Elder JimZim is WLBOTT’s muse-du jour. Lastly, I wrote a Harissa haiku when I was out of harissa: Harissa – how I miss yaA staining red pasteTo spread on shawarma pita Droubi’s Elder JimZim was referring to Droubi’s, at 7333 Hillcroft Street, in Houston. You can see a nice video of the owners in this […]
Enough with the Bad Guys. Let’s Talk About the Good Guys. Q: How Cool is HEB?A: Very Cool. HEB is a privately held company that generously provides assistance following natural disasters, including the recent floods in the Texas hill country.. H-E-B is a Texas-based supermarket chain with over 400 stores in Texas and Mexico. It’s […]
When senseless tragedy occurs, we want someone to blame, some to take responsibility…. somewhere to focus and direct our anger. From Bruised Orange (Chain of Sorrows) by John PrineFor a heart stained in anger grows weak and grows bitterYou’ll become your own prisoner as you watch yourself sit thereWrapped up in a trap of your […]
Over the weekend, devastating floods sped through central Texas, shattering many lives. The rainfall was almost unimaginable. “Footage captured by Gavin Walston on location.” Mr. Walston took an almost 40-minute video of the flood waters ripping through the small town of Comfort, Texas. We captured a series of stills, starting with an almost dry river […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]