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NEWS FROM SUMO SAM August 2020 QuickSumoPestControl.com
It’s International Forgiveness Day on Aug. 4, and since we talked about Lucas Food Mart in our last newsletter, I thought I’d share another story from my teenage years. It’s overwhelming how angry theft can make us, but overcoming that rage can encourage forgiveness and compassion. I experienced this obstacle when I was cheated out of $2,000 as a teenager. One summer at Lucas Food Mart, an old man came in and told me that he operated a fireworks stand every summer. He said I’d get a payout of nearly $2,000 if I sold enough fireworks, and he asked me if I’d be interested in working for him. He said I could even hire my friends to help me. The only catch? I had to stay in a trailer for two weeks, open the stand at 8 a.m., and close it at 9 p.m. Teenage me couldn’t agree any faster. I quickly told my boss, Abraham, that I’d be taking the opportunity, and he held my job for me so I could return to the gas station afterward. A few decades ago, $2,000 was a very substantial amount of money for a teenager, so I couldn’t pass up the opportunity. Now, let me explain exactly when these two weeks took place. They started at the end of June in Texas. At that point, it was up to 100 degrees F at night. Not only was it incredibly hot, but my trailer also didn’t have any air conditioning. Plus, being roadside meant the customers kept coming, so I never left the stand. It was a lot of work to keep up with. Then, on July 3, we had our absolute busiest day. I hired four of my friends to help me, even my girlfriend (now my wife). Despite the heat, we had a blast, and we even had a friendly competition with another fireworks stand that was right across the street. We put up a sign that read, “Cheapest Fireworks On This Side Of The Street!” HOW FORGIVENESS CHANGED MY LIFE After I Was Cheated Out of $2,000
Quite honestly, we probably had the more expensive fireworks, but we weren’t falsely advertising. There weren’t any other stands on our side!
On July 4, I went to church in the morning and didn’t work. My brother and I loaded the spare inventory into the trailer and returned it to the warehouse. The old man added up all the money we received and — wouldn’t you know? — there was a “shortfall” of cash. I ended up getting a little bit of money, but it wasn’t anywhere close to what I was promised, and there was no legal recourse to get that money. I paid my friends out of pocket, lost income at Lucas Food Mart, and, after sweating for two weeks in the summer and having nothing to show for it (and adding angry teenage hormones), I was absolutely miserable . For weeks, I was very upset and couldn’t let it go. Then, one day, I had a thought: Read the Scriptures. When I opened up my Book of Mormon randomly to a page, I found my eyes on a verse. It was 3 Nephi 12:44: "But behold I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them who despitefully use you and persecute you." I won’t tell you that forgiveness and peace came instantly, but I found myself wanting to pray for the guy who robbed me. I prayed, and, over the next couple of days, I calmed down quite a bit. I still felt angry when I thought about it, but then I’d let it go. That’s been an important lesson in my life: letting things go. Anger could’ve made me a bitter person, but it didn’t. As a father and a husband, practicing forgiveness and having a soft heart are incredibly important to me. Ultimately, forgiving others doesn’t just have an impact on those who have wronged us — it also impacts us.
Have a lovely August, friends.
Josh Hopewell
“It was 3 Nephi 12:44: 'But behold I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them who despitefully use you and persecute you.'"
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PRIVATE WOJTEK, HEROIC BROWN BEAR OF WWII
Many brave soldiers answered the call to bear arms during WWII, but one Polish artillery supply company took things a step further and armed a bear. That’s right — among the countless animal heroes of WWII was a full-grown brown bear from the mountains of Northern Iran named Wojtek. Wojtek first joined the Polish soldiers as a cub. A young Iranian boy found him after a hunter most likely shot his mother. Then, when a group of Polish prisoners of war, recently released from Soviet gulags to join the Allied forces, passed through the town where the boy and the bear cub lived, they traded some of their rations for the cub and took him with them. The soldiers loved the cub and named him Wojtek, which means “happy warrior” in Polish. They nursed him with condensed milk from a vodka bottle and fed him some of their limited rations. Over time, the bear grew to be 6 feet tall and over 400 pounds, but because he had grown up around humans, he was a gentle giant. He learned several mannerisms from his human friends and even took a liking to beer and cigarettes. For the many soldiers who had lost or were separated from their families, Wojtek was a welcome boost to morale. When the soldiers reached the coast of Egypt, where they were to embark by boat to Italy, British soldiers wouldn’t let Wojtek on board because he wasn’t a soldier. So naturally, the Polish soldiers gave Wojtek a service number, and he officially became a private in their company, complete with a rank and a paybook.
Private Wojtek’s moment of fame came when his company fought in the Battle of Monte Cassino. The bear saw his human counterparts carrying
crates of artillery shells, and he began mirroring their actions. Throughout the entire battle, he calmly carried crates of ammo, which would have required four men to lift, to his comrades. In honor of Wojtek’s service during the battle, the company changed its emblem to an image of a bear carrying an artillery shell, and Wojtek was promoted to the rank of corporal. After the war, Wojtek was moved to a zoo in Edinburgh, Scotland, where he lived until he was 21 years old. There is now a bronze statue of Wojtek in Edinburgh’s West Princes Street Gardens, ensuring that this brave bear will not be forgotten.
TRY THESE ACTIVITIES TO KEEP THEM SOCIAL WORRIED ABOUT YOUR CHILDREN’S SOCIAL LIFE?
DANCE TOGETHER. Free apps like GoNoodle have 3–5-minute dance routines that your kids can share with their friends! Dancing over Zoom or Skype works perfectly too. JOIN AN ART CLASS. If your kids and their friends are especially creative, why not sign them up for an art class? Not only is it a wonderful bonding experience, but they can also develop their artistic skills. HAVE ONE-ON-ONE TIME WITH EACH OF YOUR CHILDREN. Isolating together provides a chance for family members to connect. These relationships help children find “support [for] their social-emotional development and strengthen their social-emotional skills,” says Melissa Brymer, director of the Terrorism and Disaster Program at UCLA-Duke University National Center for Child Traumatic Stress in Los Angeles. Social skills are useful for your children’s entire lives. Adults can play a big role in supporting their children while keeping an open conversation about their social and emotional needs. Whether school is starting up for your little ones or if their education is being put on hold a little longer, we wish you and your family the best of luck!
Have your children remained social during the lockdown or have they been more closed off lately? The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has acknowledged that, while it’s important to keep your family safe from COVID-19, social distancing can be stressful for children. Not all
children respond to stress in the same way, but common behavioral changes include
worrying excessively or feeling sad, unhealthy eating or sleeping habits, and having trouble focusing or paying attention. They might even lose interest in socializing, so here are some ideas for getting them excited again. SET UP SAFE GET-TOGETHERS. Walking, hiking, playing soccer, and other outdoor activities with friends are often a lot more fun than going it alone, even as a kid. These activities are perfectly safe from a distance — just make sure your kids disinfect their hands in case of contact.
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B ack in May, amid all of the news about the pandemic and stormy politics, “murder hornets” were found for the first time in Washington. “Murder hornet” is a term coined by Japanese researcher Junichi Takahashi “to reflect the insect’s aggressive hunting of bees,” reports National Geographic. The hornets often pick up honeybees to feed to their young, and their stings (when struck several times) are strong enough to kill a human. You could say, during our bravest moments of 2020, we might’ve agreed with one Twitter user: “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself and ‘murder hornets.’” WAIT … WHAT HAPPENED TO ‘MURDER HORNETS’?
Now, it’s August. The pandemic is still here, but what happened to the hornets?
This isn’t actually the Asian giant hornet’s first time on American soil. A few lone sightings happened in 2019 near a hummingbird feeder, and in 2016, an entire hornet nest was found inside an international package.
An entomologist named Allan Smith-Pardo was charged
RESTAURANT-STYLE FETTUCCINE ALFREDO
with identifying the suspicious wasps. He concluded that the package was likely “a gourmet treat or even a health aid,” since the “collected adults, pupae, and larvae were soaked in liquor.” The “hornet liquor” was likely designed to help ease arthritis pain.
Cooking brings people closer together every day. With a fettuccine alfredo technique so simple and delicious, you and your loved ones will enjoy it every step of the way.
INGREDIENTS
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Salt
1 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano Freshly ground pepper, to taste Fresh parsley, chopped, to taste
Luckily, today’s “invasion” is far from an invasion we should worry about.
2 tbsp butter
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1 clove of garlic, finely chopped 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
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“The Asian giant hornet poses very little risk to humans, especially given that they are believed to be in extremely low numbers and only in Washington State and British Columbia,” says Karla Salp, the public engagement specialist at the Washington State Department of Agriculture. Since the original finding, only a couple more hornets have been found.
1 large egg yolk
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1 lb fresh fettuccine
1 lemon wedge
DIRECTIONS
1. In a large pot, bring 6 quarts of generously salted water to a boil. 2. In a large, deep skillet, while the water heats, melt butter over medium-high heat. Add garlic and sauté until fragrant and sizzling (about 2 minutes). 3. In a bowl, whisk heavy cream and egg yolk until blended and pour into garlic butter. 4. Reduce heat to medium-low. Stir until hot, not boiling. Keep warm on low heat. 5. In the large pot, cook pasta until al dente. (The pasta will float once it’s done.) Reserve about 1/2 cup pasta water and drain pasta. Pour hot pasta into cream mixture and toss to coat on low heat. 6. Add Parmigiano-Reggiano and keep tossing gently until cream is mostly absorbed. If the sauce is absorbed too much, toss with extra pasta water. Season with salt and pepper to taste. 7. Serve with parsley and a squeeze of lemon.
While researchers theorize that there are queens somewhere out there, they’re most likely nowhere near Texas. Enjoy your hikes, “murder hornet”-free!
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279 Highview Lane, Anna, TX 75409 | 214-334-1466 | quicksumopestcontrol.com
1 How Forgiveness Changed My Life 2 Private Wojtek, Heroic Brown Bear of WWII 4 Ideas to Keep Kids Social 3 Wait … What Happened to ‘Murder Hornets’? Restaurant-Style Fettuccine Alfredo 4 Meet the Man Who Stole the ‘Mona Lisa’ INSIDE
THE MOST FAMOUS ART HEIST YOU’VE NEVER HEARD OF Meet the Man Who Stole the ‘Mona Lisa’
One hundred and nine years ago this month, one man — or was it three? — fled
Louvre’s supply closets, lying in wait to steal the portrait. In his documentary about the theft, director Joe Medeiros claims Peruggia acted alone, driven by an obsession with the work and a dream of returning the painting to Italy. Either way, we know that Peruggia successfully spirited the painting back to his one-bedroom apartment. There it lay concealed in a false-bottomed trunk for more than two years. This period of mysterious absence (during which police grilled and dismissed Peruggia as a suspect in favor of J.P. Morgan, Pablo Picasso, and playwright Guillaume Apollinaire) is what made the “Mona Lisa” world famous. Peruggia was eventually caught attempting to sell the painting in Italy. He pleaded guilty and spent eight months in jail. After his release, he enlisted in the Italian army to fight in World War I, surviving the war only to die of a heart attack on his 44th birthday. Though Peruggia married after the war, some suspect that the true love of his life was the “Mona Lisa” herself. In a CNN article, author and art history professor Noah Charney speculates that over his two years with her, Peruggia developed romantic feelings for the portrait. Perhaps he fell victim to a kind of “reverse Stockholm syndrome,” Charney suggests, the captor falling in love with his hostage. “In this case,” he says, “the hostage was a work of art.”
from the Louvre Museum in Paris, carrying what would quickly become the world’s most famous painting: Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa.” Historical accounts of the theft agree only on who was the ringleader: 30-year- old Louvre handyman Vincenzo Peruggia. He was a house painter, an immigrant, the bearer of a glorious Monopoly Man mustache, and a vehement Italian patriot. At some point on the morning of Aug. 21, 1911, Peruggia lifted the glass case he himself had constructed to house the “Mona Lisa” and smuggled the painting from the building.
Some versions of the story say Peruggia was assisted by two brothers, fellow Italian handymen Vincenzo and Michele Lancelotti. NPR reports the trio spent the night preceding the theft huddled in one of the
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