A Michelin Mummy Armor Weekly Link Round-Up

It's been three weeks since I last left the house. That time, it was to go to the lymphedema clinic. Guess where I went to Wednesday? You got it. The lymphedema clinic. Wow, such an exciting life I lead, but-- you know what?-- I have what I need, I'm healthy, and (if I ignore my cabin fever) I'm happy. That is what matters.

I went to the lymphedema clinic to have the next layer of compression garments fitted: the ones for my thighs. The photo I'm using isn't 100% correct because I have different compression garments for the calves of my legs, but you get the idea. All the pieces are heavy. All the pieces are hot. Perfect for life in the Sonoran Desert now that it's over 100°F. What absolutely blew my mind is that, twenty minutes after being fitted, the right leg garment already needed to be cinched tighter. These are designed to need to be tightened every six to eight hours, so now you know why the therapist and I were so stunned.

Now... whenever things like this fight with lymphedema happen to me, I have to find some sort of humorous spin to put on them. It's how I roll. I've already told Denis that I feel like I'm an understudy to the Michelin Man, and last week, I compared getting into my gear to donning a suit of armor. But when I look at this photo of what I'm wearing on both legs from foot to groin, I know what's really going on.

I'm an understudy for the next blockbuster movie featuring The Mummy. Hollywood, here I come!

Enjoy the links!

►Books & Other Interesting Tidbits◄

• Pakistan hired 63,000 people, unemployed by COVID-19, to help plant ten billion trees.
• The bizarre newspaper hoax that nearly ruined Lizzie Borden.
• A doctor finally explains the age-old question: Why do paper cuts hurt so much? 
• Book clubs and the Blitz: How World War II Britons kept calm and got reading.
• Oops! A cleaner went into a library in England during the lockdown, gave the place a thorough clean... and rearranged all the books in size order.
• How the pandemic is affecting the Navajo Nation.
• More ways to help librarians and archivists from home.
• From the best of times to the worst: a tale of two Phoenix-area bookstores. (Yes, one of them is The Poisoned Pen.)
• The brothers who hoarded 17,700 bottles of hand sanitizer avoided a fine after donating all their hoard.

►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄

• Coal miners in Serbia discovered a Roman-era shipwreck buried in their mine.
• Disturbing evidence has been found of an ancient Paleolithic village that was wiped out by a comet.
• Researchers reveal hidden details in Vermeer's Girl With a Pearl Earring. 
• Researchers uncover new evidence that warrior women inspired the legend of Mulan.
• Why Scottish archaeologists are building a replica of an Iron Age stone tower.
• Archaeologists have unearthed remnants of a lost Scottish wine-bottle glass factory.
• A 300,000-year-old stick suggests that our human ancestors were skilled hunters.
• Three U.S. planes lost during World War II have been found in a Pacific lagoon.

►Channeling My Inner Elly Mae Clampett◄

• Take a virtual dogsled ride in Fairbanks, Alaska.
• A hero shrew's extreme, superstrong backbones are the stuff of legends.
• Hurricanes make lizards evolve bigger toepads. (Necessary when you have to hang on for dear life!)
• A new vaccine offers hope in the Chincoteague ponies' battle against swamp cancer.
• Mama leopard stops traffic to teach her cubs how to cross the road. (Why is there always one child who won't cooperate?) 
• Paleontologists have found Antarctica's first frog fossil.
• Meet the new species of snake named after Salazar Slytherin of the Harry Potter franchise.
• Despite their differences, dogs and horses find common ground in play.

►Mother Nature Responds to COVID-19◄

• Whales are basking in newfound silence. 
• COVID-19 restrictions may boost leatherback sea turtle nesting.
• Air pollution in major cities has dropped by as much as 60%, thanks to shelter-in-place policies.
• As people stay home, the Earth turns wilder and cleaner. These before-and-after images show the change. (Let's face it, we're the worst thing that ever happened to this planet.)
• Washington, DC has its cleanest spring air in twenty-five years: how air quality has improved during the coronavirus crisis.

►The Happy Wanderer◄

• I loved looking at all the photos of this old mining hotel in Jerome. (It's on the market for a mere $5.9 million.) Daisy has added Jerome to her itinerary the next time she visits.
• Twenty-three of the best 3D virtual tours of British museums, castles, churches, and stately homes.
• This Driftwood & Sand Festival in New Zealand turns detritus into offbeat art. 
• More reasons to move to New Zealand: a literary guide.
• At Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's garden is still growing.

►Fascinating Folk◄

• Laura Lippman uses fashion to tell stories during quarantine.
• Catherine Aird: A Crime Reader's Guide to the Classics.
• Gilded Age women who got away with murder.

►I ♥ Lists◄

• Seventeen light and uplifting feel-good British movies you can stream right now (and one you can't).
• Nine deliciously distracting family sagas.
• Twenty-four of the best feel-good books.
• Crime novels in the time of plague.
• Fifty things we've learned about the Earth since the first Earth Day (which I participated in).
• Ten iconic crime fiction series of the 1960s.
• Twenty-one new and classic books to keep you in touch with the natural world.
• Ten virtual book clubs you can join now-- and how to start your own.

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 good books!