The Search for the Perfect Mug Weekly Link Round-Up

 

Absolutely gorgeous weather here in Phoenix, just the weather you want to go gallivanting in. But we aren't. Denis's back still hasn't improved enough for that to be a good idea. There's also a lot on my mind, but I don't feel like talking about any of it, so instead, I'll choose something really important to talk about. (Don't hurt yourself on the sarcasm dripping off the words "really important"...)

I don't like to mess around when it comes to the mugs I use for my tea. No fancy schmancy tiny cups and saucers for me. I want a mug. A big mug. Well, I have had a really big mug for quite a few years now, but recently I decided that I no longer wanted to put up with the flat handle cutting into my fingers. (I think Uncle Arthur is becoming rather persnickety in my finger joints.) Finding a ceramic RBM (Really Big Mug) with a rounded handle is almost impossible. If I did find any, they were either (a) way too small, or (b) butt ugly. I do have my standards, you know.

Well, I finally found something that almost fits the bill 100%. Here's a-- rather bad-- photo...

Ceramic. Pleasing color. And a nice round wooden handle. That handle is perfect. So what keeps it from being 100% perfect? It holds approximately 16 oz., and I want one that's 18 oz. or above. Told you I was serious about a RBM! But this will do nicely while I continue my search. My achy finger joints are much happier.

Now pardon me while I spend a few minutes curating my expanding bookmark collection...

Enjoy the links!

►Books & Other Interesting Tidbits◄

• How does a book exchange work?
• The forgotten Hollywood history behind the term gaslighting.
• Why (and how) you should keep a commonplace book.
• Elmo's rise to stardom. (Which reminds me of how I was responsible for one little girl being the only child in a small central Illinois farm town to receive a Tickle Me Elmo...)
• This under-recognized Agatha Christie novel revolutionized crime fiction.
• Why do some authors' books get a branded look?
• How scholars once feared that the book index would destroy reading.
• What your "unread books" list reveals.

 

►Book Banning◄

• Rereading Fahrenheit 451 in an era of mass censorship.
• Self-censorship in an era of book challenges. 
• How China's fiction writers have learned to survive its politics.
• How the new banned books panic fits into America's history of school censorship.
• Books are back on the shelves in Walla Walla, Washington.
• How faith-based, right-wing money is waging war through book challenges.
• Five underappreciated books by Black authors that have been banned.

 

►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄

• Does an ancient ring found in a shipwreck depict Jesus Christ?
• Researchers now know where the ancient Maya planted their sacred cacao groves.
• Archaeologists have uncovered over 18,000 ancient Egyptian "notepads". More from Yahoo! News.
  
• A 1,500-year-old Roman "flower pot" was actually a port-o-potty.
• One of Pompeii's greatest mysteries may have been solved. 
• The recovery of treasure from the "holy grail" of shipwrecks is moving forward.
• Rare treasures unearthed from the Tower of London's moat sheds new light on the capital's "formidable fortress".
• Scientists have solved a 5,000-year-old cold case by testing a Stone Age skeleton for algae. 

 

►Channeling My Inner Elly Mae Clampett◄

• Ten facts about the biggest animals stars in Hollywood history.
• Watch this conservation worker go to sleep... with a trio of cheetahs. (I've lost track of how many times I've watched this video.)
• These pictures were voted best wildlife photos by people around the world.
• Hunters have killed 24 Yellowstone gray wolves so far this season-- the most in over twenty-five years.
• A colorful history of cats in the White House.
• There are fewer than ten tiny vaquita porpoises left. Can they be saved?
• From cats in the White House to a cat with its own custom fish tank...
• The first-ever aardvark born in an English zoo has been named Dobby after the house elf in the Harry Potter books.

 

►The Wanderer◄

• How Agatha Christie's love of archaeology influenced Death on the Nile.
• This interactive map shows where on Earth you'd be if you dug straight down through the ground.
• The dark heart of New Zealand crime novels.
• Five million shipwrecked Legos are still washing ashore twenty-five years after washing overboard.
• The Little House in Toronto, Canada.
• The world's only sea without a land boundary.
• A tiny English island is looking for a new monarch to run its pub.

 

►Fascinating Folk◄

• Anthony Horowitz on PBS/Britbox's Magpie Murders: "It's the first time I've gotten a TV adaptation right."
• Mabel Fairbanks, the Black figure skating pioneer who never got to compete.
• Ma Rainey, the Black woman who reinvented the Blues.
• Irena Sendler, the woman who saved the lives of 2,500 Jewish children during the Holocaust.
• Dr. Gladys West: the "Hidden Figure" who pioneered GPS technology.
• A possible cause of Jane Austen's early death.

 

►I ♥ Lists◄

• Books that are popular in other countries but not necessarily in the United States.
• Thirty-three must-read South Asian books out in 2022.
• Six novels with twist endings that will leave your jaw on the floor.
• The top ten single mothers in fiction.
• The 100 Best Novels written in English.
• Six New Zealand crime dramas to binge watch.
• Ten vintage books series from he 1990s.
• Eight common phrases with surprisingly dark beginnings.

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!