A Bit Less Trail Dust Weekly Link Round-Up

The Phoenix metropolitan area went sixty-six straight days without a drop of rain. Then, at about 11:30 PM last Thursday here at Casa Kittling, a lovely, soft, steady rain began to fall. I don't often get to go to bed and read-- and then fall to sleep-- with the sound of rain, so it certainly was a treat.

Another treat was finding out that I can do very little pruning on my oleanders. Why? Because I have at least two nests filled with baby birds in my oleander hedge, and I certainly don't want harm to come to the baby towhees and tiny baby hummingbirds that cheep and squeak every time their parents fly in with food.

We've had such warm weather since February, I think it's time for me to go stick my toes in the pool again to test the water. Something tells me pool reading season will be starting sooner this year!

But before I do that, I'd better head on out to the corral to round up these links I've been saving for you all week. Head 'em up! Moooove 'em out!

 

►Books, Movies & Other Interesting Tidbits◄

• The UK's fast-growing library crisis.
• What are Scottish reduplicate words and why are they amazing?
• 80% of US schools use eBooks or digital textbooks. 
• A Shakespeare First Folio has been discovered on the Isle of Bute in Scotland. 
• Game of Thrones is getting an after-show called After the Thrones. 
• The hardest Game of Thrones spelling test you'll ever take. 
• What Will's will tells us about Shakespeare. 
• Never give up on your fellow man. See what happens after the Big Green Bookshop in London was robbed.
• Millennials read more books than people over the age of 30. (Perhaps not this person over 30....) 

►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄

• The libraries of Chinguetti, Mauritania. 
• Walldogs and the disappearing art of painting signs on buildings. (I've seen some wonderful ones on buildings in old ghost towns.)
• Glorious posters from the golden years of the London Tube.
• A giant mammoth skull has been discovered by a bulldozer operator. (This makes me want to watch Ice Age....)
• Chinese villagers have been looting a UNESCO World heritage site while it's being cleaned. 
• Scientists have solved a 350-year-old pendulum clock mystery.
• Art that was once hidden from Hitler is now on view.
• After 36 years, archivists have finally found the Wright Brothers' airplane patent. 
• Archaeologists have uncovered a posh, arty apartment within Emperor Hadrian's villa. 
• Another Biblically historic find provides evidence of Mary Magdalene's existence. 
• A "new" Rembrandt has been created 347 years after the Dutch master's death.
• All the color they left behind-- a look at some fabulous interiors.
• Curse tablets were discovered in a 2,400-year-old grave. 
• Historic flintlock pistols are taking aim at an auction record.
• 42 tombs and a shrine have been discovered in Egypt.
• Do these frescoes prove that early Christianity had female priests?
• Uncovering the Luna Colony, a lost remnant of Spanish Florida. 

►Channeling My Inner Elly Mae Clampett◄

• This 19th-century map shows that beaver dams are built to last. 
• The world's first whisky sniffer dog has been appointed by the Scotch Malt Whisky Society. His name is Chaucer. 
• Meet Lucca, the first American dog awarded a British military honor. Here's another article about this hero that contains more photos.
• Did you know that possums eat almost all your yard ticks?

►The Happy Wanderer◄

• Recent Arizona Highways photo contest winners. 
• Look at the tiny tourists and bite-size burgers of Japan's Tobu World Square. 
• Soaking in the desert bath tubs of Mystic Hot Springs. 
• An epic book lover's dinner at the Café Pushkin in Moscow.
• You can buy an entire village in England for $28 million. Here's the real estate listing with lots more photos.
• 10 bookish graveyards to visit during your literary travels.

►Fascinating Folk◄

• Historian and Crow tribal elder Joe Medicine Crow has died at the age of 102.
• Artist Gabriel Dawe made a rainbow out of 60 miles of thread. 
• 10 African-American cowboys who shaped the Old West. 
• How Blanche Knopf helped make the Alfred A Knopf publishing company.
• Meet the Rocket Girls-- the women who charted the course to space.
• Isaac Newton spent a lot of time on junk science. 

►I ♥ Lists◄

• Six esteemed literary translators in their own words. 
• 10 things that happen when you run out of space to put all your books.
• Eleven untranslatable words-- and they're marvelous! 
• 15 children's books dads can learn from, too.
• Top ten books about the dangers of the web. (And we're not talking about spiders.)
• Top ten reasons to create Little Free Libraries in your community. 
• Cookie Monster's first name is Sid... and 43 other icons' "real" names. 

That's all for this week! Don't forget to stop by next Friday when I'll be sharing a freshly selected batch of links for your surfing pleasure.

Have a great weekend and read something fabulous!