A Bee's Knees Weekly Link Round-Up

 

The Immersive Van Gogh Exhibition last week in Scottsdale was fantastic. I did get choked up and have tears in my eyes a couple of times-- especially when they played one of my all-time favorite songs while letting me feel as though I were basking inside Van Gogh's work. It would be mean not to tell you the song title, wouldn't it? All right. Edith Piaf's Je Ne Regrette Rien... "I regret nothing"... a sort of anthem of mine. Fortunately no one could hear me singing along with France's "Little Sparrow," and it wasn't lost on me that the song began when a little bird appeared on a tree branch.

I will be sharing a few photos I took, and perhaps one tiny video, but the best videos I won't be sharing due to the music that was playing-- copyright infringement, don't you know.

The bee's knees in the title of this post is due to Denis. Since the daybed is my command center most afternoons, I’ve been telling Denis about some of the bird, butterfly, and lizard activity I’ve seen. This sweetie of mine bought a birdbath and a little solar pump to set outside the window. The critters and I think he’s the bee’s knees.

 

A few years back, we could never have had something like this birdbath in the front yard because we had next-door neighbor children who would come over and steal anything that wasn't nailed down. The neighborhood has really seemed to stabilize since they (and a few others) moved, which is absolutely wonderful.

 

But what does it say about me that I'm still expecting the birdbath to disappear? Ah well. I'll sit here and contemplate the error of my ways while y'all enjoy the links!

 

 

►Books & Other Interesting Tidbits◄

• Abolitionist library workers want library access for all-- and that begins with getting the cops out. 
• In publishing: "hot vaxxed summer" fizzled, but "hot books fall" just might work.
• The endless cycle of book cover trends.
• Louise Penny on crafting a mystery set in the time of COVID-19.
• An unofficial ranking of publishing colophons.
• This eighth-grade class wants to clear the name of an accused Salem "witch".
• Amazon plans to open large retail locations akin to department stores.
• Meet the real-life inspiration behind "Mr Toad".
• Meet the real-life pets who inspired the cozy mystery cover art.
  

 

►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄

• Research has found that an ancient monument linked to King Arthur is older than Stonehenge.
• It seems someone turned the censors loose: A restored Vermeer painting has revealed a hidden Cupid artwork hanging in the background.
• How Scotland forged a rare alliance between amateur treasure hunters and archaeologists.
• In a Chinese cemetery, 1,500-year-old skeletons were found locked in an eternal embrace.
• What does an ancient artifact say about our society? It turns out that it says a lot.
• 2,000-year-old flower offerings were found under the Teotihuacan pyramid in Mexico.
• A health goddess statue has been unearthed in Turkey.
• A Byzantine-Era wine press and gold coin have been found near Tel Aviv.

 

►Channeling My Inner Elly Mae Clampett◄

• Ten fascinating animal documentaries you can stream right now.
• Female hummingbirds can "dress" like males to avoid being harassed. (Having watched more than one female being harassed, all I can say is "Good for them!")
• Darwin, America's first bee conservation dog, helps a researcher sniff out bumblebee nests in Colorado.
• Baby bats babble, just like human infants.
• Why you can't help baby sea turtles on Florida beaches.
• Watch Dachshund siblings compete against each other in the "Weinerlympics" Games.
• Watch a Brazilian actor rescue a baby marmoset from the sidewalk and reunite the tiny primate with its mother.
• Watch a talented dog play a competitive game of volleyball with Norwegian Olympic gold medalists.

 

►Craftsmanship & Artistry◄

• A chat with James Cook, the Van Gogh of typewriter art.
• Normalyn Ablao's "fiber-rich" crocheted cakes, cookies, and pasta.
• Aida Pravia's painted furniture and dollhouse furniture.
• A Bohemian embroidery armchair. (I've done punch needle embroidery, and I know how labor-intensive it can be!)
• Estonian artist Igor Loskutow used a chainsaw to create this fantastic dragon bench.

 

►The Wanderer◄

• Follow the Old Brick Road in Bunnell, Florida.
• Death Valley, California, breaks the all-time world heat record for the second year in a row.
• You might want to find the nearest lamppost when parking on Vale Street in Bristol, England.
• Appreciating America's overlooked, forgotten, and discarded post office murals.
• When Navajo Bridge was built in 1929, it was the only place to cross the Colorado River for 600 miles.
• Can the world's first space sweeper make a dent in orbiting debris?
• Colombo,Sri Lanka-- writing crime in a country once torn apart by violence.

 

►Fascinating Folk◄

• Martin Adler, a 97-year-old World War II veteran, reunited with the Italians he saved as children.
• Josephine Baker will become the first Black woman to enter France's Panthéon.
• Ruth Bader Ginsberg's life will be the subject of a new exhibition at the New York Historical Society.
• Virginia Kellogg: the forgotten screenwriter behind a string of classic noir films.
• Summer Mirabal makes history as the first female police chief of Taos Pueblo.
• The rise and fall of Tudor England's scandalous Boleyn family.

 

►I ♥ Lists◄

• Ten Sci-Fi novels with ragtag crews.
• The twenty greatest romantic comedies of all time.
• Twenty-six actors who asked for their characters to be killed off.
• The forty most influential fiction books of all time.
• The ten best true crime documentaries you can stream right now.
• Twenty odd jobs with America's National Parks.
• The eighteen most memorable trees in literature.
• The twenty greatest movies Hollywood never made.

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!