Yoooooo. It’s been a minute since this was last updated. My apologize. I take full responsibility.

It’s a pretty quiet Production Night in Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood.

The PA squad is here so let’s not shed a tear because without them we wouldn’t be able to thankfully cheer! #iamarapstar  *insert thumbs up emoji here*

Tywen is being a good publisher and checking out the PA work.

Anthony, Callie, and Martina have gone downstairs to pick up some scrumptious dinner, and will soon be back.

Editors are slowly but surely filing in.

Andrew and Chris just got here.

Andrew just shared that he received some mean emails regarding his most recent Union Bulletin article on drag queens. (Andrew don’t listen to them, hateahs gon hate.)

The three amigos just came back with their delicious smelling food. ‘

Peggy’s here!

I gotta go to class, soooooooooooo bye.

Children can teach us a lot, yet we always assume the role of teacher. Too often we get caught up in the small inconsequentials of life, that can profoundly deplete our energy. But children, more often than not, can bring out the best in us because they see the world differently. To them, life is about freeze-tag and toys. Could anyone ask for more simplicity? Thus, talking with a kid is different. She won’t drone on with small talk, he will cut right to the chase, and they clearly know something we may not.

In the animated adaptation of “The Little Prince,” we are reminded that growing up is not a problem; forgetting is. Forgetting that there is so much joy in the world if we seek it out, and that imagination is much more powerful than an Ivy League diploma. We knew it as children when we did not have as many limitations on what was socially acceptable, and back then, all that mattered was acting on impulses. Somehow, we were able to better live in the moment. Yet, along the way many of us have forgotten that sensation of youth in which life seemed easier, bountied with goofiness and endless opportunities. But there are ways we can remember.

The joys of youth can be found at The Walla Walla Public Schools. Having a consistent and positive friend in their mix can change their lives, literally. After all, they envision being grown up as fondly as we envision being young again. Nothing would be cooler than being able to call one of us their buddy. I, myself, have a buddy. When we laugh and run, the weight of the outside world seems to fall off my shoulders. And he is just a sweet boy who wants a friend to run around with at recess, and do funny voices with at lunch (also, not even the joy of childhood can compete with the joy of free lunch, provided if you join the program). I found my buddy through Friends of Walla Walla, a wonderful organization that pairs you up with an elementary school student who simply wants a friend. After I said ‘see ya next week’ to my buddy, I met this adorable little girl who just wanted a friend like me to come see her once a week. She was humbly shy, but let out a cheek-to-cheek smile when I promised to find her a friend. As she waved goodbye from the top of the slide, I thought of how happy she will be with a buddy, and how happy she will make that buddy. You could be that buddy, that friend, that mentor that seriously changes the life of someone young, someone that sees the world differently. Who knows, they might just change your life as well. (Plus, free lunch!)

Everyone at Whitman, and those in Walla Walla or College Place, that has a spare hour or even a half-hour around lunch time once a week, should find a friend in The Walla Walla Public Schools. In our obsession with the inconsequentials, we could all instead use a moment to go to school and get taught by a first grader.

It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood. Anthony is plopped down on the new fancy shmancy sofa. The smoky and ashy air outside has lungs burning and the Washington State Department of Ecology has deemed the air quality of outside world of the Walla Walla Valley as “Hazardous”. The school year is starting off great with people dying everywhere. Yay!

People are here. People are working. This is my first time ever blogging anything, so I apologize.

Martina just asked Anthony to spin her on her chair, he said no.

Andrew and Michelle are talking about clarinets. Nerds! (This is out of pure love, I promise. I don’t know them, or anyone (except Anthony) for that matter, all that well, but this is how I joke around! Trust, if anyone is a nerd, it is me.)

Chris just ate all (not really) of the hummus and used his finger to spread it on his shnacks. Anthony did not like this.

Kate just came in! It’s a partayyy!

Callie and Peggy’s snacks are a hit! They’re “good shit” according to Andrew!

Chris repeated “near totality” multiple times. I don’t know why.

Anthony keeps hitting Martina’s hip. Martina seems unfazed. She must be strong.

Tywen keeps pacing around the shnacks. It’s making me anxious.

Kerr is a very helpful human. Nevermind, he just asked me to help out with PA stuff while he’s gone. This cannot end well. But then again…he trusts me? I’m flattered?

Andrew really likes to shimmy but “fucking hates” coming up with headlines.

Martina and Tywen have made their first check offs!

YAY!

The smell of freshly baked sourdough welcomes hungry visitors into senior Gus Coats’ kitchen. When he cuts into the scored loaf, the crackling of the crust makes my mouth water.

A growing number of students on campus are gravitating towards traditional, artisanal techniques, especially in sourdough baking. For Coats, it is enjoyable, easy and a way to physically engage with values important to him.

“It’s not a coincidence that all of the people I know, including myself, who bake bread are socialists. It’s totally a pre-capitalist fantasy,” Coats said. “But it’s the same price or cheaper than white bread you buy at the store. It’s a way to be a little more involved in your food and be productively anticapitalist.”

Coats acquired a propagated sourdough starter last semester from senior Maia Watkins after reaching out on the student listserv. Coats was intimidated to start his own starter from scratch, but the thought of buying active dry yeast from the store wasn’t appealing to him.

“Active dry yeast is mass produced and dried, and it’s the same pretty much everywhere. Sourdough starters are how it was done for thousands of years,” Coats said.

After taking a bite, Coats went on to explain the process. Equal parts of flour and water are combined in a jar and covered lightly with a cloth. When the jar is left out at room temperature, the yeasts, which are found mostly on the flour but also in the air, begin digesting sugars in the wheat.

“Sorry, I’m yeast-splaining right now. But it also has lactobacillus bacteria, which produces lactic acid and gives it its sour taste,” Coats said. “If you get sourdough at Safeway, or any place where it’s mass produced, the bread is probably made with active dry yeast and the sourness is added white vinegar.”

It’s common practice for bakers to name their sourdough starter. Senior Fiona Bennitt, a fellow partaker in the sourdough culture at Whitman, named hers “Sourdough Allende”.

“I have a friend whose family’s starter is named ‘Sourdough Dali,’ and I was trying to think of other rad Salvadors in history,” Bennitt said.

Bennitt named her starter after Salvador Allende, the Chilean physicist and politician who was the first Marxist to become president through open elections.

Sourdough starters are fed twice a day and allowed to “bubble up” every 12 hours. After stirring to incorporate in some of the bubbles, all except half or a quarter cup of starter is poured out. The extra starter can be used to propagate a new starter, or to bake bread without the sourdough flavor. Equal parts of flour and water are fed into the starter and the entire process is repeated to build up a sourdough starter from scratch.

“Sourdough is magic,” Bennitt said. “I absolutely love the process of feeding it, monitoring it, baking with it. It feels so special to be eating something that can only taste the way it does because it has been exposed to the wild yeasts floating around here in the Walla Walla air.”

If the starter goes too long without feeding it, the bacteria and yeast will go into a different process and produce hooch, a brown liquid that smells like beer. A little bit can add a desirable, rich flavor but it can quickly get out of hand and ruin the starter.

Once the starter is strong, it only needs to be fed once after 12 hours and can stay in the fridge for up to one week.

Some students feel intimidated by the lengthy process of baking sourdough, but Coats found a recipe that doesn’t even require kneading.

“It’s so easy,” Coats said. “I just mix the dough, leave it a little wet and let it sit for 12-18 hours. After I fold it a few times, I let it sit for two more hours,and bake it in a dutch oven.”

Gus explained that  some families have starters that are over 200 years old.

“Starters can go on forever. Think about all of the people who have been a part of it,” Coats said. “Everyone should do it.”

The smell of freshly baked sourdough welcomes hungry visitors into senior Gus Coats’ kitchen. When he cuts into the scored loaf, the crackling of the crust makes my mouth water.

A growing number of students on campus are gravitating towards traditional, artisanal techniques, especially in sourdough baking. For Coats, it is enjoyable, easy and a way to physically engage with values important to him.

“It’s not a coincidence that all of the people I know, including myself, who bake bread are socialists. It’s totally a pre-capitalist fantasy,” Coats said. “But it’s the same price or cheaper than white bread you buy at the store. It’s a way to be a little more involved in your food and be productively anticapitalist.”

Coats acquired a propagated sourdough starter last semester from senior Maia Watkins after reaching out on the student listserv. Coats was intimidated to start his own starter from scratch, but the thought of buying active dry yeast from the store wasn’t appealing to him.

“Active dry yeast is mass produced and dried, and it’s the same pretty much everywhere. Sourdough starters are how it was done for thousands of years,” Coats said.

After taking a bite, Coats went on to explain the process. Equal parts of flour and water are combined in a jar and covered lightly with a cloth. When the jar is left out at room temperature, the yeasts, which are found mostly on the flour but also in the air, begin digesting sugars in the wheat.

“Sorry, I’m yeast-splaining right now. But it also has lactobacillus bacteria, which produces lactic acid and gives it its sour taste,” Coats said. “If you get sourdough at Safeway, or any place where it’s mass produced, the bread is probably made with active dry yeast and the sourness is added white vinegar.”

It’s common practice for bakers to name their sourdough starter. Senior Fiona Bennitt, a fellow partaker in the sourdough culture at Whitman, named hers “Sourdough Allende”.

“I have a friend whose family’s starter is named ‘Sourdough Dali,’ and I was trying to think of other rad Salvadors in history,” Bennitt said.

Bennitt named her starter after Salvador Allende, the Chilean physicist and politician who was the first Marxist to become president through open elections.

Sourdough starters are fed twice a day and allowed to “bubble up” every 12 hours. After stirring to incorporate in some of the bubbles, all except half or a quarter cup of starter is poured out. The extra starter can be used to propagate a new starter, or to bake bread without the sourdough flavor. Equal parts of flour and water are fed into the starter and the entire process is repeated to build up a sourdough starter from scratch.

“Sourdough is magic,” Bennitt said. “I absolutely love the process of feeding it, monitoring it, baking with it. It feels so special to be eating something that can only taste the way it does because it has been exposed to the wild yeasts floating around here in the Walla Walla air.”

If the starter goes too long without feeding it, the bacteria and yeast will go into a different process and produce hooch, a brown liquid that smells like beer. A little bit can add a desirable, rich flavor but it can quickly get out of hand and ruin the starter.

Once the starter is strong, it only needs to be fed once after 12 hours and can stay in the fridge for up to one week.

Some students feel intimidated by the lengthy process of baking sourdough, but Coats found a recipe that doesn’t even require kneading.

“It’s so easy,” Coats said. “I just mix the dough, leave it a little wet and let it sit for 12-18 hours. After I fold it a few times, I let it sit for two more hours,and bake it in a dutch oven.”

Gus explained that  some families have starters that are over 200 years old.

“Starters can go on forever. Think about all of the people who have been a part of it,” Coats said. “Everyone should do it.”

Photographer for The Wire, North Bennett, polled members of the community with the following question: “What’s your message for the graduating seniors?”

Slideshow • 7 Photos

Ian Becker, Senior: “Take a deep breath, relax, and go have fun in the wider world.”