Friday, August 03, 2018

A Thar She Blows! Weekly Link Round-Up




So far, most folks would think that our monsoon season here in Phoenix is a bust. If I paid much heed to the comments left on Facebook weather reports, I would think that many people don't think it's a successful monsoon season unless trees are uprooted, roofs caved in, power lines are down, and streets are flooded. I'd say those folks don't own their own homes. Any monsoon season is successful to me as long as Denis isn't out there getting mud out of the swimming pool and the inside of the house is dry. Simple pleasures, eh?

Monsoon storm at Sky Harbor Airport

The last monsoon storm to visit us came in with a roar but left after four hours of gentle rain. All three patio umbrellas were blown over (a first), the chaise cover was almost blown into the neighbors' yard, and I'm still sifting pine needles out of the pool, but there's no mud in that blue, blue water and the inside of the house is dry. Like I said, simple pleasures.

And now it's time to mosey on out to that corral. I wonder if any thunderheads are forming to the northeast? Head 'em up! Moooooooove 'em out!



►Books & Other Interesting Tidbits◄
  • This Portuguese library has a very interesting way of protecting its books: Bats. 
  • How Jupiter may have gifted early Earth with water.
  • A childhood virus may have a role in Alzheimer's disease. 
  • How well do you know your fictional bookshops?
  • Pick your favorite movie from each series, and we'll guess the exact year you were born. (They guessed I was six years older than I really am.)
  • BookXcess has launched the first 24-hour bookshop in Malaysia. 
  • Which books do famous authors read and recommend most?


►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄
  • Who were the Wyndham sisters? The history behind the Sargent painting.
  • Harry Potter auction: How much are signed books worth? (I always thought it was whatever someone was willing to pay for them...) 
  • A particle accelerator is revealing the hidden faces in damaged 19th-century daguerreotype portraits.
  • The oldest extract of Homer's Odyssey has been discovered on a clay tablet in Greece.
  • A heat wave is revealing centuries-old sites in Wales.
  • Take a VR tour of an Egyptian queen's elaborate tomb.

►Channeling My Inner Elly Mae Clampett◄

 ►Fascinating Folk◄
  • Alice Bolin, the daughter as detective, trying to understand her father through his favorite Swedish mystery books. 
  • Harlan Ellison, famously difficult Sci-Fi pioneer, is dead at the age of 84.
  • Daisy Kadibil's story of escape called attention to the "Stolen Generations" of Aboriginal Australians.
  • Mildred Wirt Benson, the adventurous writer who brought Nancy Drew to life.
  • Ann Cleeves talks crime writing, hit television shows, and creative tips.
  • The visionary John Wesley Powell had a plan for developing the West, but nobody listened. (Powell's foresight might have prevented the 1930s dust bowl and-- perhaps-- today's water scarcities.)

►I ♥ Lists◄



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!



11 comments:

  1. I'm glad your monsoon season is giving you rain but not real damage, Cathy. Or mud in your pool. Now, I'm off to Wales to check out that site...

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    1. I thought you might be heading over there... ;-)

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  2. I wondered how much rain you guys were getting in your 'season'. Most everything seems to be going up over the top of Texas. Often, there will be rain in NM, OK, and LA, but nary a drop here. We are brown, brown, brown with our lakes about 60% full. Sigh. There are years like this. Glad you've had no mud in the pool and water in the house. As you say, small blessings.

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    Replies
    1. We're not getting nearly as much as we need. I always hope that we don't get it all in five minutes, which has happened here several times. The ground's too hard to soak that high volume of water in such a short period of time.

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  3. The movie quiz put me at 15 years younger than I am. I can't tell you how many of their lists I just had to randomly pick a movie because I hadn't watched any of them. Shesh!

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    1. I did the same thing, Pepper, and they thought I was younger, too.

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  4. Glad the monsoons are not driving you and Denis out of Arizona.

    However, those lists! I just copied several and now have about 30 more books on my TBR mountain range. So much to read and I'm slower at it than ever. And there are TV mysteries, newspapers, work, etc.

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    1. You're probably like me-- I've only said I was bored once in my life. I was thirteen, and I wasn't really bored but that was the only word I could think of to label how I felt without getting the third degree from adults. Boredom just isn't in my DNA.

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  5. No, never bored. There are always books, TV, the Internet.

    When I was a teenager, aside from hanging out with friends, I read much of the time. When my father asked me if I was going outside on a nice spring day, I wouldn't do that; I'd be reading.

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    Replies
    1. Almost all the time, I'd be outside... but a lot of those times I'd have a book with me.

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  6. Right. You had that wonderful tree to read on.

    I had a huge tree with big branches almost touching my bedroom window. It was nearly as good as reading in a tree to read crunched up against my window with the sun streaming in and tree branches nearly touching it.

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