A Busy, Busy, Busy Weekly Link Round-Up

 

I've been buzzing around here like a blue-arsed fly, as Denis would say-- and yes, that's a common phrase in the UK (at least in the north). I unloaded Christmas decorations from the shed and dragged them into the house, then spent the weekend decorating and hauling the empty containers back into the shed. One thing I learned from this is that I need to do another purge of my Christmas decorations, but that's going to wait until Daisy and Suzanne come to visit in the spring.

There's something about having the house decorated for the holidays that never fails to lift my spirits, so it's a good thing I had them up when there was a six-hour power outage one day. I snuggled up in my Christmas afghan, read my Kindle, and didn't mind all that much that I was in a cold, gloomy house. Special people "just peeking in" to see how I'm doing have brightened my spirits, too. I am so fortunate to have them in my life.

This will be another busy week with all the usual chores as well as my mammogram and my visit to the wound care clinic. Which reminds me... I'd better get out my Christmas sweater to wear for my appointments. And my jingle bell earrings! 

Holiday cheer from a messy desk

As I get out and about for my appointments, it will be front and center in my mind that not everyone is going to be experiencing a happy holiday season. I will not only be wearing my Christmas sweater and jingle bell earrings, I will also be wearing a smile and-- more importantly-- being kind to all those I meet.

Enjoy the links!

►Books & Other Interesting Tidbits◄

• The French government is considering an AI bill "to protect copyright and reward creators."
• How "cozy lit" became the latest and most shameless form of digital escapism.
• Tess McGeer: Books That Made Me Gay: The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson.
• The last video rental store is your public library.
• In November's school board elections, voters stood with librarians.
• The sweeping Supreme Court decision that led to widespread high school censorship.
• AI is coming for your toddler's bedtime story.
• The Kindle Store is getting wrecked by SEO-stuffed book titles, and readers are fed up. (Count me as one of the fed-up ones.)

►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄

• 1,800-year-old "piggy banks" full of Roman-era coins have been unearthed in a French village.
• Roman sun hat: a "very rare" 1,600-year-old brimmed cap that may have protected a Roman soldier from Egyptian sandstorms.
• Researchers have discovered the shocking age of the mysterious Pecos River rock art.
• The Fabergé egg gifted by Russia's last czar broke a world record, selling for $30.2 million at auction.
• A volcanic eruption triggered the "butterfly effect" that led to the Black Death.
• Archaeologists have unearthed a treasure-filled tomb belonging to the first known ruler of a Maya city in Belize.
• Why did the ancient Indus Valley civilization collapse?
• Hundreds of funerary figurines suggest that an ancient Egyptian pharaoh moved another ruler's body and stole his tomb.

►Channeling My Inner Elly May Clampett◄

• Claude, San Francisco's beloved albino alligator and "unofficial mascot," has died at the age of 30.
• Two macaque monkeys learned to tap to the beat of the Backstreet Boys. Can they teach researchers about the origin of human musicality?
• This "feisty" Asian elephant at the National Zoo is pregnant. She may birth the first calf born there in nearly 25 years.
• Birds are beeping and booping like R2-D2. Their mimicked sounds are helping unlock the secrets of avian communication.
• A decade-long chimp war ended in a baby boom for the victors.
• More than 1,200 marine animal species eat plastic. Ingesting even a tiny amount can kill them.
• This might be the first recorded tool use by a wild wolf.
• For some male pheasants, love really is blind.

►The Wanderer◄

• Austin, Texas, the city that prides itself on staying weird.
• UNESCO's Cities of Gastronomy-- the most delicious cities on Earth.
• 18,000 dinosaur tracks were discovered along an ancient Bolivian coastline-- and they set a new record.
• China has planted so many trees it's changed the entire country's water distribution.
• Crime and the City: Palm Beach, Florida.
• At the Newark (New Jersey) Public Library, shopping bags carry local history.
• Go behind the scenes at Trinity College Dublin's Old Library as the staff move 700,000 historical treasures into storage.
• 7 scenic drives in America that feel like a movie set.

►Fascinating Folk◄

• Meet four women astronauts from across NASA's history.
• Sydney-based baker Macey Nemer creates edible flower bouquets made entirely of hand-piped buttercream cupcakes (and they are gorgeous).
• College students Marta Bernardino and Sebastião Mendonça are building a robot to replant burned forests.
• Just as the Italian art of glassblowing was on the verge of shattering, craftsman Antonio Salviati in Murano emerged to revive it.
• The hidden history of women game designers.
• Famed street photographer Lee Friedlander chronicled what Christmas looks like across America over the course of decades.
• With his sculptures full of natural splendor, artist Truman Lowe could make wood look like water.
• Althea Gibson: Rising above bias to become the first African American Grand Slam champion.

►I ♥ Lists◄

• 9 holiday mysteries to unwrap this season.
• The best historical fiction coming this winter.
• 100 notable small press books of 2025.
• This season's must-read mysteries and thrillers.
• The best audiobooks of 2025.
• Modern mysteries to read based on your favorite classic sleuth.
• Bizarre inventions found in 1940s science magazines.
• 11 everyday words that were coined in sci-fi stories.

That's all for this week! No matter how busy you may be, don't forget that quality Me Time curled up with a good book!