The Best Laid Plans Weekly Link Round-Up

Nothing much exciting going on here at Casa Kittling. I'm keeping an eye on my Tombstone roses because they're starting to bloom, and I'm having good success at changing my diet. Today will mark the first day that Denis joins me on it, which should be very interesting to observe since he's always been a meat-and-potatoes man who turns up his nose at "grazing" through vegetables.

Normally I don't have a problem stretching out on the bed for an hour or two in the afternoon to read my current book, but this week has been an exception... at least Tuesday and Wednesday have. Those are the days that I go in for therapy at the lymphedema clinic.

The farther I get into everything they're having me do and add all that to what I've been doing around the house, and my best-laid plans to read have gone up in smoke. Now... in no way do I resemble that comely lass in the graphic that I'm using, but she perfectly illustrates what happened to me Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon. I started out with all the best intentions, but after a chapter or two, I was out like a light. I do know that it doesn't help that I've not been sleeping properly at night, but Wednesday afternoon, I slept so hard that when I woke up, I thought it was 7 AM and I wondered why I hadn't closed the curtains before I went to bed!

I'm wanting to read again, but I think I'll mosey out to the corral first to check on those links. They don't take well to being neglected. Head 'em up! Moooove 'em out!

►Books & Other Interesting Tidbits◄

• What is the hardest language in the world to lipread? 
• The intimacy of crime scene photos in Belle Epoque Paris.
• The Girl in the Mansion: How gothic romances became domestic noir. 
• How knitting enthusiasts are using their craft to visualize climate change.
• How a trashed Italian manuscript got sewn into a sweet silk purse.
• Mary Kubica and Megan Miranda talk about psychological thrillers, motherhood, and Maine.
• Why is Granite Noir such a criminally good festival? The clue's in the title.
• Writing characters? Shake the branches of family trees-- you never know what you might find.

►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄

• This carving is helping archaeologists unravel the secrets of ancient Scottish warriors.
• Remnants of a 19th-century red-light district and Chinatown are being unearthed in Montana. 
• The mummy burial of Egyptian priests found together with their afterlife "servants."
• Gas workers in Peru are unearthing centuries of history in Lima's soil.
• Restoration in Pompeii unearths "surprise" treasures.
• This mass grave shows the Black Death's "catastrophic" impact in rural England.
• Divers can finally explore the wreck of the Britannic, the Titanic's sister ship.

►Channeling My Inner Elly Mae Clampett◄

• A fossilized skull may solve the mystery of a chameleon migration.
• Fossils of an enormous turtle the size of a car have been found in South America.
• A rainbow snake has been seen in Florida's Ocala National Forest for the first time since 1969.
• Why wolverines are the Arctic animal we love to hate.
• The heroic World War II dog Peggy has been honored seventy-three years after her death. 
• A spectacular close-up view of a fiery-throated hummingbird.
• In 1909, a door-to-door catnip salesman incited a riot in New York.
• Flight delayed at SFO Airport? The Wag Brigade is on the way.

►Fascinating Folk◄

• As popular in her day as J.K. Rowling, Gene Stratton Porter wrote to the masses about America's fading natural beauty.
• Recognition of Shonke Mon-thi^, a major Osage leader and warrior, opens a new window into history. 
• Meet Annie Easley, the barrier-breaking mathematician who helped us explore the solar system.

►The Happy Wanderer◄

• Twenty-five amazing animal bridges and crossings that save wildlife from vehicle-animal collisions.
• Take a look at this house in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Scroll through the photos. Can you tell me why I would be quite happy living there? 
• Inside the "vibrant intellectual ecosystem" of Larry McMurtry's home library. 
• Aberdeen: granite noir in the Granite City.
• The Outlander Effect: The popular book and TV series is increasing travel to these Scottish sites.
• The Lincoln Book Tower.
• A woman in Idaho honors a 110-year-old tree by turning it into a magical library.

►I ♥ Lists & Quizzes◄

• Eight Sci-Fi and Fantasy books to read (or re-read) before their adaptations hit the screen.
• Juries and judgment in Hollywood cinema.
• The New York Public Library has created a list of 125 books that they love.
• Five amazing things found in old books.
• Books in which the protagonist's own family life introduces another wrinkle to the case.
• Eleven fascinating facts about Anne Brontë.
• Nine Airbnbs with libraries that Belle from Beauty & the Beast would book.
• Do you have a secret British accent? Evidently, I sound as though I'm from Sunderland, which puts me square in the land where TV's Vera is filmed-- and where almost all my English ancestors came from. What a coincidence!

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!