The Calling Alexa to the Stand Weekly Link Round-Up

After reading a certain news article, I am very glad that I don't talk to myself. Well, not very often anyway. And before you get your hopes up too high, this isn't about our Alexa here at Casa Kittling. This is about someone else's Alexa.

We call Alexa to the stand!

A man in Arkansas has been accused of killing his friend after a night of drinking and football. His attorney has been fighting with Amazon to turn over recordings from the accused's Amazon Echo smart speaker (AKA Alexa) as evidence to prove the man's innocence. After some legal wrangling, Amazon finally agreed to turn them over. These things are not only listening to us, they're recording us, too.

So... if Alexa is sitting in your home and you're plotting your latest mystery, it might be a very good idea to be very, very quiet!

On that note, I'm going to tippy toe out to the corral to take care of these links. Head 'em up! Mooooooove 'em out!

►Books, Movies & Other Interesting Tidbits◄

• What do we do with the art of monstrous men?
• The truth about Sherlock Holmes: he's actually Henry David Thoreau.
• How O the Oprah Magazine finds its favorite books in the new socially-conscious zeitgeist.
• A new portrait of Lord Nelson has been found. scars and all. 
• What was the inspiration for The Murder on the Orient Express?
• The Pilgrims weren't the first to celebrate Thanksgiving.
• The history of Appalachian English: why we talk differently.

►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄

• "Savior of the World" by Leonardo da Vinci sold for a record $450 million.
• Ancient Egyptian artifacts from King Tut's tomb are being shown for the first time after being locked away for ninety-five years.
• See statues and a mysterious disk that were found in an ancient Greek shipwreck.
• Most Wanted: Vermeer's "The Concert," the world's most expensive missing work of art.
• Ancient skeletons discovered in a West Bank cave may solve a 2,000-year-old biblical mystery.
• Ancient Chinese tombs reveal treasures of gold and jewels in the chamber of an 800-year-old couple buried together for eternity.
• Ancient Roman shipwrecks full of treasure and a "royal head of crystal" have been discovered in Egypt.

►Channeling My Inner Elly Mae Clampett◄

• Found: a rare white crocodile in Australia.
• An opossum breaks into a liquor store and gets drunk as a skunk.

►Fascinating Folk◄

• New evidence says Amelia Earhart spent days in prison before being killed in Saipan. 
• The amazing life of Annette Kellerman, Australia's "million-dollar mermaid."
• 17th-century Hungarian serial killer Countess Elizabeth Báthory was as horrifying as the mythical Count Dracula.

►The Happy Wanderer◄

• This road trip through America's ghost towns is one you won't forget. 
• Vibrant photos of foliage from above.
• This one strange Arizona Christmas tradition is a complete mystery, but it's awesome anyway (and I've seen it for myself). 
• The day the train rolled into Phoenix.
• You're invited: authors' homes from Jane Austen's Bath to Ernest Hemingway's Key West deck the halls for the holiday season.

►I ♥ Lists & Quizzes◄

• Crime fiction by Native Americans; or, Tony Hillerman will only be mentioned once.
• Playbuzz claims it can guess your profession based on your emotional state. (It told me "You are a thinker" which I didn't realize was a profession....)
• The best crime books and thrillers of 2017 according to The Guardian (and they're certainly not all British).
• Thirty-three sentences you'll only understand if you're in a book group.
• How eleven writers organize their personal libraries.

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!