Last year’s Elf on a Shelf?

Looks like chicken mole. Hope to try it sometime (maybe at a more simple restaurant).

“Mysterious“ ?

Senator Padmé Amidala after partying all night.

A lot of heat and a lot of pressure would be a start, but then there’s a time factor as well. The heat and pressure mess around with the rocks mineral constituents, but the real “magic” begins as those minerals start recrystallizing. In time (geologic time) that recrystallization makes a much harder rock.

I honestly don’t know if the process can be sped up. I’m thinking of something like firing bricks, but bricks are made with specific ingredients and certain impurities are specifically excluded because they hurt the manufacturing. When you start with shale, lord knows what mother nature threw into that specific specimen and how she arranged it.

I guess the easiest way to get shale harder might be to crush it finely, mix it with water and bake it. If you’re lucky the clay minerals will find each other and form a strong matrix. It wouldn’t be slate, or even a rock anymore, but bricks are handy sometimes.

Shale is not a good building material, it’s too friable (crumbly). Slate starts off as the same rock ans shale except it undergoes a bunch of heat and pressure which makes it much less friable and an excellent material for things like roofing tiles and mantles.

Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Reno, Nevada

The Marriotts. Not huge fans of alcohol.

The common mistake - disputing a credit card charge and initiating a chargeback.

I wonder if Kennedy has moved off of bear “pranks” and has turned to crabs.

We all are. It’s one of the bonds that keeps civilization alive. Keep searching !

That’s what the three shells are for.

Sometimes the trap dries up and that allows smells through. In those cases pouring water down the drain refills the trap and thus blocks the smell.

Calculations are simpler if …….. you assume a spherical cow!

I believe it is an herb.

What was ordered?

iNaturalist is definitely a good suggestion, but it is NOT an assassin bug, wrong markings and body form. It looks to be in the genus Alysus. Here’s what iNaturalist gave me as a likely hit. Also, I’d recommend the Seek app (it’s associated with iNaturalist) over iNaturalist app for casual users as it gives quick likely identifications through real-time image matching and does not require engaging the broader iNaturalist community.

Exactly! (By definition)

*Acid-filled Erlenmeyer flasks

Nice one. Thank you.