An Act of Optimism Weekly Link Round-Up

It's almost impossible for me to believe that tomorrow is May 1, but then, ever since Denis retired, I'm lucky if I know what day of the week it is. Thank goodness for Google calendar sending me alerts so I remember all my appointments!

After reading post after Facebook post of friends all registering to attend Left Coast Crime in 2022, I approached Denis about it. It's being held in Albuquerque, New Mexico, which is a (short) day's drive from Phoenix, and I have fond memories of the one I attended here in Phoenix. 

 

I had the idea that Denis wouldn't go for it, but he agreed so quickly that my head is still spinning. Perhaps it's got something to do with the fact that we haven't taken a trip anywhere since 2017. We both like to get out and about and see new things, and Denis has met several authors by attending The Poisoned Pen's events with me, so I guess his giving me the green light should not have surprised me. We're both registered now, and I've made reservations for a room in the hotel in which Left Coast Crime is being held. Call it my act of optimism that things will have returned to some semblance of normal so we can once again attend wonderful things like this. 

To say that we're looking forward to this is a vast understatement.

Enjoy the links!

►Books & Other Interesting Tidbits◄

• How Soviet children's books became collector's items in India.
• The GOP's big bulk book-buying machine is boosting Republicans on the bestseller lists.
• Jack the Ripper and the First Lady of British crime. (No, it's not Agatha Christie.)
• Which trailblazing women should be featured on U.S. quarters? The U.S. Mint wants your suggestions.
• Arthur Conan Doyle's The Sign of the Four and Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray were commissioned at the same dinner party.
• Turns out it's pretty good: Reading first thing in the morning.
• The many missing children of Uttar Pradesh.
• Ice skating as an education for writing crime fiction.
• A word game player's guide to "Q" without "U" words.
  

 

►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄

• Archaeologists solve a decades-old Harriet Tubman mystery.
• The Roman theater of Sagunto.
• A trove of 2,000-year-old bronze mirrors has been found in an ancient Chinese cemetery.
• A pottery shard may be a missing link in the development of the alphabet.
• Why did Cahokia, one of North America's largest pre-Hispanic cities, collapse?
• Take a look at this 4,000-year-old student "writing board" from ancient Egypt. It even has the teacher's corrections in red.
• Construction at an Israeli safari park unearths 1,800-year-old sarophagi.
• Archaeologists discovered a 12th-century bathhouse hidden in a Spanish tapas bar.
• An ancient Roman fish sauce factory was unearthed in Israel.
• Artifacts in gold-lined tombs hint at ancient Greek trade relationships.

 

►Channeling My Inner Elly Mae Clampett◄

• Watch a trio of rescued river otters playfully battle each other in a bucket of ice cubes.
• Watch a man shoo a wild turkey away from his welcome mat using the intercom on his video doorbell.
• This Indian jumping ant can shrink and regrow its brain.
• Mice brawling in a London tube station made for one of the best wildlife photos of 2019.
• The world's tiniest sea turtles keep getting stranded on Cape Cod.

 

►Fascinating Folk◄

• How Ann Cooper Hewitt's forced sterilization led to a mayhem charge and exposed a secret world of medical atrocities.
• Dorothea Dix: the compassionate crusader who revolutionized care for the mentally ill.
• Will Thomas: Confessions of a librarian and historical mystery novelist.

 

►The Happy Wanderer◄

• Milan: Italy's capital of style goes noir.
• Google Earth debuts a new timelapse feature showing a timelapse of the planet's changes since 1984.

 

►I ♥ Lists◄

• The fifteen best nature documentaries according to fans and critics.
• A reading list in praise of the graceless literary exit.
• Ten books about revenge.
• Ten novels set in villages.
• Eleven strange stories from the National UFO Reporting Center.
• Why traveling through fiction is a form of ecotourism.
• The best female friendships in books.
• Eleven facts about To Kill a Mockingbird.

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!