A Hooray for Progress Weekly Link Round-Up

Alas, last Friday's appointment at the Wound Care Clinic of John C. Lincoln Hospital was not my last, due to a tiny area on my right leg that was still draining an infinitesimal amount. I'm due back there next Friday, and I'm hoping for the all-clear then. 

I do want to give a shout-out to all those who strive hard each and every day to improve healing techniques for wound care. When this first happened to me a little over a year ago, the healing was very slow and, ultimately, unsatisfying. For this flare-up, there was both a new topical cream and a new type of bandaging that has made all the difference in the world. My leg has healed much faster without the daily sloughing-off of huge amounts of dead skin. The deep maroon color of my leg has cleared up much quicker. You wouldn't think something as simple as a cream and a stretchy fabric tube that slips on your leg could make such a profound difference, but it has. This new bandage (called Edema Wear) is also something I can wear in place of those monstrous felt-and-Velcro compression garments that I wore for a year. They're much cheaper, too, and can last up to six months.

Yes, indeed. Thanks to all those who constantly strive to improve health and healing!

You're probably wondering what this sign hanging on a small business in Jerome, Arizona has to do with this link round-up or what I had to say about bandages and healing. Well, Jennie doesn't have much to do with that, but I did find a link to an article about her which I included in the Fascinating Folk section down below.

Jerome is such a fun place to visit that I hope anyone of you who comes to Arizona takes the time to go there. It sits so high up on a mountain that (if you know where to look) it can be seen seventy miles away on the interstate. A billion-dollar copper mining town in its heyday and home to 15,000 people, it was fast becoming a ghost town until it was rescued by artists who came in and revived it beginning in the 1950s. Ever heard of Jenny Jerome, mother of Winston Churchill? Same family that founded this wonderful old mining town.

Enjoy the links!

 ►Books & Other Interesting Tidbits◄

• For those of us who enjoy the television adaptations of Ann Cleeves' books, the cast for the newest series, The Long Call, has been announced. 
• Erik Hoel on the joy and privilege of growing up in an indie bookstore.
• Booksellers talk about the art of the hand sell.
• America's love of male trees could be why you're sneezing right now.
• How the #MeToo movement upended Australian poetry.
• What's the difference between copyright, trademark, and patents?
• A brief history of Old Hollywood's organized criminals.
• Anti-racism titles are all over the list of the ten most challenged books of 2020. (Come on, people! Stop being so scared of everything.)

 

►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄

• A forgotten stone slab may be the oldest known map in Europe. More about it from Smithsonian magazine.
• Why Egypt paraded twenty-two ancient pharaohs through the streets of Cairo.
• Crystals found in the Kalahari Desert challenge assumptions about where in Africa human culture arose.
• Ancient coins may solve the mystery of a murderous pirate in the 1600s.
• This untouched Mayan Jaguar God ritual cave was found full of precious relics.
• A tomb containing three generations of warrior women has been unearthed in Russia.
• An ancient Maya palace was discovered in Yucatán state.
• Archaeologists are uncovering the stories of the past faster than ever before.
• A sixteenth-century shipwreck was discovered beneath Stockholm city center.

 

►Channeling My Inner Elly Mae Clampett◄

• How a vet hospital on wheels rescued wildlife during floods in Australia.
• How studying lemur hibernation could make long-distance space travel easier one day.
• A photographer flying a drone discovers a once in a lifetime shot: three bobcats sitting on a log.
• Watch two determined dachshunds dig out the giant container ship that was blocking the Suez Canal.
• Watch a herd of reindeer create a defensive cyclone with their bodies when an arrow flies overhead.
• Whales are the biggest animals ever to exist. Why aren't they bigger?
• A tiger cub rejected by its mother finds a best friend in a puppy.
• What elephants teach us about consumption and extinction.

 

►The Happy Wanderer◄

• Ian Pearce, the location manager for Lewis, talks about filming in Oxford.
• Brisbane: crime, mystery, and literature in Australia's golden city.
• "I'm your huckleberry" has a double meaning in Old Tucson.
• Take a look at one of the first lending libraries, Palace Green Library in County Durham, England.
• The city and the writer: in Bucharest with Ioana Morpurgo.
• The hottest literary travel destinations to visit when lockdown ends.

 

►Fascinating Folk◄

• The memory of Belgian Jennie lives on in Jerome, Arizona.
• Five women changemakers in American art.
• Why Martha Washington's life is so elusive to historians.

 

►I ♥ Lists◄

• The 100 best, worst, and strangest Sherlock Holmes portrayals of all-time.
• On the rise and fall of fictional rock stars.
• The top ten books about New York.
• The top ten novels set in villages.
• Twenty reading chairs you'll never want to leave.
• The top ten books about children fending for themselves.

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!