Categories
Heros Massachusetts Scholarship/Erudition Will there be a buffet?

Saints and Strangers: The Mayflower Voyage

Q: If April showers bring May flowers, what do May flowers bring?A: Pilgrims As we were crafting the tale of Babusia Bott, the first Bott to come to America, we weren’t able to find much (i.e. any) information about her twine-constructed sailing vessels (because it’s not real). However, we can assume that her voyage had […]

Categories
Adventures of the Elders Domestic Tranquility Food Scholarship/Erudition

Smellology – The Elders take a Whiff

The sense of smell, or olfaction, is the special sense through which smells (or odors) are perceived. The sense of smell has many functions, including detecting desirable foods, hazards, and pheromones, and plays a role in taste. In humans, it occurs when an odor binds to a receptor within the nasal cavity, transmitting a signal […]

Categories
Adventures of the Elders Book Club Scholarship/Erudition

WLBOTT Re-Reading List (part I of XVII)

[big thanks to UC#3 and all the Elders for today’s BLOTT. This series will span several days.] Elder KM Just the idea that there is a summary of The Subtle Art of Not Giving A #!@% for people who are too busy to read the unabridged version, says something about America. I’m not sure what […]

Categories
ENGin Life Hacks Meaning of Life Scholarship/Erudition The land, the people, the culture

Idioms, Ducks, Chickens, and the Impossibility of the English Language

Idioms are a colorful way of getting a point across. Often they reflect the culture, geography, folk lore, values, and sense of humor of the people who speak the language. A little background…. An idiom is a phrase or expression that usually presents a figurative, non-literal meaning attached to the phrase. Some phrases which become […]

Categories
Adventures of the Elders France Scholarship/Erudition TechnoBLOTT

Pont du Gard

Gentle Blotters– another site we need to add to our tour list is Pont du Gard. Magnificent arch structure used as an aqueduct near Nimes France. My spousal unit and I visited circa 1994. At that time, you could park in a lot, walk up a bunch of stairs and then physically walk through the […]

Categories
Italy Scholarship/Erudition

Jupiter, Io, and the Speed of Light

Ole Rømer first demonstrated in 1676 that light does not travel instantaneously by studying the apparent motion of Jupiter’s moon Io. The speed of light in vacuum, commonly denoted c, is a universal physical constant that is exactly equal to 299,792,458 meters per second. It is exact because, by a 1983 international agreement, a meter […]

Categories
Curated Absurdity Food Scholarship/Erudition

Encyclical Letter of Pope Spudicus XIII

Gents – I need to publicly reveal my research to the Elders. UC#3 can back me up on this since he is conversant in ancient languages, relics and coins. March 15 has incorrectly been designated as the ‘Ides of March’. But due to poor scholarship, conspiracies by the Anti-Popes of Avignon and bad wine, March […]

Categories
India Meaning of Life Movies Scholarship/Erudition

The Sacred is the Profane

As part of his studies, UC#2 was reading The Sacred Is the Profane: The Political Nature of “Religion” by William Arnal and Russell T. McCutcheon “This hard-hitting collection overturns common ideas about religion. Arnal and McCutcheon argue that ‘religion’ has no independent existence but is rather the unstable creation of political and economic forces. These […]

Categories
Fine Arts Food Meaning of Life Scholarship/Erudition

Lost Gift of the Maji

[Today we are treated to a BLOTT by Elders UC#3, UC#1, and UC#1-SU] UC#3 (from an undisclosed location in HousTex) As is little known but I am sure UC#2 [staff spiritual advisor] will discover during his academic pursuits, in addition to gold, frankincense and myrrh, the Maji also brought jalapeño cheese biscuits to the Blessed […]

Categories
Scholarship/Erudition WLBOTT Corporate

WLBOTT New-Speak

We present a convenient guide to WLBOTT New-Speak.