Fascinating Facts + Trivia, Tailgate Sandwich recipe, Quick Question, Beautiful Art Illustrations

Wednesday greetings, friends.

How’s your week going?
All is well in my neck of the woods.
Temps can’t decide what they want to do just yet.   Nights are cool and the days can get a little/a lot warm.
I have to remind myself that it’s not  officially  fall just yet.
Fall actually has its kick off date this Sunday.

May this Wednesday Reader, September 18, 2024, be a little sunshine in your day!

BEGINNING WITH:

BEAUTIFUL ARTWORK BY EXTRAORDINARY TALENTED ARTISTS
I think my favorite is the woman with the multiple dogs whisking away somewhere.  Sky’s the limit sort of feel!

LESLIE ELMAN’S TRIVIA AND FASCINATING FACTS
Who knew what geometric shape the hollow cells in a honeycomb are?   And that there are actual “honey counterfeiters?”
I certainly did not.  Now I do.

QUICK QUESTION
What makes someone a good person to me?
I think that’s a loaded question – meaning not one specific answer.
Personally, I can think of my top 3:
Kindness.
Loyalty.
Gentleness.
You?

THE ANYWAY CREDO!
Is meaningful.
I think the list can go on-and-on.
There have been numerous times when someone has said something to me and I respond with “Anyway” and walk away.
I’m pondering one or more add-on’s for my list.
You thinking of one?
Please share if you’ve got one in the Comments today.

RECIPE FOR ROCKIN’ SAUSGAGE-PEPPER-ONION SUBS
Is stellar!
I’ve made them on numerous occasions around this time of year.
Not necessarily a Game Day sort of get-together.  Just hanging out with some friends on the deck or patio.
What I additionally do is toast the sub rolls — lightly buttered – and set soft side down on the grill for a quick minute or 2 prior to assembling the subs and serving.
One word – actually two:
OH WOW!

TRACY BECKERMAN’S I, THE ROBOT COLUMN
Had me giggling.
First of all, raise your hand if the actual word vacuum has always been a vexation to spell?
Me?
2 hands raised!
I’ve always had to double think — is it 2 “C’s” or 2 “U’s?
I totally want to look up the origin of the word Vacuum.
And read whether it was a gotcha word!  from whomever came up with the spelling.
I’m thinking there has to be some kind of humor lurking in the backstory somewhere!  ha

Secondly, I don’t know how much I’d love to have a little vacuum robot roaming around at will.
Pretty sure my cats would be jumping on that bad boy and doing the cat “Whoo-hoo” rodeo ride.

I have a friend or 2 who have a robotic vacuum and they are fans.

For now – I’m cool with my old school plug it in and push it around vacuum.  Works for me.

AS ALWAYS (!!)
We are grateful, grateful, grateful for your time + engaging + sharing and supporting Daymaker Readable Art Community.

I must apologize.
I have been slack in replying to comments as of late.  I have no excuse other than I’ve been slack.
However, I do read + enjoy + and feel the love!
I am on task to getting back on task in replying!
Your energy is so meaningful.
You took the time and I wanna take the time, too.
Hat tip, one and all.

ENJOY THE REST OF THE WEEK!
CATCH YA FRIDAY
SAME TIME
SAME PLACE

POP Quiz

POP QUIZ

  1. THE HOLLOW CELLS IN A HONEYCOMB HAVE WHAT GEOMETRIC SHAPE?
    a) Circle
    b) Hexagon
    c) Pentagon
    d) Triangle
  2. THE FIRST FEDERAL BUILDING ERECTED AFTER THE RATIFICATION OF THE CONSTITUTION WAS THE MINT IN WHICH CITY?
    a) Denver
    b) New York
    c) Philadelphia
    d) Washington
  3. THE PLATYPUS IS NATIVE TO WHAT COUNTRY?
    a) Australia
    b) Brazil
    c) India
    d) United States
Tailgate Sandwich Recipe

QUICK QUESTION

WHAT DO YOU THINK MAKES
SOMEONE A GOOD PERSON?

Tailgate Sandwich Recipe

POP QUIZ ANSWERS

  1. The hollow cells in a honeycomb are hexagonal.
  2. The first federal building erected after the ratification of the Constitution was the mint in Philadelphia.
  3. The platypus is native to Australia.

~ COPYRIGHT 2024 LESLIE ELMAN
DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS.COM

THE ANYWAY CREDO!

  • The good that you do today might be forgotten.
    Do good ANYWAY.
  • What you spent years and years building might be destroyed overnight.
    Keep building ANYWAY.
  • Honesty and frankness might make you vulnerable.
    Be honest and frank ANYWAY.
  • If you forgive and love people when they hurt and betray you, you may run the risk of being taken advantage of for your kindness.
    Forgive and love them ANYWAY.
  • Give the world the best you’ve got.  Sometimes the world will kick you in the teeth.
    Give the world the best you’ve got ANYWAY.
  • There will be those who will try to instruct you how to be, how to look, how to act, how to feel.
    Stay on your own path ANYWAY.

~ Anonymous ~

BE YOURSELF.
NO ONE CAN SAY
YOU’RE DOING IT WRONG.
~ CHARLES SCHULZ ~

SATISFACTION GUARANTEED:

NEVER CUT WHAT
CAN BE UNTIED.

RIDDLE ME THIS:

WHAT CAN GO UP A CHIMNEY DOWN,
BUT CAN’T GO DOWN A CHIMNEY UP?

Tailgate Sandwich Recipe

ROCKIN’ SAUSAGE-PEPPER-ONION SUBS + TAILGATE TATERS

This recipe calls for Italian sausages but, by all means, use your favorite sausage –  chicken, beef, pork … or a combo.
Rock it!

HERE’S HOW WE GET THIS GOING ON
INGREDIENTS

3 red bell peppers, stemmed, seeded and cut into 1/4″ strips
2 yellow onions halved and sliced into 1/4″ strips
3 TBSP white vinegar
2 TBSP sugar
1 TBSP vegetable oil
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
2 pounds sweet Italian sausages (or personal choice)
1 – 13″ x 9″ disposable aluminum pan
6 – 6″ fresh sub  rolls

DIRECTIONS:

  1. Toss the peppers, onions, vinegar, sugar, oil, salt and pepper in a medium size bowl.
  2. Microwave, covered, until vegetables are just tender – about 6 minutes.
  3. Remove from microwave.
  4. Pour vegetable mixture and any accumulated juices into disposable aluminum pan.

NEXT

  1. Prepare cleaned grates of your grill (charcoal or gas)  –  one side hot, the other side at a medium temperature.
  2. Place disposable pan loaded with veggies – covered in foil – on hotter side of grill.
  3.  Leave there and cook on grill for about 20 minutes, stirring about every 8 minutes to prevent veggies from browning too much.
  4. Place sausages on medium temperature side of grill.
  5. Cook according to package instructions (the exact time depends on what type of sausages you have chosen),  turning sausages every now and then with tongs.
  6. When sausages are nearly cooked, transfer them into disposable pan.
  7. Slide disposable pan with veggies and sausages to medium heat side of grill.
  8. Next, remove the sausages from the disposable pan of veggie mix to hot side of the grill — one by one.
  9. Grill sausages, on hot side of grill, turning often until browned and well temped at 160* or according to package instructions.  (Generally about 2-4 minutes.)
  10. Return sausages to disposable pan from hot grilling side of grill.
  11. Remove aluminum pan from grill and place on a safe surface – still tented with foil.
  12. Let rest 5 or more minutes.

SERVE

Divide sausages and veggies equally on fresh sub rolls.

TAILGATE TATERS

There’s a reason why these tasty, infinitely versatile “dish” has enjoyed such popularity.  Although it could be dubbed “the appetizer of the ’80s” don’t hesitate to serve it alongside Rockin’Sausage-Pepper-Onion subs at a tailgate party or game-day get-together.  Let’s just say – a dynamic duo is born!
Makes 16 delicious tater shells

HERE’S HOW WE MAKE THE TATERS
INGREDIENTS:

  • 4 large russet baking potatoes
  • 2 TBSP vegetable oil
  • 1 TBSP Tabasco sauce of choice
  • 1/4 cup butter, melted (think microwave does the melting trick)
  • salt and pepper to taste

PREHEAT OVEN TO 425*

  • Clean unpeeled potatoes with a scrub brush
  • Dry off with a paper towel or two
  • Prick potatoes all around with a fork
  • Bake about 30 – 45 minutes
  • Remove from oven and let cool about 10 minutes
  • Cut potatoes into quarters, lengthwise
  • Gently remove potato pulp with a small spoon and reserve that wonderfulness in a bowl and refrigerate for another day (think side-kick for whatever you might be whipping up for a small dinner/lunch a day or two later.  Just heat potato pulp – add butter, salt and pepper, baby!)
  • Place quartered potato shells on an oiled baking sheet
  • Brush inside of shells with butter, Tabasco, salt and pepper
  • Bake an additional 10 minutes

ENJOY AT ROOM TEMPERATURE

RIDDLE ANSWER

AN UMBRELLA

Tailgate Sandwich Recipe

LOST IN SUBURBIA

I, ROBOT VACUUM
BY TRACY BECKERMAN

At 1 a.m. om a Sunday, I woke up to hear the new robot vacuum vacuuming.  The next night I heard it whirring around again at 1 a.m., then Tuesday it was the same thing.

“What the heck is going on with that thing?” asked my husband as we heard the vacuum banging on our bedroom door to get in.

“Obviously, it wants to clean in here,” I said, half asleep.

“Yes, I understand that,” he said.  “But why does it want to clean in here at one in the morning?”

“I dunno.  Maybe it prefers to clean by moonlight?”

I decided that either my vacuum was possessed, or I fed it after midnight and it turned into a Gremlin.  I opened the bedroom door, and the vacuum rushed into deal with what it thought was a late-night dog hair emergency.  I hit the “off” button, and the vacuum let out two beeps to let me know how disappointed it was not to be allowed to take care of our fictitious cleaning crisis.

The fact that it was even turning itself on at all was a surprise to me.  I hadn’t realized the vacuum could actually be set to run itself.  But when I Googled the phenomenon the next day, I found out that if I had actually read the manual, I would have learned the robot vacuum could not only run itself when I’m not home but also let me know when it was done.  It wouldn’t, however, feed or walk the dog, make dinner or pick up my dry cleaning, so honestly, I’m not sure why I was bothering with it at all.

But anyway, the only way to set the vacuum up to do vacuum things was to download a vacuum app, which would let me control all the vacuum settings.  If I didn’t do this, it defaulted to its factory settings. which made it deep-clean our floors at 1 a.m. for some reason.

After I downloaded the app, I set the vacuum to clean at 10:00 a.m. each day but not to notify me when it was done, when it encountered a foreign object in its way, or when it couldn’t finish the job because it had fallen off a cliff (the vacuum’s words, not mine).  There were myriad notifications I could opt to get if I opted, but I didn’t because, really, I had better things to do than be at the beck and call of my robotic vacuum all day.

Confident that I was now fully robot vacuum-literate and would no longer be bothered by late-night cleanings or egregious notifications, I went on with my life.

But then one day when while I was at lunch, my phone pinged, and when I looked at it, I saw that I had an urgent notification, so I clicked on it.

It was , my robot vacuum.

It wanted me to know it was its birthday.

I was floored.  I had not seen this particular notification in the settings, which meant it was either factory-programmed to let me know this information, or it was just taking it upon itself to tell me.

Realizing this was something I only had to worry about once a year, I decided to let this one go and focus on the more important issue:

If I got the vacuum cleaner a birthday cake and it left crumbs om the floor, would it be too much to ask it to clean up after itself?

~ Tracy Beckerman is the author of the Amazon Bestseller, “Barking at the Moon:  A Story of Life, Love, and Kibble.”
COPYRIGHT 2024 CREATORS.COM

Fascinating Stuff

  • Melissopalynology is the study of the pollen that bees collect to make honey.  (“Melissa” is the ancient Greek word for “bee”; palynology, the study of pollen and spores, comes from the ancient Greek word for “scatter.”)  In use since the 1890s to determine a honey’s composition and place of origin, today, this super-specific science helps to trap honey counterfeiters — and there are many — who adulterate their products with cheap sweeteners or try to pass off blended honey as coming from a more desirable single source.
  • The female duck-billed platypus is a monotreme — a rare egg-laying mammal.  The male platypus has the uncommon distinction of being a venomous mammal, using the sharp curved spurs at the base of its feet to sting its foes.  A platypus sting will leave a person in excruciating pain for days.  Yet that powerful venom may also have medicinal benefits to humans.  It has been studied as a potential treatment for diabetes.
  • Because rail gauges (the spaces between tracks) may vary from country to country, international train travel sometimes involves a “bogie exchange,” in which a train car — with passengers inside!  — is lifted off the wheel assembly, or bogie, so the bogie can be swapped out for one of a different gauge.  Trains traveling from Bucharest, Romania, to Chisinau, Moldova, have a bogie exchange in Ungheni, Moldova.  A rail journey between Beijing and Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, includes a stop of about three hours for a bogie exchange in Erlian, China.
  • When the United States Mint expanded its 50 State Quarters Program to include the District of Columbia and five U.S. territories, D.C. city leaders proposed three designs for consideration.  The U.S. Mint rejected all three because they included the motto “Taxation Without Representation.”  The design that was eventually approved and minted in 2009 was a depiction of legendary musician Duke Ellington with the motto “Justice for All.”
  • The Dempster Dumpster, introduced in the 1930s, revolutionized public sanitation by making it possible to collect and transport tons of refuse efficiently and with minimal manpower.  Engineer and businessman George Roby Dempster, inventor of the Dempster Dumpster, went on to become mayor of Knoxville, Tennessee, in the 1950s.  His namesake product became so ubiquitous that “dumpster” is now a generic term for any bin resembling that most functional and convenient trash receptacle.

~ COPYRIGHT 2024 LESLIE ELMAN
DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS.COM

Day Maker Readable Art
The last comment needs to be approved.
3 replies
  1. Carol says:

    So enjoyed the fairy art and the wisdom of Charles Schulz and the Anyway Credo – kindness is its own reward. I’ll pass on a robotic vacuum. Though a part of my psyche thinks it’s a great idea – because vacuuming isn’t my favorite sport- the idea of having to study a manual to program said robot is more exhausting than actually plugging a vacuum cleaner into the wall and pressing GO.

    Great issue. Thanks!!!

  2. Marty says:

    Sept 18, 2024 I love every word of Daymaker and in my opinion the grand prize goes to the beautiful Art illustration. I can’t stop staring at each piece. So Daymaker asks, “WHAT DO YOU THINK MAKES SOMEONE A GOOD PERSON?”

    Frankly that’s one of Daymaker’s toughest questions I recall ever being asked.

    I THINK I could answer what makes a person the opposite easier: it would be like yelling and screaming and a noisy TV blaring 24-7. Children thrive on peace and gentle ways even in their correction it can be done with peace and kindness. So you ask, “Did you ever witness such a thing?” Yes, that is the way the 6 of us siblings were raised, not with perfect parents but with parents always expressing that in their daily behavior toward one another and to others. I’ve seen marriages turn around by one mate simply deciding to react with a gentle voice and kind gestures.

    • Carol says:

      So true, Marty. One thing that seems to be lacking today is good hands-on parenting. Parents don’t have to be perfect, just engaged.

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