June Newsletter

Life A Little Sideways

June 01, 2022

Issue 3

June, 2022

 

“It was June, and the world smelled of roses. The sunshine was like powdered gold over the grassy hillside.” 

 

— Maud Hart Lovelace

 

PONDER THIS

These appeared on my Facebook page during May.

Q. What was the infamous 90’s haircut inspired by a sitcom?

Q. What toy was the 1

to be marketed on TV?

Q. Which bird or insect flaps it’s wings the fastest?

 (ANSWER AT BOTTOM)

NANCY’S INK 

 JUNE 19 — JUNETEENTH DAY (The name a combination of “June” and “nineteenth.”  Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863.  declaring that slaves were free, but it did not actually end slavery in the United States.  January 31, 1865, the 13th Amendment was passed, which formally abolished slavery.  It was not until June 19, 1865 -- following the last battle of the Civil War at Palmetto Ranch in Texas -- that Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger and Union soldiers marched into Galveston and announced that the Civil War had ended and the enslaved were now free. The celebration that followed the announcement was called Juneteenth.  Yet here we are in 2022 with the current news that 10 Black people doing their daily shopping were killed by a racist gunman with an automatic rifle in a Buffalo supermarket. How is an 18-year-old able to buy an AR-15-syle assault rifle with just a little more effort than ordering a Big Mac?  Semiautomatics were also used at the Sandy Hook School and the Pulse nightclub. Is there some message here?  The argument for — semiautomatics are needed for hunting. Stay with me on this one.  I don’t think your typical hunter is going to encounter a thundering herd of 300-pound ferocious wild pigs in the woods.Come on, that’s like saying I need a Formula One Racecar to get to the grocery store.THINK ABOUT THIS   Congress passed a law banning semiautomatic rifles in 1994 — with a 10-year expiration date. Why hasn’t it been renewed?               Comments? Reply Nancy’s Ink – info@nancyhungerford

CHEYLETIELLOSIS (‘walking dandruff’)

Signs are irritation and scurf, especially along the back. Cat may be very listless. Many times, the first sign is an itchy skin rash on the owner.   Cause—mites that live on the surface of the skin that can barely be seen by the naked eye as small white moving specks. It can also affect dogs and rabbits.   Treatment—your vet will have a parasitical preparation to kill the mites. Once the pet is treated the owner’s skin will clear.

KITTY QUESTIONS? WE’LL TRY TO ANSWER.  [email protected] — subject KITTY

HONEYBEE TRIVIA   🐝

🌸  Honeybees have 5 eyes — 2 large compound eyes and 3 small simple eyes.🌸  Honeybee queens lay 1,500 eggs A DAY.🌸  A single bee makes 1/12 teaspoon of honey in its entire lifetime. 🌼  A typical little 12-ounce honey bear squeeze bottle takes 864 bees to make all the honey that goes inside it.🌸  Bees flap their wings 190 times a second. (That’s over double the 70 times a second the hummingbird flaps its wings)🌺  A honeybee flies 15 miles per hour.🌸  Honeybees keep the inside of their hives at 93 degrees Fahrenheit. (If it’s cold outside, all the bees vibrate their bodies and create body heat to warm up their hive to 93°, and when it’s hot outside, they flap their wings like fans to create a breeze and cool it off.)🌸  Honeybees never sleep!🌺  Honeybees are the ONLY insect that produces food for humans to eat.🌸  Honeybees pollinate approximately 80% of all vegetables, fruit, and seed crops in the USA. 🐝 🐝♥️ HAVE BEE INFORMATION TO SHARE? LET ME KNOW. [email protected] – subject BEES

OH NO. PLUTO IS NO LONGER A PLANET!

   Yes, sky lovers, PLUTO was demoted to a “dwarf planet” in 2006.While the other planets travel around the Sun in almost perfect circles, Pluto takes an oval-shaped path, and the Sun is nowhere near its center. Pluto’s path is also much more tilted than the nice, orderly plane in which most of the other planets orbit.More Cool Facts About Pluto   Venetia Burney from England, just 11 years old at the time, suggested the name Pluto in 1930. She suggested the name Pluto partially because it followed the other planets’ naming based on classical mythology. Pluto is the name of the Roman god of the Underworld (equivalent to the Greek Hades).    As for the Disney cartoon dog, Pluto, he was named after the planet, not the other way around. The cartoon dog was originally named Rover. In 1931, a year after Pluto’s discovery, the Walt Disney folks decided to exploit the publicity, and changed the character’s name to that of the planet. We could never live on Pluto. Because it’s so far away from the Sun, its temperature is about 400 degrees below zero Fahrenheit! Did you know that:

  • If you weigh 100 pounds on Earth, you will weigh only 7 pounds on Pluto.

  • If you lived on Pluto, you’d have to live 248 Earth years to celebrate your first birthday in Pluto-years. 

  • A day on Pluto lasts 153 hours, or about 6 Earth days.

  • Pluto has blue skies and is very hazy, thanks to a thin atmosphere of nitrogen, methane, and carbon monoxide. 

  • The largest of Pluto’s five Moons, Charon, is so big that Pluto and Charon orbit each other like a double planet.

  • Even though Pluto has been reclassified to a dwarf, Pluto is now a whole new world with all the photos and information from New Horizons—the first-ever spacecraft to visit that strange tiny world.

Any nature, sky or sea information is always welcome. Send to [email protected]

CAREFREE COSMOS

   Cosmos are wonderful easy annual flowers with colorful, daisy-like flowers that sit atop long, slender stems. They bloom all summer and attract birds, bees, and butterflies. They grow easily from seeds and best of all, survive in poor soil conditions!About Cosmos   Cosmos produces 3- to 5-inch daisy-like flowers in various colors, including pink, orange, red and yellow, white, and maroon. Direct-sow seeds outdoors once the danger of frost has passed or for instant gratification, purchase a flat at your garden center. Choosing and Preparing a Planting Site

  • Cosmos don’t need any special soil preparation. In fact, they like soil that is not too rich, as rich soil will encourage foliage at the expense of blooms. 

  • Soil should be well-draining.

  • Cosmos can tolerate warm, dry weather very well. They are even drought tolerant.

  • Depending on the variety, cosmos can grow anywhere between 18 to 60 inches tall, so plan accordingly.

How to Plant Cosmos

  1.  Just sow seeds lightly—no more than 1/4-inch deep.

  2.  Thin to 12–18 inches apart when seedlings are a few inches tall. 

  3.  If you are growing cosmos from seeds, be mindful that it takes about 7 weeks to first bloom. After that, your flowers should continue to bloom until the first fall frost.

  4. If you let the spiky-brown seed heads fall into your garden, cosmos is likely to self-sow throughout your garden.

Any gardening tips? Send to Garden, [email protected]

Tante's Chicken Paprika    While this is a special Hungarian dish, my Tante (Austrian) made it frequently. Lower Austria and Hungry had many dishes which overlapped due to the former Austrian-Hungarian Empire. Obtaining Hungarian Paprika is almost a must to enjoy the full rich flavor.

  1.  3-3 ½ lb. chicken cut into serving pieces*

  2.  3 Tablespoons cooking oil

  3.  Salt & Pepper to taste

  4.  2 medium sweet onions, chopped

  5.  ¼ cup dry white wine (can use both instead)

  6.   ¼ cup chicken broth

  7.   ½ cup sour cream

  8.   1 Tablespoon Hungarian sweet paprika

  • Season chicken with salt and pepper.

  • In a large skillet brown chicken pieces in hot oil on all sides.

  • Remove chicken and set aside.

  • Add onion to skillet and cook until tender but careful not to brown.

  • Stir in paprika and return chicken to pan, turning to coat with the onion-paprika mixture.

  • Add wine and broth — bring to a boil.

  • Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 30 to 35 minutes, or until chicken is tender.

  • Remove chicken to serving platter; keep warm.

  • Cook down skillet drippings for about 2 minutes to reduce and blend.

  • Carefully stir in sour cream; heat thoroughly but be careful not to boil.

  • Pour over chicken and serve.

  • For sour cream lovers serve additional sour cream on the side.

 Traditionally served over nockerl, but wide noodles or rice is fine.

  • I use chicken legs and thighs.

Cook & Tell — have a recipe to share? Send to N’s Kitchen, [email protected]

AUTHOR OF THE MONTH

   T. J. Banks is the author of A Time for Shadows, Abys Among Us & Other Stories for the Feline-Inclined (winner of the 2020 Cat Writers’ Association Muse Medallion for Non-fiction Books), Catsong (winner of the 2007 Merial Human-Animal Bond Award), Sketch People, Souleiado, and Houdini, a novel which the late writer and activist Cleveland Amory enthusiastically branded “a winner.”  

When T.J. Banks asks a question, it isn’t one of those that skims across the surface of a still body but creates ripples that play over again and again. Her interviewing allows one to share freely with trust and affection. Clearly, she is an animal lover, as her primal abilities to ease the feral protective impulses of the interviewed become apparent when the interviewed realizes she’s taken him places he had not gone before.                                            -- Jay Amari, Crosstown Traffic

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Nancy Hungerford

Author + observer of people, nature, and stuff.