The Out and About Weekly Link Round-Up

I'm going to try to keep this short and sweet, and I'll explain why in a bit. 

There will be even more photos to share in the future, since Denis and I had a wonderful day at the Desert Botanical Garden Wednesday. We'll be getting out again Monday when both of us have appointments for our first COVID-19 shots.

As you can see in the photo, if you want to visit a place in the Desert Botanical Garden where the wildlife can come right up to you, make sure to stop at the Patio Cafe. This Gambel's quail was barely maintaining proper social distancing.

Now, as to why the short and sweet... my leg that Major Cellulitis fell in love with a little over a year ago is experiencing symptoms that it wants to go down for the count a second time. Since one of the best things for me to do is to keep it elevated-- and since I can't do that sitting here at the computer-- I have a book and some pillows that are calling my name. I really need to get over my dislike of laptop keyboards... If I don't post in my usual fashion next week, just picture me with my leg jacked up and either a book or knitting in front of my face.

Enjoy the links!

►Books & Other Interesting Tidbits◄

• New York City's robber baron library has a flair for the dramatic.
• The Internet Archive demonstrates how they digitize books in their collection one page at a time.
• What happens when a publisher becomes a megapublisher?
• Now online: A free library devoted to West Africa's food heritage.
• What if the Baker Street Irregulars were the ones really solving all those mysteries?
• Why are women so successful as con artists?
• How Navajo physicians are battling the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Stacey Abrams on her new thriller While Justice Sleeps and why she stopped using a pen name.
• Toni Morrison as an editor changed book publishing forever.
  

 

►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄

• The vast mausoleum of the Roman emperor Augustus reopens after decades of neglect.
• Archaeologists uncover an ancient ceremonial carriage near Pompeii.
• A small bowl snapped up for $35 at a garage sale may be worth $500,000, Sotheby's says.
• A tomb painting known as Egypt's "Mona Lisa" may depict an extinct goose species.
• Remnants of an Iron Age settlement and a Roman villa have been found in England.
• 6,500 medieval coins and gold rings were found in a field in Poland.
• CT scans suggest Egyptian pharaoh Seqenenre-Taa-II was brutally executed on the battlefield.
• A natural work of art may be hiding among Indian cave masterpieces.

 

►Channeling My Inner Elly Mae Clampett◄

• Turtles caught in a disastrous oil spill are being treated with mayonnaise.
• The Medina, Ohio Fire Department revived turtles and tortoises with tiny oxygen masks after a shed fire.
• A rare yellow penguin has been photographed for the first time.
• An Alaska woman using an outhouse is attacked by a bear... from below. (I'll bet the next time she goes to the outhouse, she's equipped with an AK-47 and a flamethrower!)
• How the Rice's whale became a new species.
• Himalayan songbirds adapted to the cold by sporting thicker down "jackets."
• To protect local wildlife, feed your cat meatier meals. (You could also try leaving your house cat in the house.)
• Take a look at some photos taken of puppies sleeping in tiny beds at a puppy daycare.
• Panda bears have teeny, tiny babies, and we don't know why.

 

►The Happy Wanderer◄

• The National Park Service's new app will help you make the most of any National Park visit.
• Twenty-five lovely English thatched roof cottages.
• The mansion of the woman falsely blamed for the 1971 Great Chicago Fire is up for sale.
• Historic Blickling Hall in England fights moths with tiny parasitic wasps.
• How the Louvre is protecting its cultural treasures against extreme weather.
• Watch a beautiful timelapse of a boat traveling the Dutch waterways from Rotterdam to Amsterdam.
• Inside the rooms where twenty famous books were written.
• Getting lost in the libraries of Paris researching World War II.
• A linguistic tour of the regional accents found throughout the United States.
  

 

►Fascinating Folk◄

• Eight facts about Fanny Eaton, Jamaican muse to the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.
• The great blues singer Gladys Bentley broke all the rules.
• Ma Rainey, the Black woman who reinvented the blues.
• The once-classified tale of Juanita Moody.
• Maggie Lena Walker was one of the most important Black businesswomen in the nation, and today too few people have heard of her.

 

►Crafty (and Tasty) Gems◄

• These crafty cakes look like they're covered in elaborate embroidered patterns.
• A wonderful series of Rubik's Cube cakes.

 

►I ♥ Lists◄

• Check out the ten weirdest things the TSA confiscated in 2020.
• Explore France with these nine reads.
• Fifteen British mystery novels set in Cornwall, England.
• Six book club favorites to talk about this year.
• Six book-to-screen adaptations to watch in 2021.
• Eleven fun two-player board and card games to play at home.
• The ten most confusing books of all time.
• Ten Australian women writers you should be reading.
• Twenty obscure words to describe collectors.

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!