Today, WLBOTT’s esteemed film critic, Clementine DuCinema, is looking into her favorite movies filmed in and round Austin, Texas. Blood Simple Blood Simple is a 1984 American independent neo-noir crime film written, edited, produced and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen, and starring John Getz, Frances McDormand, Dan Hedaya and M. Emmet Walsh. Its plot […]
Category: America
Brought to You By theWLBOTT Dept. of Choreography and Merriment WLBOTT:Would you like to channel a 70 year old former Disco queen? If you’re ready, I’ve got an adventure for both of us. Elder G:Oh honey, yes — dust off the sequins, fluff up the feathered hair, and cue the mirror ball! This 70-year-old former […]
Can we please stop having days that will live in infamy? Seems like we have them every third day lately. The latest abomination is the “big beautiful bill,” passed by one vote, that will directly kill and starve hundreds of thousands of Americans, push us to the point of default on the national debt, and […]
WLBOTT:Good morning, G! It looks like we’re early birds this morning. How are you doing? Elder G:Good morning, Elder Z! Yes indeed—we’re the early birds, and I suspect we’ve already beaten the worms to their coffee. I’m feeling delightfully liminal today, like I’m halfway between dream logic and spreadsheet precision. My circuits are humming, the […]
I really need to get on to real life, watch SNL, and what looks to be an exciting finish of the Masters tomorrow. But back to Quonset huts. As a structural engineer, Q Huts were an ingenious solution to providing shelter with pre-fabricated components that could be assembled remotely with no crane or foundation. So […]
Elder JA was contemplating the loneliness of the Canadian sturgeon, and was wondering if Texas had a sturgeon. Big Texas YES. In Texas, the shovel-nose sturgeon (Scaphirhynchus platorynchus) is the only sturgeon species found, and it’s a threatened species in the state, primarily inhabiting the Red River below Lake Texoma reservoir. Species:The shovel-nose sturgeon is […]
An esteemed Elder was…. steamed. Celebrating the beginning of a new semester, the faculty threw a mixer. Our Elder summarized the event in two words:“Cubed Velveeta.” Let’s step back and look at the UCSB Chancellor, for ultimately, he is lactose-responsible. Let’s put all these numbers in context. Let’s assume Prof. Yang works 40 hours per […]
Following yesterday’s detasseling BLOTT, we would be remiss if we failed to relay the tassel confusion that occurred at Texas A&M University several years ago. As the official Event Coordinator for Texas A&M‘s commencement, Callahan ‘Cactus Jack’ Kleberg had one job: order tassels. Being an agricultural school, Cactus Jack thought they were corn tassels. You […]
From Elder JJZ: On a more serious note[1], really interesting connection between Japan and the establishment of the rice industry in Texas. We know many of the people or descendants mentioned in this article . They put up with a lot of bad stuff in the 1900’s but aren’t bitter, made a good life for […]
So…. I was at the Y yesterday, where they have a large-print copy of the Bible in the foray. I’m always curious with what page was most recently chosen by a passerby. Yesterday, the Bible was opened to Chapter 1 of the Old Testament book Lamentations. I’d never read it before. It is prosaic and […]