A Queen Cathy Weekly Link Round-Up

Last week, I told you in Miz Kittling Knits that my grandmother had made my prom dress. I was tempted then to show you old photographs of the dress but didn't. Since nothing much has been going on lately, I thought I could show you now and then cut straight to the links. Let's go for it!

My grandmother let me choose the pattern, fabrics, and trim.

Was I prom queen?

Heavens, no! But as you can see by the sash, flowers, and tiara, I was Queen of my hometown's big Fourth of July celebration. Never thought anything like that would ever happen to me in a billion years!

Now, let's get to those links!

►Books & Other Interesting Tidbits◄

• Vasily Grossman's lost epic.
• The accidental invention of the Slinky.
• The misogyny of climate deniers. 
• Merriam-Webster finds out where "run-of-the-mill" comes from.
• Designing your grandfather's book (when he's James Thurber).
• Barbie celebrates the Day of the Dead with a special edition (and I'm tempted to buy one).
• The not-so-chill history of Hawaii's breeziest shirt.
• A new app helps domestic violence victims collect the evidence needed to charge their abusers.

►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄

• For Sale: A signed copy of King Edward VIII's abdication speech.
• A major hoard of £5,000,000 worth of Norman coins is an early example of tax avoidance, the British Museum says.
• A Canadian shipwreck offers up secrets of a lost 200-year-old expedition.
• DNA will solve the mystery of Napoleon's general who was lost in Russia.
• Why Roman soldiers were pretty scared of Britain.
• An Iranian cave, a Neanderthal tooth, and an Ice Age murder mystery. 
• Climate change is bad for the planet, but groundbreaking for archaeology.
• The wreck of a paddle steamer throws light on British support for Confederate slave states during the U.S. Civil War.

►Channeling My Inner Elly Mae Clampett◄

• There is a flower with petals that look like hummingbirds.
• A parasite that's spread by house cats is killing California's sea otters.
• The wildlife trade conference imposes a near-total ban on sending wild African elephants to zoos. 
• The world's only pure blue lizard, the blue anole, lives exclusively on Gorgona Island.
• A wildlife summit has voted down a plan to allow the sale of a huge ivory stockpile.
• The last fourteen loa water frogs had to be rescued from their natural habitat. 
• Half a billion bees have died as Brazil approves hundreds more pesticides. (I am convinced the world has gone crazy.)
• A $58,000 reward was offered after more than forty wild burros were found shot dead in the Mojave Desert.

►Fascinating Folk◄

• Remembering the Gilded Age's long-lost, real-life lady detectives.
• Althea Gibson, who smashed through racial barriers in tennis, has been honored with a statue at the U.S. Open. 
• Author Ann Cleeves on a sense of place, character development, and success after fifty.
• Some of the deadliest samurai were women, but history forgot.

►The Happy Wanderer◄

• The longest walkable distance on Earth. 
• Why Molokai, with all its wonders, is the least developed of Hawaii's islands. 
• The nine best places to see the Salt River wild horses. (Yes, there are wild horses not all that far away from the Phoenix metropolitan area.)
• Take an easy one-mile hike through twenty-five ancient cliff dwellings at Walnut Canyon National Monument in Arizona.

►I ♥ Lists & Quizzes◄

• Fifteen crime novels as funny as they are gritty.
• A brief history of academic mysteries, campus thrillers, and research noir. 
• Who would your literary sister be? Evidently, mine's Jo March.
• The top ten caregivers in fiction.
• Fiver series to read if you're still upset about how Veronica Mars: Season 4 ended.
• Fourteen romantic suspense books you won't be able to put down. 
• Women writers who published their first book after they turned 70.
• Seventeen of the best books for fall.

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!