A Different Angle Weekly Link Round-Up

 

I've been enjoying myself these past few days, playing around with all my Christmas decorations, deciding which ones to use, and coming up with new ways to use many of them. When you get some mobility issues like I have, you may want to put up all your lights and thirteen Christmas trees, etc., but climbing up and down ladders and step stools and crawling around on the floor and underneath furniture? No, thanks.

It is what it is, and I thought that I might be a bit depressed by not going all-out on decorating this year, especially since I missed out last year completely. There was one period in my life that the only rooms in this house that I did not decorate for the holidays were the closets. I'm not kidding! But guess what? I've been enjoying firing up the old grey cells and coming up with new ways to use decorations that I've had for years. When I post my photos later on in the month, you'll see what I mean.

I've also learned an important lesson. You don't need Christmas trees to bring holiday spirit into your home. As you can see in the photo, it's simple to add a few touches-- like hand-knit dish cloths and dish towels as well as needlepoint mats-- in the right colors to put the sparkle in your eye and a spring in your step. Yes, I know that a person's attitude and actions are really what bring holiday cheer into the home, but decorations can be a very good catalyst, don't you think?

This holiday season is going to be very different for many, many people around the world. Nothing is going to change here because Denis and I always celebrate Christmas together quietly. But my heart aches for everyone who wisely decides to forego large family gatherings in order to keep everyone safe. Be kind to yourselves. Do what you can to brighten the season. Sometimes it just takes looking at something from a different angle.

Now where did those links go? Head 'em up! Moooove 'em out!

►Books & Other Interesting Tidbits◄

• Audible bows to pressure and changes its returns policy.
• What a book cover can do.
• How (not) to teach kids about Native cultures.
• The story behind eight New Yorker covers.
• Alan Rickman's 27 volumes of diaries are to be published as one book. (I love that man's voice!)
• Immigrant families who learned English from Alex Trebek share stories in his memory.
• The true story behind Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds.
• Silverprint, the producer of Vera, will adapt Ann Cleeves' novel The Long Call for ITV.
• Dive into the true stories behind your favorite historical fiction books.

 

►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄

• Discovered: This 7,000-year-old well is the world's oldest wooden structure.
• These early John Constable sketches spent 200 years forgotten in a family scrapbook.
• This missing Australian masterpiece spent 115 years hiding in plain sight.
• Charles Darwin's notebooks have been reported stolen from Cambridge University.
• Hegra, an ancient city in Saudi Arabia untouched for millennia, makes its public debut.
• This ancient Scythian shoe preserved for 2,300 years was discovered in the Atlas Mountains. (The workmanship is incredible!)
• A shipwreck exposed by erosion on the Florida coast could be 200 years old.
• Hundreds of pure gold Roman coins have been found in Italy.
• Researchers excavating a Norwegian Viking ship burial find the remnants of an elite society.
  

 

►Channeling My Inner Elly Mae Clampett◄

• Tegus (four-foot-long lizards) will eat anything, and they're invading the Southeastern United States. Yikes!
• This helpful dog loads his bowl into the dishwasher.
• A robotic spy penguin captures the sight of hatching Emperor penguin chicks at their father's feet.
• A super rare dwarf kingfisher has been photographed for the very first time.
• The Audubon Nature Institute in New Orleans, Louisiana, welcomed a critically endangered gorilla baby.
• This raccoon sits like a human and eats grapes from a jar.
• Have you ever seen a chicken enrichment exercise wheel? Neither had I.
• In social insects, researchers find clues for battling pandemics.

 

►The Happy Wanderer◄

• Why National Marine Sanctuaries are another of America's best ideas.
• So this was the Tyne Bridge-- the medieval crossing that linked Newcastle and Gateshead? 
• Poverty Point World Heritage Site near Pioneer, Louisiana, contains some of the largest earthen mounds in North America.
  

 

►Fascinating Folk◄

• Love and murder with Jo Nesbø.
• The literary life of Octavia E. Butler.
• Local teen Dylan Campshaw has been nominated for Nickelodeon and Time Magazine's Kid of the Year honor.
• My mother, the mystery writer (Orania Papazoglou aka Jane Haddam).
• Censorettes: the women wartime censors who kept the Allies safe and uncovered a nest of spies in Brooklyn.
• Daughter of celebrated writers Ross Macdonald and Margaret Millar, Linda Millar's brief life was full of tragedy.
  

 

►Crafty Gems◄

• This Japanese artist hand-cuts an intricate octopus from a single sheet of paper. You won't believe the detail!
• Homemade pies that feature pop culture themes.

 

►I ♥ Lists◄

• Smithsonian Magazine's ten best books about travel of 2020.
• Smithsonian Magazine's ten best books about food of 2020.
• Eleven delicious Thanksgiving cozy mysteries (for next year).
• Five epic works of mountain literature.
• Elena Ferrante names her forty favorite books by female authors.
• Top ten books about great thinkers.
• Eleven great British Christmas mystery novels.
• British renovation and house hunting shows you can stream for free on Tubi TV.

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!