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Adventures of the Elders Food Ukraine

Pre-Perogy Prep: Precautions

WLBOTT’s Ladle & Lube Test Kitchen is bubbling over with excitement! In a few days Elder JimZim will be visiting WLBOTT HQ. After a perfunctory review of our financials (we have none), and a quick ISO/OSHA compliance check, we will be making Ukrainian varenyky (also known as perogies). There will be a great deal of […]

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Austria Banality of Evil Brotherhood/Sisterhood Heros Heros - NOT Movies

Obedience without Justice is Tyranny

The story of Sisters Bernadette, Regina, and Rita Yesterday morning The Guardian brought us a wonderful story – some feisty nuns who only want to continue living the life they’ve spent their entire lives cultivating. But there’s a lot more to the story (see the Guardian’s full article) – the Church hierarchy cut off their […]

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Adventures of the Elders Maryland Nature

Chicken of the Woods

[Today we have a guest blott from Elder JimZim] Gentle People – I was hiking in a very nice park in Maryland today and came across these beautiful mushrooms growing out of a decaying log. In addition to the bright color, they had interesting geometric patterns on them. Since mushrooms grow on moist, organically rich […]

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Animal Kingdom Iceland

Auk, and the Children of Auk

DescriptionAuks are superficially similar to penguins, having black-and-white colours, upright posture, and some of their habits. Nevertheless, they are not closely related to penguins, but rather are believed to be an example of moderate convergent evolution. Auks are monomorphic (males and females are similar in appearance). Although not to the extent of penguins, auks have […]

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History North America Wyoming

The Bison

Writing about the North American prairie in yesterday’s blott got us thinking about the American bison. It is in many ways a sad story, filled with cruelty, hubris and the genocidal fervor of American hegemony. But it is also a story of hope. The WLBOTT research team first needed to correct our own misconception: the […]

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Alberta Texas

Prairies, Princesses, and Ghost Chickens

Elder JA has sparked an interesting rabbit hole. Our research team was curious if Edmonton, CA was considered a prairie. This led the research team to investigate the geography of WLBOTT HQ. The approximate elevation of WLBOTT HQ is 800′. IH35 runs from Mexico to Canada, and connects Laredo, San Antonio, Austin, Dallas/Ft. Worth, and […]

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Brotherhood/Sisterhood China Gods, Goddesses, and Mythical Heros Taiwan

Our Lady of the Eastern Harbors

Across cultures, harbors have always been liminal spaces – between safety and peril, home and the vast unknown. Many traditions placed protective figures at the edge of the water, blessing or watching over departing sailors. Mazu From Elder G: Mazu is often depicted in art and statues wearing red robes, which legend says she wore […]

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Meaning of Life Outer Space

Billion Year Old Carbon (part 2)

We return to Elder JimZim’s question: What are we? Then a thought occurred to me. Let me quote one of my favorite authors, Neil Stephenson, from one of my favorite books, Cryptonomicon: The room contains a few dozen living human bodies, each one a big sack of guts and fluids so highly compressed that it […]

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Brotherhood/Sisterhood Movies New York

“Our Ordeal is Worth It!”

We find it fascinating how many of the WLBOTT communal ideals intersect with The Shakers. Radical equality between the genders and the races. Communal living. Compassion and a joy for life. This morning the editorial staff was pleasantly surprised to find a review of a new movie in The Guardian. The movie, The Testament of […]

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Adventures of the Elders Food Texas Tunisia

Harissa

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 […]