Categories
Agriculture Clementine DuCinema Music russia

Boy Meets Tractor: The WLBOTT Film Festival

WLBOTT film critic Clemetine DuCinema, starting just yesterday, has already made a big impact on the film world. She has announced the first WLBOTT Annual Film Festival. This year’s theme: Boy Meets Tractor – A Celebration of Soviet Cinema. The Program Steel Hearts and Sunflowers (1954) He swore allegiance to the state… but also to […]

Categories
Argentina Collapse of Democracy/Civilization/etc. Current Events Elder M History

Day of Remembrance for Truth and Justice

In Argentina, today is the national holiday “Día de la Memoria por la Verdad y la Justicia” or “Day of Remembrance for Truth and Justice”. It is a solemn holiday that commemorates the fall of the democratic government on March 24, 1976 to the military dictatorship that ruled until 1983. You can read more about […]

Categories
Agriculture Fashion Scholarship/Erudition Texas

Troubling Tassel Turmoil

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 […]

Categories
Agriculture Food History Japan Texas The Lowcountry

Texas Rice and the Influence of Japanese Immigrants

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 […]

Categories
ENGin Food Ukraine

Bread Spread, Ukrainian Style (3/3)

We continue our look at Bread Spreads, focusing on Salo (Ukraine’s national dish). Again, thanks to Elder KM for the suggestion. al Jazeera has a nice introduction to his pork product: Museum of Salo Apparently the Salo Museum is a popular destination for bachelorette parties. A Life of Luxury Salo – pig fat – has […]

Categories
ENGin Food Ukraine

Bread Spread, Ukrainian Style (2/3)

We continue our look at Bread Spreads, focusing on Ikra (zucchini/bell pepper/eggplant spread). Again, thanks to Elder KM for the suggestion. To help my fellow central Texans relate, Ikra is a cross between Texas Caviar and Salsa. This recipe is inspired by the traditional dish Ikra, or “eggplant caviar,” a Russian and Ukrainian staple. Ikra […]

Categories
ENGin Food Ukraine

Bread Spread, Ukrainian Style (1/3)

Elder KM provided the Ukrainian perspective on bread spreads…. Forshmak From the Jewish Food Society: You can read about the fascinating family history of Anna and her mother Rhoda here. She also shares her family recipes on this site. Our recipe for Forshmak comes from the web site Flavors of Diaspora, based partly on the […]

Categories
Brotherhood/Sisterhood China Food Fun and Games

Wonton Disregard for Reality (2/2)

In the previous BLOTT, we reviewed Elder X’s claim that WLBOTT had a wanton disregard for reality. It should be noted that Elder X is from Canada. Because of the language barrier that exists between Canada and the United States, we’re not sure of Elder X meant wanton or wonton. First, we had to educate […]

Categories
Adventures of the Elders Argentina Elder M Existential Angst Uncategorized

Excuse me, where’s the bathroom? Part 1

As a matter of practicality, one of the first things you learn when you’re in a foreign country is how to ask where the bathroom is. Eventually, you learn the cultural conventions — such as, in Argentina, the bathroom is almost always one floor up or one floor down from the main level. (There’s a […]

Categories
Food Vietnam WLBOTT Corporate

Pho the Love of God

Pho, the delicious Vietnamese soup, is always on the menu at the WLBOTT Test Kitchen and Cafetorium: The Ladle & Lube. Pho-rcaster: Fortunes and Pho In our tireless search to increase shareholder value, we will be opening a pho restaurant that includes certified, twine-based fortune telling. We are calling it Pho-rcaster. For a small fee, […]