The Packages Are Mailed Weekly Link Round-Up

It's that time of year: my knitted gifts are being given to their new owners. Last year, they were mailed to friends here in the U.S. This year, they all seem to be headed to family and friends in England. (Yikes-- Be prepared to get a second mortgage on your house to pay the postage!)

The scarf to the right is something that's staying here. As an experiment with a silk/flax blend yarn, it looks great with that sheen and color, but it's awfully scratchy. It didn't make the cut.

But my purple lace-and-sequin scarf earned me three big hugs from my hairdresser, and since her daughter likes to borrow all her scarves, I've already found patterns and the perfect yarn to use to make her some of her own.

There's something satisfying about making gifts to give to others. Whether I'm doing needlepoint or knitting, I'm always thinking good thoughts about the person I'm making the item for. It's probably because I grew up in a make-it-yourself family, but the idea that someone spent hours making something especially for me means a lot. Time is one of the most precious things we have to spend on this earth.

Speaking of time, it's time I headed out to the Link Corral. They're getting restless. Head 'em up! Moooooove 'em out!

 

►Books, Movies & Other Interesting Tidbits◄

• Outlander has been named ahead of Trainspotting as Scotland's greatest screen adaptation.
• A Syrian girl recently asked J.K. Rowling for a Harry Potter book. 
• DNA tests as a way to combat bigotry? Biased strangers take a DNA test, and the results show why we shouldn't judge others on their looks. 
• Recommendmeabook.com wants you to NOT judge a book by its cover.
• How the world reads. 
• From hate speech to fake news, the content crisis facing Mark Zuckerberg.
• Hundreds of U.S. children's authors have signed a pledge to tackle racism and xenophobia. 
• Book reviewing used to be a blood sport: the death of the hatchet job.

►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄

• A French man discovered gold coins and bars worth €3.5 million in a house he inherited. 
• The altar of a Viking saint-king has been discovered in Norway. 
• A 3,000-year-old mummy has been found in an Egyptian tomb. 
• A Roman lead bar found near Wells, England, could fetch £60,000.
• A Frida Kahlo painting which has been unseen for sixty years surfaces for sale.
• Experts say that archaeologists have found the original pyramid at the Mayan ruins of Chichen Itza. 
• Ancient beasts roamed this secret spot in Death Valley, but you probably can't go. 

►Fascinating Folk◄

• Courtney Holmes is my kind of barber, and if you love books and reading, he's yours, too.
• We may not know his name, but this elderly man in Germany has surprises growing in his garden. 
• The search for the real woman who lived on the Island of the Blue Dolphins. 
• Sylvia Melamed, dead at the age of 98, was an Auschwitz survivor who outsmarted Mengele.

►The Happy Wanderer◄

• A visit to Blackwell's Bookshop in Cardiff, Wales. 
• Take a guess. What's the best place to commit a crime in America? 
• Five uniquely Arizona holiday traditions and events.

►I ♥ Lists & Quizzes◄

• Ten comics that only true book lovers will understand. 
• Quirk Books' favorite fictional musicians. 
• Do you know these twenty-five Scottish words and phrases?
• Ten purses that are brilliantly disguised as books. 
• Twitter rants from literary characters.
• Twenty literary quotes about gratitude. 

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 you surfing pleasure.

Have a great weekend, and read something fabulous!