A Thank You Jenn McKinlay Weekly Link Round-Up

 

You've all been following along with Denis and me as we start getting out and about with a vengeance now that my leg is cooperating enough to do so. We're both hoping that the weather will start cooling down below 100°F. so we can get back to our favorite haunts of the Desert Botanical Garden and the Wildlife World Zoo, but it hasn't, and I've had to locate new places for us to explore and enjoy someone else's air conditioning. That's where author Jenn McKinlay comes in. (I knew you were wondering.)

As my mind wandered around the Phoenix metro area, I suddenly remembered an interview that Jenn McKinlay did for me all the way back in 2012. In it, she gave the Musical Instruments Museum in Scottsdale two very enthusiastic thumbs up. So I looked it up. One of the top-rated museums in the U.S. and we haven't been there? Well, we're just going to have to do something about that! So we did last week.

The Musical Instrument Museum is absolutely fabulous, and I wore out the battery on my camera phone taking pictures. (I also got to check something off my bucket list.) You know what that means: you'll be visiting the museum virtually in a series of posts in the weeks to come. (Give me some time to sort through almost two hundred photos!) I'll tease you with a photo before heading off to the links, but I also have to thank Jenn for planting that seed. It only took nine years for it to germinate, but boy howdy, now that it has, we'll be going back again and again!

I didn't even know there were such things!

Enjoy the links!

►Books & Other Interesting Tidbits◄

• We lovers of UK TV will have to be on the lookout for this. Murder Island: crime author Ian Rankin writes a murder mystery show featuring the public. Yep. Crime solving hits reality TV.
• On growing up with beloved characters.
• Ian Bogost says eBooks are an abomination.
• Inside the company printing America's community cookbooks.
• Hillary and Chelsea Clinton's HiddenLight options Maisie Dobbs series of novels.
• Afghan women are hitting back at the Taliban with the #DoNotTouchMyClothes campaign after a hijab mandate.
• How denim became a political symbol of the 1960s.
• A mystery written by Tony Hillerman will be filming on location in the Navajo Nation.
• A senator and congressman are condemning Amazon for promoting anti-vaxxer books.
• Dolly Parton's Imagination Library has received an award from the Library of Congress.
  

 

►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄

• Ancient handprints pre-dating the earliest known cave paintings may be the oldest-known art.
• Egypt has opened the ancient tomb of King Djoser after its restoration.
• Archaeologists have discovered a trove of artifacts at the site of a 19th-century Alabama tavern.
• The complicated history of counties in England.
• A hollowed-out, 4,000-year-old tree trunk coffin was discovered in a golf course pond.
• Life in a medieval castle was gross. Actually, it was grosser than you think.
• Fragments of a medieval Merlin manuscript in a Bristol library reveal a "chaster" story.
• How a long-lost perfume got a second life after 150 years underwater.

 

►Channeling My Inner Elly Mae Clampett◄

• Bruce the Parrot uses tools to survive despite a broken beak.
• Watch a border collie repeatedly trying to play Frisbee with a seated statue of Abraham Lincoln.
• Watch hand-reared golden lion tamarin twins thrive under the loving care of the Auckland Zoo.
• How did artifacts, thousands of years old, turn up in a Mississippi alligator's stomach?
• A kookaburra hopped onto a man's lawnmower for an epic selfie.
• Meet Blue, the service dog providing unconditional love and support to his Veteran dad.
• Covid-sniffing dogs just started working at the Miami airport, and they're incredibly accurate.
• A dolphin was rescued from a Louisiana pond after being stranded by Hurricane Ida.

 

►Fascinating Folk◄

• Hank Phillippi Ryan was anchoring the weekend news in Atlanta, and that's when she became a target.
• Lawrence Panther teaches the first Cherokee language class at the University of Arkansas.
• Ma'i, the Polynesian "prince" who took 18th-century England by storm.
• Haidara, the hero librarian from Timbuktu who saved thousands of historical documents from being destroyed.
• Inventing the bra was the least interesting thing Caresse Crosby did.
• Jane Goodall inspired frog-loving Justin Sather to become a global activist.

 

►The Wanderer◄

• The devilishly difficult locks of Dindigul, India.
• How Elvis Presley became a German, Cold War-inspired traffic light.

 

►I ♥ Lists◄

• Five books featuring paintings that reveal emotional truths about their characters.
• Ten novels set in the high country of the American West.
• Eight books that won the Newbery Medal.
• A reading list for National Hispanic Heritage Month.
• Ten bizarre practices from the Victorian Era that can have you scratching your head.
• Contestants are forbidden from bidding $69 and twenty-five other behind-the-scenes Jeopardy! facts.
• The most anticipated books of 2021: Fall and Winter Edition.
• Eight novels for fans of Mexican Gothic.

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!