Archaeological Park of Pompeii. This solution is part of a more comprehensive strategy to turn costs into savings opportunities and to embrace sustainable development.

"Pompeii is an ancient city which in some spots is fully preserved. Since we needed an extensive lightning system, we could either keep consuming energy, leaving poles and cables around and disfiguring the landscape, or choose to respect it and save millions of euros."

The traditional PV tiles are made from a polymer compound, which allows the sun's rays to filter through. The photovoltaic cells are then integrated into it by hand and covered with a layer of the polymer compound.



"We can also give it the look of stone, wood, concrete, and brick. As a result, such a solution can be installed not only on roofs but also on walls and floors."

If your home’s oil tank is 25-30+ years old - now might be the perfect time to replace it with a new Roth or Granby oil tank. And - during March - SAVE $250 On A New Tank! 

So, don’t dilly or dally - call Sally and Let Daniels Do It!

860 813 9122

Scientists have discovered that bacteria can create something like memories about when to form strategies that can cause dangerous infections in people, such as resistance to antibiotics and bacterial swarms when millions of bacteria come together on a single surface.

The discovery — which has potential applications for preventing and combatting bacterial infections and addressing antibiotic-resistant bacteria — relates to a common chemical element bacterial cells can use to form and pass along these memories to their progeny over later generations.

Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin found that E. coli bacteria use iron levels as a way to store information about different behaviors that can then be activated in response to certain stimuli.

Scientists had previously observed that bacteria that had a prior experience of swarming (moving on a surface as a collective using flagella) improve subsequent swarming performance. 

The UT-led research team set out to learn why. Bacteria don’t have neurons, synapses or nervous systems, so any memories are not like the ones of blowing out candles at a childhood birthday party. They are more like information stored on a computer. 

Uh oh.

The findings are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Ever had that big meal and then think, “how am I going to fit into those pants/dress?” Well, some monks in Portugal have given this some thought.

It involves a….door.

Measuring two meters high and just 32 centimeters (12.5 inches) wide, the door served a practical purpose for the monks, many of whom were reportedly on the heavy side.

There’s even an inscription carved into the entrance to the refectory that translates to, “Consider that you eat the sins of the people.” 

The monks were required to pass through the door to get their own food from the kitchen and bring it to the refectory to eat. If you couldn’t fit, you weren’t allowed to eat, which meant you were forced to fast until you lost the weight."

Located in Alcobaça Monastery in Portugal. 

It’s a Victorian radiator that doubles as a plate warmer. Just like what we had growing up in Tuckahoe.

In February we started a new advertising campaign to share our efforts to help, in albeit, a small way, to reduce our company’s - and our customers’ carbon footprint. We’re trying to be responsible and we thought you should be the first to know. Below are links to the other ads.

Is 40% a Smart Thing

Heating Your Home With Daniels is Wicked Cheaper

Fuhgeddaboutit!

Can Our Oil Company Be Environmentally Friendly

See larger image here



There once were some poets of Britain

Who famously jotted and scribed

When final rest did come

For this eminent group of chums

They built a monument to them that was fittin’

It took me like an hour to write that silly poem. All for you.

Now, tell me where & what it is and you may win one of those Amazon gift cards everyone is talking about. Last month 144 of you knew, “As You Wish,” was the phrase Wesly spoke as he rolled down the hill.

Congratulations to Joe H, Diane L, Janelle S, Amy B. for the correct answer. As to our word quiz – we were looking for the answer “Day” but many of you demonstrated, rather convincingly, that “Heart” also solved the puzzle.

So we included those in with the 65 correct answers and Erin P and Brad G were winners. Thanks to all for playing.

I usually just use my fingers for this sort of thing, but really smart guys like Dutch artist Diet Wiegman can create three shadows all cast off the same item. The shadows are cast off a collection of trash including McDonalds cups and tin cans.

Not sure you actually want Venus de Milo, the David or Michaelangelo’s Risen Christ on your wall, but now you can have all three and some junk clogging up your room at the same time.

Here’s Michael Jackson and some more junk.

More about Mr. Wiegman here: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2299167/Diet-Wiegman-The-shadows-steal-spotlight-away-bizarre-junk-sculptures-create-spectacle-actual-art.html

We’ve NEVER been wrong before.

But, thanks to the sharp eyes of our New York City based customer Michael S. we have to fess up. Antwerp does NOT have the oldest wooden escalator. (Apparently, you cannot believe everything you read online). 

The honor belongs to the one and only…Macy’s in NYC and here it is.

We stand humbly corrected.

In 2021, the city of Vilnius in Lithuania unveiled its latest inner-city attraction:

A Stargate!

They didn’t call it that, for fear of copyright-infringing on MGM and Studio Canal, who own the rights to that whole franchise of movies & TV shows. Nevertheless, if you hear “stargate”, you instantly know what it looks like. 

There are a few key differences, obviously. This stargate isn’t what physicists call a Einstein-Rosen bridge, more popularly known as a worm hole, and so it doesn’t rotate, lock onto distant coordinates and then blast out a foaming torrent of spacetime that turns into a rippling surface that can transport you anywhere in the universe if you step through it. Instead, it’s more like a window you can look through, into the alien world on the other side.

That “alien world” is the city of Lublin in Poland, around 375 miles away, where there’s an identical-looking gate that allows Lublin’s residents to look back at Vilnius.

Both gates livestream the view from their twin, 24 hours a day, allowing people in each city to wave at each other, write messages on boards in that Love Actually kind of way, compare clothes or sandwiches, and so on. There’s no sound, just video

Designed by engineers at the Creativity and Innovation Centre at Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, in association with an entrepreneur called Benediktas Gylys who wants to build a lot more of them in other cities around the world.

So we’re thinking…why not have one in Portland (our home town) and one in Middletown (our original home town). Mayors…are you reading this?

Who says north has to be at the top of a map? Not the Aussies.

Because we need a little beauty this time of year.

Do you ever worry, “will I run out of home heating fuel tonight?”

While Daniels works hard to maintain accurate data for our customers, changes in behavior at home can skew usage and lead to panicked calls for oil or propane. It may simply be that you started using more – or less – fuel than you have in the past. For instance:

Have the kids moved back into the house?

Are you going to be away for an extended period?

Got a vacation house you use intermittently. Turn the heat up for the night and then forget to lower it when you leave?

Is there a new baby in the house or

Have the in-laws moved into the attic?

Stopped using wood for additional heat?

Installed a new propane fireplace or water heater?

Or simply change your usage pattern- whatever -

This is why we suggest leasing a 5G cellular Tank Utility Monitor.

If you’re a will-call customer – it may be even more important to you to know exactly how much fuel, you have in your tank.

You’ll be able to check the level of oil or propane in your tank from anywhere – at any time – and garner a bit of peace of mind knowing you’ll be warm on the coldest day. Details on units, costs and installation are available with one call – ask for Alanna ext 122.

Please note the service is not available in all areas.

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Just have to have the spine to read them. Take your time.

https://taiwandatastories.com/bubble-tea-guide/

He was a New York City fireman before he became a huge movie star. Tell us who this is and you may win one of those coveted Amazon gift cards.

We’re going to Italy next month. We’ll bring back some pix to share.

To get you started, here’s the Park of the Monsters in Palazzo Orsini in Bomarzo circa 1952.

Heart attack at high noon!