A Surprise, Surprise, Surprise Weekly Link Round-Up

 

Denis and I love to watch three or four game shows on cable. We don't record them, so we have to live through the commercials. Fortunately, few of the commercials are political advertisements. When they are-- regardless of political party-- I make use of the remote's MUTE button. As for the others, I made Denis laugh with a comment or two of mine. If you believe all the commercials, you'd swear on a stack of Bibles that all the women in the U.S. have leaky bladders. I know that can't be true so at least once I'd like to see one for male incontinence. Just once. That's all I ask!

And with the pandemic, another type of commercial has reared its annoying head: those centered around kids running amok in the house and ruling the roost. The ones that bug me the most are the ones that show parents being "forced" to bribe their children to eat a mouthful of healthy food by giving them mouthfuls of junk food. This is wrong on so many levels-- and don't even get me started on fruit bowls!

Something did actually happen here at Casa Kittling-- the exercise equipment finally arrived, the box weighing in at well over one hundred pounds. Just horsing the box inside the house and getting it unpacked wore Denis out, so I can't wait to see what happens when he starts using the machine. (I can't wait to see what happens when I start using it, too.)

Denis did find out that the instructions (or as he likes to call them the "destructions") lied. They said that the machine could be assembled in thirty-eight minutes. I didn't keep an accurate check, so all I will say is that it took well over that allotted time. Wonder of wonders, however, I did not hear one swear word come from the dining room the entire time.

Another surprise came yesterday when I opened my mail. I've spoken of my insurance woes in the past. The two years running when the insurance company told me I was paying too much so I didn't have to pay my premiums the rest of the year only to have the government tell me come tax time that I didn't pay nearly enough, so I owed thousands. Well, the insurance company sent me a rebate check that, although it doesn't come anywhere near reimbursing me for all that money I had to pay at tax time, it does pay for the exercise equipment. I'm going to overlook the imbalance and call it a win. You probably would, too.

Before I mosey out to the link corral, here are a couple of photos of our new dining room furniture. It's going to get a lot more use than what was originally in there. Head 'em up! Moooove 'em out!

 

 

►Books & Other Interesting Tidbits◄

• Solving the decades-old mystery of the white box that fell from the sky.
• Obsession and desire in an ancient Assyrian library.
• Do we have the Victorians to thank for consumerism (and clutter)?
• Inside the intricate translation process for a Murakami novel.
• American Libraries on virus-responsive design.
• Why friendship books were the 17th-century version of Facebook. Here's more on the subject from the Colossal website.
  
• When tuberculosis struck the world, schools went outside.
• Some amazing portrait art created on old manual typewriters.
• A woman in a man's world of crime.
  

 

►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄

• A painting deemed to be fake and consigned to storage may be a genuine Rembrandt.
• Archaeologists believe they have found the world's oldest human bed.
• Thieves have stolen a 17th-century masterpiece for the third time in thirty-two years.
• Monkeys have been found buried in a 2,000-year-old Egyptian pet cemetery. A Smithsonian Magazine article on scientists who have been "digitally unwrapping" Egyptian animal mummies.
  
• College students have unearthed a massive Triceratops skull.
• Archaeologists have found a 1,200-year-old soap factory in Israel.
• Newly discovered plans show a big last minute change to the Statue of Liberty.
• Workers replacing a church floor found a hidden chamber of historic coins.

 

►Channeling My Inner Elly Mae Clampett◄

• Wildlife Photographer of the Year: How many crocodiles can you see?
• A tiny rhino calf with the zoomies runs in circles around her hungry (but watchful) mother. (The second video clip is the best.)
• A rare black panther shadows his leopard mate in an incredible photograph.
• High-tech tracking is revealing a "whole new secret world of birds."
• Painting wind turbine blades black help birds avoid deadly collisions.
• A wolverine family has made a home in Mt. Rainier National Park for the first time in one hundred years.
• The Stuff of Nightmares: How Titanoboa, the 40-foot-long snake, was found.
• The giant panda mama has given birth to a tiny cub at the National Zoo.

 

►Fascinating Folk◄

• Charlie Parker and the language of jazz.
• In 1815, thousands of people came to watch George Wilson, the "Blackheath Pedestrian," walk 1,000 miles. (Did a certain song come to mind?)
• Photographer Rizwan Mithawala turned his Mumbai window into a butterfly garden.
• Two Northern women-- one Black (Eleanor Mire) and one white (Debra Bruno)-- both trace their family roots back to the same enslavement.
• How did Amelia Earhart raise the money for her flights?

 

►The Happy Wanderer◄

• The crime novels of Istanbul.
• The University of Arizona stopped a COVID-19 outbreak by following the feces. You gotta do what you gotta do.
• Peeled Kiwi fruits that are cleverly carved to look like Mike Wazowski from "Monsters, Inc."
• You won't believe the artwork hanging from the facade of the Olomouc Museum of Art in Czechia.
• Wow! The impressive geometry of Malaysian layer cakes.
• Why the first monument of real women in Central Park matters-- and why it's controversial.
• Tiny needle felted animals that are adorably realistic.

 

►I ♥ Lists◄

• Diverse, women-authored novels set in remote and forgotten places.
• The 45 best bad reviews of In Cold Blood.
• Bella Ellis's top five female detectives, real and imagined.
• Seven best-selling 19th-century female novelists you've never heard of.
• Top ten books about Florence.
• Six suspense novels that could only take place at the seashore.
• Top ten books about boarding school.
• The fourteen best British murder mysteries and crime dramas on Acorn.

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. And don't forget to curl up with a good book!