Last year I spent a lot of time going through closets, getting rid of things we hadn't used in years, and reorganizing the survivors. In fact, I did that to two entire rooms. You'd think reorganization was so last year.
But it's not.
I'm at it again. Heck, I'm even reorganizing the reorganization I did last year. (I think I have the closet here in the office completely bewildered.) I've done some more work on my side of the closet in our bedroom, and the drawers in the linen closet will never be the same. I've even finished weeding through all the Christmas decorations.
Would someone please stop me?!?
Perhaps the reorganization bug bit me again because my trip to the dentist to have my teeth cleaned wasn't very pleasant. The person who said growing old isn't for wimps spoke nothing but the truth. My dentist for decades has "three-quarters" retired. The woman who cleaned my teeth for decades had to retire to take care of her husband. The staff there is almost completely new. I went in with an open mind, but by the time I left, I'd formed an opinion.
The replacements have invested heavily in high-tech gadgetry. Not only does the hygienist have a very heavy hand with the scraper (pardon my lack of proper dental terminology but I think I left ten years' enamel back there), these new folks are extremely aggressive when it comes to their patients' money. After telling me that I've been brushing my teeth wrong for my entire adult life, the dentist and the hygienist began bandying about words like infection, dangerous, and "you don't want that to happen." Yet when I started asking specific questions concerning infection and danger, they began backpedaling and admitted that these things only needed to be watched, not taken care of immediately. Uh huh.
Why do some folks have to to retire? *whine*
And on that note, it's time to head on out to the corral. Head 'em up! Moooove 'em out!
►Books & Other Interesting Tidbits◄
- How the London accent changed and evolved from the fourteenth century through to the twenty-first century.
- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was also a pioneering science fiction writer.
- The most expensive books and manuscripts in history.
- The Navajo Nation faces a battle to protect its elders and traditions as COVID-19 deaths spike.
- How much did grandmothers influence human evolution?
- A new Ann Cleeves detective mystery, The Long Call, will begin filming in spring 2021.
- Val McDermid's Karen Pirie Scottish detective series will begin filming in April 2021.
- In Canada, the pandemic has been the start of a new chapter for independent bookstores.
►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄
- To survive under siege, Turkey's "mother goddess city" relied on enormous cisterns.
- Squatters issued death threats to Ruth Shady, the archaeologist who discovered the oldest city in the Americas.
- A medieval Chinese coin found in England suggests a vast medieval trade route.
- A hidden part of a Roman road has been uncovered during water mains work in Northumberland.
- A rare Rembrandt biblical scene could fetch $30 million at auction.
- An inscription leads archaeologists to the tomb of one of the last Han emperors.
- The prehistoric buried city of Akrotiri (Greece's Pompeii) was discovered in 1860.
- Ancient Pompeiians stopped at this "snack bar" to feast on snails, fish, and wine.
►Channeling My Inner Elly Mae Clampett◄
- A visit from a dazzling bird drew crowds of people into a Maryland park.
- An experimental COVID-19 vaccine reaches America's endangered ferrets.
- A photographer reveals what whales look like when they snooze.
- Scientists have been eavesdropping on a new population of blue whales singing in the Indian Ocean.
- Watch a drowsy raccoon fall asleep inside a baby bouncer.
- Orangutans make a beautiful friendship with the otters at the zoo while no one is around.
- Watch hungry squirrels enjoy a hearty Christmas breakfast set to a calming soundtrack of acoustic holiday music.
- A puzzled golden retriever puppy befriends a fawn, and their photo goes viral.
►The Happy Wanderer◄
- Rio de Janeiro: Brazil's great city of crime literature.
- Tour the British countryside with these mystery series.
- Satellite images reveal that a third of the United States' rivers have changed color since 1984.
- A strange, existentially chilling pilgrimage to Kurt Wallander's hometown, Ystad.
- Casa Figueroa in Taxco, Mexico, features secret rooms, hidden vaults, and dark escape tunnels.
- A massive lightning strike may have inspired Scotland's standing stones of Callanish in the Outer Hebrides.
►Fascinating Folk◄
- Meet Joseph Rainey, the first Black congressman.
- Rare books librarian Emily Spunaugle is uncovering the women writers of years past.
- Carolyn Wells: How a prolific mystery author with a penchant for collecting rare books helped to create the "biblio-mystery" genre.
- Graham Greene and Dorothy Glover's amazing collection of Victorian detective fiction.
- The strange story of Richard Wright's lost crime novel, Savage Holiday.
- Isabelle Taylor, Lee Wright, Marie Rodell, and Joan Kahn: the women who edited crime fiction.
- Petrus Gonsalvus and his wife Catherine: the true-life inspiration for the classic story Beauty and the Beast.
►Crafty Gems◄
- A Native Oklahoma woman's prom dress is on exhibit in the Smithsonian.
- The state of American craft has never been stronger.
- A man started a knitting group to help people like himself recover from drug addiction.
►I ♥ Lists◄
- Ten historical crime novels that trace the history of New York City.
- CrimeReads' most anticipated crime books of 2021 (all 89 of 'em).
- Eight words for being quiet.
- The top ten most dislikable characters in fiction.
- Late 1960s and '70s pulp and popular fiction about the Vietnam War.
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!
Thanks. Sympathy for the high-tech dental work. Sounds awful. Yes, retiring is not good. My doctor of 43 years retired at 84 last spring. Nothing has been the same since. Corporate medical care has its deficiencies.
ReplyDeleteLike the animal links and others.
But that list of 89 new books for the year is daunting. I'll have to read it in depth and make a list, and of course, pay attention here to what is liked. (sigh) I'll never read every book that catches my fancy.
Neither will I, but I'll have fun trying!
DeleteUgh! I know just what you mean about the new movement in dentistry, and in a lot of rest of the medical field, too. There's a whole new emphasis that I'm not entirely comfortable with, either. And sometimes I think they forget the personal bond, if that's the word, that's so important for good medical treatment. Anyway...thanks for the links. I hear Akotiri calling to me...
ReplyDeleteYes! Going in to see the dentist used to be like visiting family, but these new folks could care less. I suppose they think there's plenty more where we came from so why bother getting to know us. *sigh*
DeleteCathy, totally understand about your dentist and hygienist. My husband got the same speech at his recent teeth cleaning visit - about how he had been brushing his teeth wrong all his life. Ha! And I also have found that I'm now asked at some doctor appointments - when was the last time you fell? Do you think that's an 'over 60' question these days? My husband was asked the same. Ah well. I did enjoy that long, long list of books to anticipate. Some good ones there. Have a good weekend!
ReplyDeleteI haven't been asked when I last fell, but I was labeled a fall risk when I was hospitalized last year-- even though I wasn't! That drove me absolutely nuts. I couldn't even stick a foot on the floor because they had the bed wired to sound the alarm if it looked like I was trying to make a run for it.
DeleteMay the weekend be good to you, too, Kay!
Wow...have I been there. I used the same dentist for forty years but he went into semi-retirement several years ago, and now is fully retired. He sold his practice to a young woman who is nice as she can be but has a whole different approach and does not even try to do some of the more complicated procedures my old dentist did for me in the past. Now for anything out of the norm it's all about specialists and consultants - and the cost goes up as the insurance coverage goes down. Even root canals now require me to go to a stranger for that kind of thing. I haven't had to do it yet, but my wife has - although turns out she loved the stranger.
ReplyDeleteI've had so many doctors retire now, people I've worked with for decades, that I can't even remember the names of some of the new people I'm seeing in their place.
It's a Brave New World, for sure.
Yup. It's a Brave New World, and I have to learn a new way to gird my loins to deal with it. Ah well. It's worth it to be on the right side of the grass.
DeleteI had to go to specialists for root canals and dental surgery for years. I haven't gone for a long time though.
ReplyDeleteI was asked if I fell in the last six months when I went to a new doctor who was asking me questions I had answered on page 1 of the 50-page form they gave me. Then sent me for tests for things I never had, body parts I no longer have, diseases I never had.
It's corporate medical and dental care. And I guess I just want a family doctor and dentist. Are there any left?
I have no idea, Kathy. I would imagine that they are few and far between.
DeleteBoth of my young adult children complain that the dentist/hygienist does a similar thing and can't really tell them what or why they are doing wrong. The why bugs them the most, they have healthy teeth and we have gone to the same dentist/office their whole lives. I see from the comments we are not alone.
ReplyDeleteYes, through these comments I'm realizing that this is rather wide spread. I think one of the things that bugged me the most is that I have healthy teeth and always had glowing reports every six months when I went in to get my teeth cleaned. This most recent visit tried to give me the feeling I had a mouthful of rotten snags.
Delete