Review Brooks & Crowley
June 2017
781-277-7321
www.brooksandcrowley.com
439 Washington Street Dedham, MA 02026
*Services Throughout Massachusetts
NO MORE PENCILS, NO MORE BOOKS The Surprising History of Summer Vacation
Parents of America, it is, for better or for worse, that time of year again. Yes, summer vacation is here. As movie theaters trot out their latest batch of explosions and public pools fill with an unsanitary clump of human bodies, some of us ponder the origins of summer break. Why do these unruly kids get a three-month break, while most of us sit toiling away at work? The commonly accepted and oft-quoted theory is that the seasonal school gap has its roots in our country’s agrarian past. We imagine rural kids out of the schoolhouse and into the fields, planting rows of crops in the summer sun. But the fact is, the agrarian calendar has little to do with your kids’ inevitable summer boredom. Back in the day, children in agricultural areas were most needed for planting in the spring and harvesting in the fall. The school year reflected that and was comprised of a short winter term and a short summer term. While schools in urban areas had different schedules, summer was always included. The school year averaged 240 days a year, as opposed to the modern 180. However, lessons weren’t mandatory, and before air conditioning was an option, school buildings would often become brutally hot. Kids would skip out to avoid the untenable temperatures, and wealthier families would flee the city for cooler climes. The poor attendance during the summer months got some pundits wondering: Was such a long school calendar worthwhile? Not only that, but physicians began to speculate about the repercussions of so many days spent indoors behind a desk.
This, coupled with a push by school reformers to standardize the school schedule, caused officials to gradually shorten the school year, eventually doing away with the summer quarter altogether. Today, some people wonder whether the three months of no school are a benefit or a burden. Researchers have shown that a “summer slide” occurs during the sweltering months. When students return to school in late August, they often have lost the equivalent of an entire month of learning. For these reasons and others, several nonprofit organizations campaign each year for
a restructuring of the calendar, and some private schools remain open in the summer.
Whatever the case may be, the kids aren’t worried. They’re too busy getting hyped up on sunlight, mentally mapping out their summer plans, and composing lists of video games to conquer. As the song goes, “School’s out for summer,” and there’s no turning back. – Steve Brooks
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Work Out on the Road The No-Equipment Workout
For advanced athletes, summer brings the opportunity to add some extra “play hard” to your “work-hard- play-hard” routine. To the most dedicated of gym buffs, the thought of laying around on a beach for a week during vacation sounds absurd. So what should you do when you have to leave your regularly scheduled workouts and your gym membership at home? Luckily, there’s a workout for you — it’s called the Sore Legs, No Equipment Workout. The Sore Legs, No Equipment Workout, also known as the Hotel RoomWorkout, was created by Bobby Maximus, author of “Maximus Body” and a regular contributor to Men’s Health. While this workout is especially beneficial for endurance and strength athletes, anyone up a creek without a paddle, or rather, in a hotel room without gym access, will find this workout helpful.
Maximus’ Sore Legs, No Equipment Workout involves a series of repeated lunges and wall-sits to bulletproof your lower body. Not only will this give you more stamina on a long run or ride, but you’ll also get rid of aches and pains. Better yet, if you don’t have any lower body issues related to running now, you’ll prevent issues down the road by using this workout. Most strength athletes find themselves in a rut because they don’t do enough reps. This workout is designed to solve that problem. This workout is not only designed to increase your lower body strength and harden your body, but to challenge you mentally as well.
followed by a 30-second wall-sit. Then, 38 alternating lunges, followed by another 30-second wall-sit. You reduce the number of alternating lunges by two every time and end each rep with a 30-second wall-sit until you are down to two alternating lunges followed by a 30-second wall-sit. To get the most out of this workout, it’s recommended that you make it all the way through without resting. Most likely, you’ll find that a few reps into the Sore Legs, No Equipment Workout, your legs will be just that — sore. Beyond that, this workout is a great way to add variety into your normal workouts and keep you at your strongest during summer vacations and work trips.
In essence, the Sore Legs, No Equipment Workout involves 40 alternating bodyweight lunges,
Slow and Steady Wins the Race
Ignore Insurance Company Offers of Quick Settlement
You’ve been in an accident, and now an insurance company is being very friendly to you. They want to make sure you’re “taken care of,” and they’d like to settle quickly, without putting you through the “expense of hiring an attorney” or the difficulties of court. They’d rather just send you a check.
Sometimes they’ll even send a check in the mail, totally unsolicited. That check will have the words “Full and Final Offer” printed on it. If you cash it, your claim is over , which is exactly what the insurance company wants. They’re hoping you need the money enough to accept a lowball offer, or are uninformed and will fall for their cheap trick. No matter what, I guarantee that any quick payment offer the insurance company makes will be worth a fraction of the true worth of your claim. You don’t need to understand the entire claims and insurance process just because you’ve been in accident, but you do need to understand that the insurance company will not act in your best interest. Just as you cannot trust the doctors they order you to visit to be fair and impartial, you also cannot trust that they will offer you a quick settlement that is close to what you deserve. If you get that check in the mail, come visit us before you visit the bank!
Is that in your best interest?
Usually, the answer is no. Insurance adjusters are trained and experienced to handle all kinds of claims, and they’re very good at lowballing people who need money and might not know the importance of hiring an attorney. Of course, they’d be happy to send you a check — I’ve talked to adjusters who told me they’d gotten people to accept less than $1,000 for injuries worth 10 times that!
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A Time for Every Purpose Michael Breus’ ‘The Power of When’
time for you. Much of this book is dedicated to helping you learn your own habits and preferences, so you can customize your perfect time routine according to what will work in your own life. Breus is a scientist first, and his findings are based on hard evidence. His advice on when to wake up, for example, involves the use of a sleep monitor and is based on our internal biological clocks, which were, for thousands of years, activated by the sunrise. Humans were slowly brought into stage 1 or 2 sleep by the gentle increase of light. That method is less taxing on our systems and leaves us feeling more awake when we rise. This book covers everything, from learning something new or drinking coffee to meditating or using the restroom. Whether you want to read a book at the optimum time, or change your sleep schedule, “The Power of When” is a must-read.
You know you’re supposed to eat right, exercise every day, and sleep 8 hours each night. You might even
have a routine down from when the alarm goes off to when your head hits the pillow. But did you know there’s actually a perfect time to do each thing every day? That’s the thesis of “The Power of When,” a new time-management book by Dr. Michael Breus. Breus, a clinical psychologist who specializes in sleep disorders, realized that for some of his patients the time they went to sleep was actually more important than the amount of sleep they got. By changing when they crashed, they changed how effective that sleep was. “I wondered, ‘What else could this work for?’” Breus says. That wonder led him to look into what else could be timed for maximum efficiency. And the more he researched, the more he discovered. “Contrary to what you might have heard, there is a perfect time to do everything,” Breus writes. From that cup of coffee and your daily workout to when you watch TV, there’s a time for every activity in your day. And by a “perfect time,” Dr. Breus means a perfect
Laugh Out Loud
Dad’s Whiskey Burger
Celebrate Dad all month long with a burger he’s sure to love!
Ingredients
• • • • •
4 (6–6 ½ ounce) hamburger patties
•
2 large Vidalia onions, peeled, cut in half, and thinly sliced
¼ cup whiskey
• • • •
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 garlic cloves, chopped
2 tablespoons reserved bacon fat
4 strips bacon
1 teaspoon salt
8 thick slices American cheese
4 hamburger buns
1. Cook bacon until crisp. Remove and cool. Reserve 2 tablespoons bacon fat. 2. In a large skillet, combine olive Instructions
15 minutes, then flip and marinate another 15 minutes. 4. Grill burgers over medium-high heat until cooked to desired doneness. 5. Add two slices of cheese to each burger in the last minute of grilling. 6. Put hamburgers on buns, then
oil and bacon fat, then add onions. Cook over low heat. Add salt and turn onions often for 30–40 minutes until caramelized.
3. Place whiskey and chopped
top with a large spoonful of caramelized onions. Top with bacon.
garlic in a shallow dish and add hamburger patties. Marinate for
Recipe inspired by Mantitlement.com.
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Inside This Issue
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No More Pencils, No More Books
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Work Out on the Road
The Quick- Settlement Trap
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Michael Breus’ ‘ The Power of When’ Dad’s Whiskey Burger
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June Events
Goings On Around Town June Events
What are your plans this month? If you need some inspiration, check out these events!
Rounding out the festival schedule for June is the Boston Jerkfest , our annual celebration of Caribbean food. Newly expanded to two days — June 13 and 24 — this incredibly popular event features Jamaican music, multiple restaurant locations, and, of course,
spice and jerk dishes. Although jerk is based on one of the hottest peppers in the world, jerk chefs know how to tone it down, creating a variety of plates for every palate, from mild to “holy moly!”
The awesome Dragon Boat Festival takes place up and down the Charles River on June 10 and 11. Although the boat races commemorating ancient Chinese poet Qu Yuan are the centerpiece of this two-day event, there will also be lots of Asian cuisine, as well as music and other festivities, on the Cambridge side of the river. Bring the kids to this family-friendly event and don’t forget to stick around for the taiko drums! Around the same time, you can head on over to the Boston Early Music Festival , which takes place from June 11 to 18. During that seven-day period, there will be 18 concerts, all worth checking out. “Early” music means anything from the Middle Ages and Renaissance — mostly pre-1700. You’ll be surprised at how enjoyable this festival is, especially if you come by on Family Day on June 17 at the downtown Courtyard Marriott. The kids will absorb some history as they learn to dance like it’s 1699 and participate in a big scavenger hunt.
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