A Time for a Good Old-Fashioned Clearout Weekly Link Round-Up

I hope all of you aren't going stir crazy from social distancing and self-isolation. It is vitally important and must be done, but I know many of you are social creatures who want to be out and about amongst friends and family. Hang in there! If we do this right the first time, we shouldn't have to do it again.

Fortunately for me, I've always been a sort of hermit, so this is all pretty much status quo for me. I can tell things are bothering me though because of what I've been doing. Since I love to organize the spaces in my house, you'd think I'd be able to keep them neat and tidy once they're "put to rights," but nooooo, sooner or later they get junked up either through laziness or because the way the space is organized no longer fits our needs.

I had a few spaces that needed some TLC, and to keep my mind off what was worrying me, I set to with a will and had a good old-fashioned clearout.

A big cedar chest held some items that hadn't been used for years, and since I had no intention of ever using them again, I donated the unwanted and stowed away other needed items inside.

The footwell under my desk was packrat heaven. It finally reached the point where I was stubbing my toes, so everything got pulled out, sorted, and redistributed. It's still a storage space, but it passes inspection now. So does one arm of my L-shaped desk now that two foot-tall stacks of papers have been sorted and either shredded or filed. Even my side of our closet came under my ruthless attack!

The two biggest accomplishments will be saved for future blog posts. Well, that's not quite true. You've already seen one if you saw yesterday's post about my craft room. The second accomplishment? It usually takes me two to three years to finish knitting an afghan. I just finished one in under a month. (I checked. There are no scorch marks on my knitting needles.) Moreover, I've already gone to my craft room and selected the yarn for my next afghan. If I keep this up, I might start doing "Curl Up With an Afghan & a Good Book" giveaways!

It's almost time for me to curl up with a good book, so I'd better head out to the link corral first. Head 'em up! Moooove 'em out!

►Books & Other Interesting Tidbits◄

• Author Stephanie Wrobel breaks down the nine types of twist endings and the books that executed them best.
• How automobiles helped power the Civil Rights movement. 
• How much grocery store items cost in 1970 vs. 2020.
• Why do British TV shows have so few episodes?
• How did every US state get its name?
• The Smithsonian has released 2.8 million images into the public domain.
• Bullying has always been bad. Social media makes it worse.
• The use-- and misuse-- of mental health disorders in crime fiction.

►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄

• Sold: An ornate piano found on a World War II battlefield.
• A find in Guatemala has revealed early Mayan writing.
• An ancient tree with a record of Earth's magnetic field reversal in its rings has been discovered. 
• A thrift store find has been identified as an original Salvador Dalí print.
• What was hygiene like in Colonial America?
• The effort to save Colombia's underground mountaintop tombs.
• Archaeologists have identified the site of a long-lost chapel razed during the English Civil War.
• Divers have recovered more than 350 artifacts from the HMS Erebus shipwreck.

►Channeling My Inner Elly Mae Clampett◄

• Where predators are scarce, mongooses may transmit more disease.
• How Africa's mountain gorillas staged a comeback. (This makes me think of Dian Fossey.)
• A loggerhead turtle's journey has been tracked 22,991 miles from Cape Town in South Africa to Australia.  
• A dazzling display of seals wins the Underwater Photographer of the Year award.
• Nearly fifty rhinos were killed in Botswana in ten months as poaching surges.
• By watching videos, birds can learn to avoid gross foods.
• A teacher stumbles upon baby bears "dancing" in a forest in Finland and thinks he's imagining it.
• Baby tortoises show up in the Galapagos Islands for the first time in one hundred years.

►The Happy Wanderer◄

• The Providence Biltmore Hotel, an upscale 1920s hotel, is rumored to have inspired some of the most famous horror stories of all time.
• Eight secrets of the Tower of London. 
• The deadliest highway in every state.
• Six of the oldest trees in the world.
• The Palace Green Library was one of the first public lending libraries in England.
• Parts of a Florida highway honoring the Confederacy will be renamed in honor of Harriet Tubman.

►Fascinating Folk◄

• Carolyn Wells: how a prolific mystery author with a penchant for collecting rare books helped to create the "biblio-mystery" genre.
• A glimpse inside the best summer of Emily Dickinson's life.

►I ♥ Lists◄

• Do some armchair traveling with these five international crime novels.
• The stories behind fifteen of the best names famous writers gave to their pets.
• Fifteen books recommended by Gillian Flynn.
• Twenty books that successfully changed readers' minds.
• Seven books for people who like speed.
• John Steinbeck's five most iconic works.
• The most popular quote from the best book set in every state.
• Eight books that will make you never want to look at your phone again.

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.

Stay safe. Stay healthy. Practice social distancing by curling up with a good book!