READY…SET…GO!: These photos were taken by Gary Mazoki, of Palermo, at Kinney’s compost, in Knox. The immature bald eagle sat perched, then launched into full flight.
Photo by Gary Mazoki, of Palermo
Photo by Gary Mazoki, of Palermo
Photo by Gary Mazoki, of Palermo
by Debbie WalkerDid you know that our appliances have secrets? Yes, they do. I am sharing the information from Reader’s Digest, by Marissa Laliberte (July/August ’19).
MICROWAVE: (my favorite) I did not know the shape of the dish you use in reheating or cooking, makes all the difference in a microwave. A rectangular container attracts more energy and the corners may be over cooked, not heated as much in center. A round container allows more uniformed heating. Did you know? Here is a tip Nana Dee gave me: A whole cauliflower, remove the core. Wrap the entire head with a wet paper towel and microwave until done enough for your taste. I haven’t tried it yet but I will.
The same article tells me not to season my food until it’s done. Microwave energy is drawn to salt. The seasoned top leaves a dryness you don’t want. Did you know?
OVEN BROILER: Have you ever heard of leaving the oven door open a bit when broiling? Marissa wrote that the closed oven door is likened to baking. Venting the oven lets the steam out; the steam prevents the crustiness you hope for in broiling. Check your ovens manual first, you wouldn’t want to melt knobs. Did you know?
SLOW COOKER: Trapped heat is what does the cooking in a slow cooker. Unless, you keep lifting the lid, then the cooking takes longer. Wait until there is about an hour left of cooking before you lift the lid. Slow cookers are wonderful to make the most of your time. Did you know? You can dye yarn in it. Not something I will try but I am wondering what else I could do, maybe a T-shirt for one of the kids. You know I must try that one day.
DISHWASHER: Obviously, the area above the rotating arms gets the strongest spray. I learned that’s what starch foods need to eliminate their mess. It needs the force of the spray rather than the chemical clean.
The other side of the coin is dishes holding protein leftovers need the chemical clean, so the lower rack is better. It allows the soap to stay on longer for its cleaning. Did you know? Wash the baseball type hat in dishwasher. You just want to be sure to turn it off before it starts the heat and dry process.
BLENDER: If your blender stalls every few seconds, it is the layering of your ingredients that’s probably the cause. Start with a soft base ingredient (ex: yogurt) Then layer smallest to largest, ice and tough stuff on top. They will get “blended” in. Did you know? Bisquick Coconut Pie can be mixed in a blender, if you need directions, I can get them and pass on in email. Can also blend butter and graham crackers for a crust right in a blender.
STAND MIXER: Blades sometimes need to be aligned. You want them adjusted so blades can reach ingredients but not hit or scratch the bottom or sides. Find your adjusting screw by referring to your owner’s manual. Did you know?
Since I have devoted most of my life to avoiding kitchens whenever possible I did not know most of this information. The microwave information was the most important tidbit for me, and I am very well acquainted with the dishwasher as well.
I am just curious how many of these you know and how many you may have questions about. Contact me at dwdaffy@yahoo.com. I’ll be waiting. Have a great weekend.
Connie Francis
by Peter CatesNow 83 years old but still active, Connie Francis is a living legend in pop music. Her 1957 megahit, the lovely Bert Kalmar/Harry Ruby Who’s Sorry Now, was one truly fine song, made extra special by CF’s totally sincere rendition, even if a tad smothered by sentimentality. That year, American Bandstand featured her lip-singing it and, as a six year old, I remember wishing, just momentarily, that she would adopt me as her little boy on a single Mom basis – LOL !!!
BTW, with respect to Kalmar and Ruby, the 1950 Fred Astaire and Red Skelton musical biopic, Three Little Words, also from MGM (Hmm, interesting coincidence), and about the two songwriters, had a very stirring and expressively different performance of WSN by Gloria De Haven, very much in the Peggy Lee/Julie London tradition.
Exciting is a set of 12 very classic pop standards – Time After Time; Johnny Mercer and Harold Arlen’s Come Rain/Come Shine; a very personal favorite, There Will Never Be Another You; Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, of which my copy of the late Karen Chandler’s early ‘50s Coral 45 is the gold standard; That’s All; All By Myself, etc. She performs with heartfelt expression but her timing and phrasing is sometimes leaving me wanting something more, an elusive nuance and magic that such balladeers as Frank Sinatra, Perry Como, Ella Fitzgerald, Mel Torme and Doris Day had aplenty. But I really liked her singing of Time After Time. And the arrangements of the gifted Ray Ellis, like those beautiful ones for many of the Johnny Mathis late ‘50s hits, enhanced the album.
For me personally, the worst record she may have released – and one of the top ten worst in recording history, was the 1963 Brylcream Sing Along with Connie. First, it was an insult to the finest Sing Along group then popular, namely Mitch Miller’s. Secondly, the arrangements were hokey, cornballish and, most obviously, a rush job of rush jobs, much like most Christmas albums and TV specials. Thirdly, the Brylcream commercials flooded the American Bandstand. And finally, those little dabs made men’s hair greasier and grosser – forget pursue, the gals would all avoid ya!
The album would also impact the 1963 Christmas of the greater Cates family groups in the vicinity – the price for the record, when first released, was $1 when one purchased a tube of the ointment. Within a week, the price was down to ten cents without the required extortion.
A most “thrifty,’ well-to-do relative whose anonymity shall be honored in this instance, like the other sleeping dogs, bought a pile of the 10 centers and flooded every household with a copy as his way of good will to all men and women. Even after 30 years, no other copies of a record flooding the rubbish sales and Goodwills would be in such mint plus condition.
However, the story doesn’t end there. Rare record shops had their copies priced at 20 bucks and more by the mid ‘80s.
The singer’s life would be shattered by two horrific events. In 1974, a rapist would bust into her room at a New Jersey motel and brutally assault her, never to be found to this day. In 1981, her brother was murdered by two Mafia hitmen.
But her ability to move on and bless so many both here and abroad is only one of the reasons she is so worthy of honor for her life’s work.
Several selections, maybe the whole album, can be heard on YouTube, while prices on the Amazon page start at $4.39 for LP and $6.80 for CD.
Talk to your doctor if you have questions about COVID-19 vaccines.
(NAPSI)—While most American adults have already received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, a lot of people still have questions. Everyone deserves to have access to factual information to make a decision about getting vaccinated. But many people don’t know where to go to get their questions answered.
by Dan BeaulieuA true story. One of our relatives in a nearby town was having trouble with her furnace and needed a repair person. She called the man that had been taking care of her furnace for years. He came over and found that all he had to do was reset the furnace and everything would be fine. He said that there would be no charge and showed her the switch so next time she could reset the furnace herself. He was not gone 15 minutes when the furnace conked out again.
Not wanting to bother the repairman again that night she and her daughter, who was visiting, decided to add more blankets to their beds, tough it out and call the repairman in the morning.
The next morning the daughter called the repairman, and he proceeded to blast her for bothering him, read her the proverbial riot act for bothering him, but in the end, with some persuasion grumbled he would come later that day.
He never showed up!
Whereupon the daughter called another company, they sent a man out right away. There was something wrong with the furnace, it was missing a part. They fixed it in 30 minutes, handed her the bill and went on their merry way.
Now here is where the story gets interesting.
The daughter was very active on social media, especially Facebook…I think you can see where this is going.
The daughter promptly got on Facebook and told the story including naming names and recommending that no one should ever use this repairman again. Her post went out to over the 200 people to whom she was connected!
Wow! What repairmen should have realized was that in this new world order people are connected, and people talk to each other, especially when they have been poorly served enough to be angry.
Just imagine for a minute the kind of negative publicity this repairman is now getting!
But the real point here is that no person or company, or organization, should ever talk to their customers the way this repairman did. Nor should any person serving the public ever complain about doing a job for a customer.
The rule of thumb pre-social media used to be that if a customer has a complaint, he is going to tell a number of people and in the end, about 100 people would hear about it. Now in these days of social media that number increases to literally hundreds if not thousands of people. And if the story is bad enough it could go viral, then millions of people could see it.
Those of us in business should always appreciate our customers and the business they send our way. The minute we stop doing that, and let the customer see, that is the day your business will stop growing. And that my friends is no way to be growing your business.
Fireflies in a forest.
by Roland D. HalleeOne night last week, after I did my usual bedtime reading, and my wife was playing the mind games on her tablet, I turned out the light and rolled over to get some sleep. Suddenly, my wife said, “there’s a lightning bug in here.” I looked up, and sure enough, there he was on the ceiling.
I didn’t want to crush it, because we are seeing fewer and fewer of them. So, I managed to corner it, pick it up with a piece of paper, and send it on its way, outdoors.
Now we rewind to a year ago when we were sitting by a campfire when we noticed a lightning bug. Notice I said “a,” like in one, uno, solo. It was the first lightning bug I had seen in a while. I remember when I was growing up, we used to go visit relatives in Canada, and sometimes go to a camp where we would see hundreds of lightning bugs flying around in a field. We used to capture them in a jar. You just don’t see that anymore.
Anyway, lightning bugs can make summers magical, but there is more to learn about these beauties.
First off, lightning bugs are actually fireflies. Fireflies are cute and elegant by day, but downright dazzling after darkness falls. But behind their charming facade, fireflies are fascinating little insects. Consider the following facts:
Firefly
They are beetles, not flies. Fireflies are nocturnal members of Lampyridae, a family of insects within the beetle order Coleoptera, or winged beetles. Yes, they are officially beetles.
They are alchemists, poetically speaking at least. While they don’t actually turn base metals into gold, they do create light as if by magic. When a chemical called luciferin (note the same Latin root as Lucifer) inside their abdomen/tail combines with oxygen, calcium and adenosine triphosphate, a chemical reaction occurs that creates their spectacular light.
Firefly light is incredibly efficient. The light produced by the firefly is the most efficient light ever made. Almost 100 percent of the energy in the chemical reaction is emitted as light; in comparison, an incandescent light bulb only emits 10 percent of its energy as light, the other 90 percent is lost as heat.
The main reason lightning bugs flash is to attract mates. Among most but not all species of North American lightning bugs, males fly about flashing while females perch on vegetation, usually near the ground. If the female sees a flasher and she’s ready to mate she responds by flashing right after the male’s last flash. A short flash dialogue takes place as the male flies closer and closer, and then, if all goes well, they mate.
They come in a rainbow of colors. Well maybe not the whole spectrum, but they do come in yellow, light red, green and orange.
They taste disgusting. Not that we were planning on snacking on fireflies anytime soon, but for predators that might like a light meal, beware the lightning bug. Firefly blood contains lucibufagins, which sounds like something out of a Harry Potter book but is actually a defensive steroid that tastes really awful. It is similar to that found in some poisonous toads. Predators associate the bad taste with a firefly’s light and learn not to eat bugs that glow.
However, their numbers are declining. If you’re seeing fewer fireflies each summer, you’re not alone. Evidence suggests that firefly populations may be on the decline, most likely due to a combination of light pollution, pesticide use and habitat destruction. For example, according to Smithsonian.com, if a field where fireflies live is paved over, the fireflies don’t migrate to another field, they just disappear forever.
What’s going on? Bees are on the decline; butterflies are suffering, could fireflies be facing tough times as well?
The scientific and citizen consensus is “yes.” Malaysia even holds an international symposium dedicated to conservation of the firefly. Scientists have for years been warning that the world’s estimated 2,000 species of fireflies are dwindling.
And is it any wonder? As the manmade environment continues its undying march into the natural world, where are these things supposed to live? Fireflies breed and exist in the woods and forests, along lakes and streams, in dense gardens and unruly meadows. Where are they supposed to do their firefly things when those places are paved over and built upon?
All of it doesn’t bode well.
“Fireflies are indicators of the health of the environment and are declining across the world as a result of degradation and loss of suitable habitat, pollution of river systems, increased use of pesticides in agro-ecosystems and increased light pollution in areas of human habitation,” notes the Selangor Declaration, a firefly advocating document. The decline of fireflies is a cause for concern and reflects the global trend of increasing biodiversity loss.”
Fireflies are part of our heritage; they are an iconic creature and have played a role in many, many cultures. They are the epitome of summer evenings, for many of us they served as an introduction to the wonders of nature. If we lose the fireflies, we lose an important invisible thread that connects us to the magic of the natural world. And as a species, we can’t afford to lose that right now.
Complete the golfing adage: “You drive for show, but putt for….”
by Sasha FitzpatrickSubmitted by Sasha Fitzpatrick, EdwardJones Financial Advisor
We just celebrated Independence Day. And as we make progress in moving past the COVID-19 pandemic, more of us enjoyed Fourth of July activities. However you observe the holiday, it’s important to recognize all the liberties we enjoy in this country. But you may still need to work at one particular type of freedom – and that’s financial freedom. How can you achieve it?
There’s no one instant solution. But you can work toward financial independence by addressing these areas:
Retirement savings – Approximately 45 percent of Americans think the ideal retirement involves “enjoying my well-earned freedom,” according to the March 2021 Edward Jones/Age Wave Four Pillars of the New Retirement study. But when you’re retired, the risk to this freedom is obvious – the paychecks have stopped but the bills haven’t. Furthermore, you could spend two or three decades in retirement. That’s why it’s so important to contribute as much as you can afford to your tax-advantaged retirement accounts, such as your IRA and your 401(k) or another employer-sponsored plan. At a minimum, put in enough to earn your employer’s matching contribution, if one is offered. Whenever your salary goes up, try to increase the annual amount you put in your 401(k) or similar plan. And if appropriate, make sure you have a reasonable percentage of growth-oriented investments within your 401(k) and IRA. Most people don’t “max out” on their IRA and 401(k) each year, but, if you can consistently afford to do so, and you still have money you could invest, you may want to explore other retirement savings vehicles.
Illness or injury – If you were to become seriously ill or sustain a significant injury and you couldn’t work for an extended period, the loss of income could jeopardize your ability to achieve financial independence. Your employer may offer disability insurance as an employee benefit, but this coverage is typically quite limited, both in duration and in the amount of income being replaced. Consequently, you may want to consider purchasing private disability insurance. Keep in mind that this coverage, also, will have an end date and it probably won’t replace all the income lost while you’re out of work, but it will likely be more expansive and generous than the plan provided by your employer.
Long-term care – Individuals turning 65 have about a 70 percent chance of eventually needing some type of long-term care, such as a nursing home stay or the assistance of a home health aide, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. And these services are quite expensive – the average annual cost for a private room in a nursing home is more than $100,000, according to Genworth, an insurance company. Medicare typically covers only a small part of these expenses, so, to avoid depleting your savings and investments (and possibly subjecting your grown children to a financial burden), you may want to consider long-term care insurance or life insurance with a long-term care component. A financial advisor can help you choose a plan that’s appropriate for your needs.
By addressing these areas, you can go a long way toward attaining your financial independence. It will be a long-term pursuit, but the end goal is worth it.
This article was written by Edward Jones for use by your local Edward Jones Financial Advisor.
Edward Jones, Member SIPC.
Sasha Fitzpatrick can be contacted at EdwardJones Financial Advisor, 22 Common St., Waterville, ME 04901, or at sasha.fitzpatrick@edwardjones.com.
Helping a veteran get to needed medical care can be a great way to give back.
(NAPSI)—There are certain aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic that many Americans may not have thought about. For example, one area that saw a sharp decline was volunteerism—placing heavy burdens on nonprofit organizations that rely on the compassion of their volunteer forces.
According to a recent research survey by Fidelity Charitable, a nonprofit organization created by Fidelity Investments, two-thirds of all U.S. volunteers had either decreased volunteer hours or stopped volunteering altogether because of the pandemic.
One nonprofit feeling the effects is DAV (Disabled American Veterans) and its Transportation Network, which has helped get veterans to and from medical appointments since 1987, when the government-run system was shut down. The nationwide DAV Transportation Network provides no-cost rides to veterans who need help getting to their Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) medical centers and clinics. Prior to 2020, volunteer drivers spent more than one million hours and logged over 20 million miles, providing more than 600,000 rides for veterans each year.
“We’ve seen a major decline over the past year in volunteer support across all of our programs,” said John Kleindienst, Director of Voluntary Services at DAV. “For our aging veteran population, getting to and from critical care appointments is a growing concern and without volunteers, many veterans have no way to access their health care or get other much needed support.”
Ramping up volunteerism for the DAV Transportation Network is critical as the pandemic restrictions lift, as it is anticipated that higher than average numbers of veterans will return to the VA both for routine appointments and for care that was delayed over the past year.
“While safety has been the key priority, we have to think toward the next phase and be prepared to meet this increased demand for transportation,” Kleindienst added. “We know the pandemic has hurt a lot of veterans and they might not get the care they earned without our dedicated volunteers. We need the help.”
VolunteerMatch’s survey, “The Impact of COVID-19 on Volunteering” found many in the nonprofit sector are rethinking volunteer engagement strategies to accommodate the current environment. While this strategy works for some sectors, it can be challenging for others.
Nonprofits, such as DAV, are hopeful that there is light at the end of the pandemic tunnel as vaccines are made widely available, restrictions are lifted and communities can safely get back to volunteering.
“We know there are many passionate and dedicated volunteers who are ready to step up and support our nation’s veterans and with added safety measures in place we’re beginning to see more people coming out to help. We can only hope it will be enough to keep pace with those veterans in need,” added Kleindienst.
If you are a veteran in need of support or want to learn more about volunteer opportunities in the community, go to dav.org/volunteer.
by Debbie WalkerEver notice how sometimes things are easier when you put them in your own words rather than maybe the appropriate one? You know, bring them down to your terms.
I think I do it out of a healthy disrespect for the real terms, and sometimes because my words are just shorter. I’ve done some of that here.
I made a long put-off trip to the dermatologist to have a little mole thing on my forehead looked at. They told me just by looking at it that it was a basil cell carcinoma, lot of words for cancer. Instantly that thing reminded me of being in Maine, come in from the woods with a tick on you and all you want to do is get it off you! Well my immediate reaction was: GET THAT THING OF ME NOW! This little mole thing was my “tick” and I wanted it gone now!
Well beside the little tick I had a bump on my upper left leg. It had never been discolored; it had never burned, itched, hurt, changed colors, nothing. However, it had started to grow, and it seemed to be forming groupies around it. So, hey, I’m here I might as well ask him what kind of thing it was. Well you know how it goes, almost like with your car, it could be this or it could be that, usually it is the more expensive one but sometimes you get lucky. So, the doc did his little biopsy of both tick and bump.
Tick test came back next day just what they said it was, and it was going to have to come off. “I’m ready now.” However, we (they) were waiting on the bump’s biopsy that it turns out had to be sent away. Oh yeah, I’m a little nervous now, but better safe than sorry.
The “tick” was no big deal; they took that off in a matter of minutes and a few stitches. But it seems the “bump” was going to send me to a specialist, it was a little on the rare side and had a name I think includes all the letters of the alphabet in it. So, I was sent off to Moffitt Cancer Center, in Tampa, Florida. Probably means nothing to you guys but this place is top of the line all the way.
That little bump that never did anything but grow to about the size of a quarter was going to require an 8-inch by 6-inch cut down to the muscle to get rid of, I’d have one layer of stitches and one layer of staples. This cancer is rare and has a 95 percent success rate. And, for it to be considered not successful only means it would grow back in the same spot. Now as cancers go, I consider myself very lucky.
We all do it; we all put things off, “ah, that isn’t nothing.” I will admit that for a while I had an idea what the tick was and even then, put it off, lack of money, insurances, time from work, etc. As for the little bump, it looked like the most harmless thing in the world and as I said, never gave a sign it being anything other than a bump on the skin. But if you think about it, what was the bump doing there, I didn’t have one anywhere else?
Please take this seriously. My tick is long gone, and my bump was removed December 23, 2008. Yup, I am making fun of them, that healthy disrespect I was talking about, but this is serious. If you have ticks or bumps or whatever word you decide to call them do yourself and your family a huge favor and go now. Don’t wait. If it turns out to be nothing, go celebrate, if it is something deal with it. You wouldn’t leave a real tick on you knowing it was there, would you?
This is one time when I wish my curiosity had won over sooner.
Thanks for reading and if this rings a bell to you: CHECK IT OUT!
Contact me at DebbieWalker@townlinw.org. We’ll just call this my public service announcement.
Robert P. Tristram Coffin
by Peter CatesUp until a few weeks ago, I was offering weekly paragraphs from Robert P. Tristram Coffin’s essay Kennebec Crystals, which is contained in the 1989 Maine Literature Project anthology, Maine Speaks. To briefly summarize previously offered information Professor Coffin (1892-1955) wrote 40 books that included poetry, novels and non-fiction, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize and taught at Bowdoin College, in Brunswick. The essay gives a vivid account of the source of ice blocks that our local Kennebec River was world-renowned for and the arduous, methodically planned process by which they were extracted during the early to mid 1800’s.
“But back up on the farms, the men were grinding their picks. Women were laying out armfuls of gray socks with white heels and toes, piling up the flannel shirts, packing up bacon and ham and sausage meat and loaves. Boys were oiling harness and polishing the glass sidelights of headstalls. Chains were clinking and sheds were being piled with blankets and bedding and victuals and extra whiffletrees, cant dogs, picks and feed for the horses.
“Down along the river, the doors stood open in the big ice-houses, with sides lined with sawdust that for months had been shut in silence, except for the sharp thin music of wasps. Men were clearing out old roughage and rubbing the sections of track free of rust. Machinery was being oiled. Gouges and scrapers were being looked over and assembled by the river’s side.”
To be continued.
Donn Fendler at 12 years old
One of the state’s major attractions for adventurous campers and climbers is Mount Katahdin. I’ve yet to make the trek but one very exciting book I read decades ago was Donn Fendler’s Lost on a Mountain in Maine, which became a national best seller during World War II years. He was a 12-year-old who got separated from his Boy Scout group during a hike up the mountain in 1939 and, for nine days, made the mistake of wandering in all directions instead of staying in one spot. The terrors of survival in its wilderness were vividly recounted.