Monday, July 14, 2025

Book Review: Wild Chocolate

From Wild Chocolate, by Rowan Jacobsen:

Wild Chocolate

Amazon


"Cacao is ridiculously rich. Coffee beans have about 12 percent fat. Whipping cream has 35 percent. Cacao beans have 55 percent, and these Criollo beans top out around 60. They are butter bombs. That makes them extra delicious, and it also helps the chocolate to defy gravity in the right hands."

Sunday, July 13, 2025

POTD: Stacked Boxes

"Containers at rest.
Order pressed against the sky.
Stacked intentions wait."

— h/t ChatGPT

From 2024 09 10 Ljubljana

Today's photo-of-the-day is from Ljubljana, Slovenia. It shows stacked shipping containers at the port where our cruise ship docked. No story here, just a captivating image of geometric regularity imposed by humans on a natural landscape.

Saturday, July 12, 2025

POTD: Beyond Net Zero in Slovenia

"One small capital
turns a climate tale around —
Slovenian green."


— h/t ChatGPT
From 2024 09 10 Ljubljana

Today's photo-of-the-day is from Ljubljana, "the capital and largest city of Slovenia, located along a trade route between the northern Adriatic Sea and the Danube region, inhabited since prehistoric times. It is the country's cultural, educational, economic, political and administrative center." It's also progressive regarding its movement away from fossil fuels, judging by these snapshots from around town.

More photos after the jump.

Friday, July 11, 2025

POTD: Sea Organ

"The tides softly play
Adriatic Sea music,
symphonies of waves."


— h/t ChatGPT
From 2024 09 09 Zadar

Today's photo-of-the-day is from Zadar, Croatia. It shows that city's Sea Organ, "an architectural sound art object located in Zadar, Croatia and an experimental musical instrument, which plays music by way of sea waves and tubes located underneath a set of large marble steps...The waves interact with the organ and create somewhat random but harmonic sounds."

More photos after the jump.

Thursday, July 10, 2025

North of North (TV 2025)

Rotten Tomatoes

Rotten Tomatoes

North of North (TV 2025): Warm-hearted, character-driven dramedy set in the Canadian arctic. Borrows in a good way from "Northern Exposure", "Parks and Recreation" and maybe "Schitt's Creek." It grows on you as you become familiar with the characters and relationships. A-

Netflix