Happiness is the tree that made America great: The Eastern White Pine

 It's almost an hour long, but it's the fabulous but true story you probably never heard and must see.

Happiness is Not Chick'n Bouillon Cubes

I use this stuff to rev-up my chicken stock/soup, which I do make from the carcass of the leftover chicken. It also works great mixed with extra virgin olive oil made into a paste for rubbing the inside and outside of the roasting chicken before placing in the oven.

Happiness is having a vigorous interior life

(Scarecrow)

I could wile away the hours

Conferrin' with the flowers

Consultin' with the rain

And my head I'd be scratchin'

While my thoughts were busy hatchin'

If I only had a brain

I'd unravel any riddle

For any individ'le

In trouble or in pain

(Dorothy)

With the thoughts you'd be thinkin'

You could be another Lincoln

If you only had a brain

(Scarecrow)

Oh, I would tell you why

The ocean's near the shore

I could think of things I never thunk before

And then I'd sit and think some more

I would not be just a nuffin'

My head all full of stuffin'

My heart all full of pain

I would dance and be merry

Life would be a ding-a-derry

If I only had a brain

Happiness is overcoming adversity

Perhaps human nature meets few more sweetly relishing and cleanly joys, than those that derive from successful trials.

-- Joseph Glanvill (1636-1680)

Happiness is binge-listening to Ennio Morricone on a sunny Easter Sunday, who passed away July 6, 2020 with the comfort of his faith

 

Happiness is a sound egg

This is also evidenced in eggs, whereof the sound ones sink, and such as are addled swim; as do also those that are termed hypanemiae, or wind-eggs.

-- Sir Thomas Browne (1605-1682), Pseudodoxia Epidemica: Of Swimming, and Floating

Happiness to some people is eating a good head cheese, to others it's watching the laborious process of making one done so well

 

Happiness is knowing how to double your crop

Gather the lowest, and leaving the top,

Shall teach thee a trick for to double thy crop.

-- Thomas Tusser

Happiness is Wright Hickory Smoked Thick Cut Bacon baked in the oven

 

I can't believe I've never prepared this bacon before by baking it in the oven as it suggests on the package. Tonight was the first time, and I'll never go back to frying it in the pan again.

It was simply outstanding, the best bacon I've ever had.

It made the pasta carbonara just that much more special for this particular Friday night's "breakfast".

Instead of a foil lined baking sheet, I used my deep stainless steel roasters to do the job. No splatter at all inside the oven. Turn the bacon every 10 minutes until you get the doneness you prefer. Mine took about 46 minutes total. The fat on the bacon turned out airy like a pork rind.

What a treat.

Happy is the man who has lived so well today, he needs not another

Happy the man, and happy he alone,

He who can call to-day his own:

He who secure within can say,

To-morrow do thy worst, for I have liv'd to-day.

-- John Dryden

Happiness is building a world of your own in the time of COVID

 You can do it! It's easy if you try.

Happiness is shiny steel and polished wood

Happiness is knowing Joe Biden has two shotguns

 

Happiness is birds of little throats, and short

Birds that are most canorous,

and whose notes we most commend,

are of little throats, and short.

-- Sir Thomas Browne, Enquiries into Common and Vulgar Errors, 1646

Happiness is binge watching British chef Marco Pierre White on YouTube on a wintry Sunday

 

Happiness is mnemonic calendar verse which actually rhymes

30 days hath September

April, June, and November.

31 the others date,

Excepting February 28.

But in a leap year we divine

February, 29.

or

Thirty days hath September,

April, June and November.

When short February's done,

All the rest have 31.

or

    Thirty days hath September,

    April, June, and November;

    Thirty-one the others date,

    Excepting February, twenty-eight;

    But in leap year we assign

    February, twenty-nine.

The earliest known example of the poem dates to approximately 1425 AD:

Thirty days hath November,

April, June, and September.

Of 28 is but one

And all the remnant 30 and 1. 

Happy New Year: It's Green, Green they say

 

Happiness is a headlamp for aging eyes

 The warm light of this headlamp, as opposed to the white light of so many comparable LEDs, is very natural. I get so much more done so quickly wearing this in the winter mornings and evenings. A wonderful gift!

Happiness is a very young John Anderson, singing "1959" released in November 1980

Happiness is Johnny Horton singing 1960's North to Alaska with a Dwight Yoakam cover