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Hi there, and welcome to Engineering Our Social Vehicles— I’m your host, Paul Logan. We’ve got a doozy of a show for you today- it’s Sloppy Sunday. If you’re new around these parts, that means on Sundays we like to get those longer pieces out there, even if it means they are a little rough around the edges. Today, I’m going to be talking about a topic that’s sort of central to EoSV: Symbiogenesis.

A few years ago, I had the idea to write an advice column based on the premise that I was qualified to do so in large part because I can hardly judge other people’s mistakes too harshly when I’ve made so many of my own. I called it Ask a Fuck Up, and I would like to note that this was just before what I think of as the sassy self-help trend really took off in book publishing, and airport bookstores everywhere became lousy with sweary titles like Get Your Shit Together, Girl!

Girl in White Chemise by Ernst Ludwig KirchnerThere’s a part of me that believes daydreaming helped save my life, especially during the difficult years of my adolescence and placement in foster care. So, when I read recently that deliberate daydreaming is an art of “tracking wonder,” I saw that as the most lovely, intriguing, and potent idea. To track wonder! How could we not wish to do this? But the word “deliberate” is essential here, because although daydreaming is a natural human capacity with which we are all born, we lose this skill over time.

Very quickly before we begin — I am never going to charge for my Substack, but I am really enjoying writing on here, and I feel like if I can get a couple hundred subscribers, I might be able to start doing it more regularly (also I am not employed full-time at the moment so every little bit helps). If you feel like contributing, I would really appreciate it. If not, I still appreciate you reading.

“Scholars who want to define ‘Amhara’ usually start with Nebure Id Ermias Kebede’s exegesis. Nebure Id Ermias defines Amhara: ‘The word Amhara is a traditional name given to the majority of the country’s indigenous people for a purpose that has a message and a meaning. The word was taken from Geez. In Geez, Am means ‘people’ and hara means ‘free.’ Thus, … ncG1vNJzZmiilZuzsb7Oqaylq5mku2%2B%2F1JuqrZmToHuku8xop2ismJp6p8HTrqmeZZ%2BbeqbAx6KmqaGRYra0edaiq6FlpJ2y

Huddle Up is a 3x weekly newsletter that breaks down the business and money behind sports. Subscribers include investors, professional athletes, team owners, and casual fans. So if you are not already a subscriber, sign up and join 88,000+ others who receive it directly in their inbox each week — it’s free. ncG1vNJzZmigpZmxrbHUqWWsrZKowaKvymeaqKVfpXy1tMRmna6spaeybrvFZqGeqqOaxm6%2Fz6ilrKeiqLWqvNI%3D

My coverage of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia season 16 continues with episode 3. Season 16 episode 3 of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia continues to chart the Gang steady on their course of old-school hijinks and schemes as laid by the foundation of the first two episodes. As I wrote about in my review of the premiere(s) last week, these two episodes marked a welcome return to form for the Always Sunny writers (which includes lead actors Glenn Howerton, Charlie Day, and Rob McElhenney).

If you see a guy at the Wegman’s in Brooklyn loading up his cart with nothing but Zweigle’s white hots and red hots and Nance’s mustard, that’s Brian Heiss, the owner of Brooklyn Hots, the new—and only—restaurant in New York City devoted to the regional food of Rochester. There were already a lot of reasons to be thankful that Wegman’s, a supermarket chain born in Rochester in 1916, has a foothold in New York City.

This is the middle panel in Hieronymus Bosch’s famous triptych “The Garden of Earthly Delights”. A triptych is a painting or carving that spans three separate panels, usually commissioned as an altarpiece or for other religious purposes. The painting above depicts all manner of imaginative pleasures and ecstasies. Look closely and you’ll find someone nibbling a giant strawberry, someone else fondling an owl, and there’s a group putting flowers in each others butts.