A Waitin' & Bakin' Weekly Link Round-Up

 

All seven hours of Denis's surgery went well. Wednesday, they removed the drain from the incision in his back, which makes him eligible to be moved to a rehabilitation facility. Physical therapists have been coming in to work with him and to get him out of bed and into a recliner, and that thrilled him to pieces because he was beginning to worry that he was glued to the bed. It's been one week since that surgery, and the pain is beginning to lessen. All good news, I'm happy to say!

 

Now all I have to do is be patient and wait. It's a good thing that I tend to be a hermit because I've been rattling around in this house like a lost soul. Yesterday, I had to hop on my scooter and head to the doctor's office for part two of my annual physical. Just a block down the street, some pillock had parked his pickup on the sidewalk, covering the ADA curb, so I had to trundle out into the busy street for a block until I could get back on the sidewalk. On the way home, the aforementioned pillock was getting something out of his truck. He looked at me and said, "You really shouldn't be out in the street on that thing." I replied (maintaining my sweet little old lady face), "Fancy that. I wouldn't be out in the street if some thoughtless soul hadn't parked on the sidewalk," and I went on my merry way.

 

He didn't respond, but he did have a look on his face that said he wished he'd kept his mouth shut. I got home, brought out the hose and filled all the birdbaths, went inside, made myself some lunch, cranked up the fan in the living room, and sat down to read and eat. I was quite glad to get inside out of the 110° weather!

 

I'll leave you with a look at the new racetrack. I'm looking forward to the day when Denis is home and we can compete. That orange color is temporary, thank goodness. It's already beginning to tone down.

 

Racetrack

 

Racetrack

 

I love how the barrel cactus is growing. There are some "babies" on the back side, too.

Before I sign off, I just want to say thank you for all your concern and support. It means so much to Denis and me. I'd also like to thank a certain Secret Santa who has a knack for brightening my day throughout the year. Y'all are the best! 

Enjoy the links!

 

 

►Books & Other Interesting Tidbits◄

• Mysteries written in the language of flowers.
• How farming gave humans overbites and the ability to pronounce "f" and "v". 
• Is BookTok changing the way we talk about books? 
• Women over the age of 45 love books, and it's time the book trade loved them back. 
• The worst covers of classic books. 
• Electrical fashions. (Batteries not included.)
• Why is every cookbook a memoir now? 
• How the publishing world is muscling in on Hollywood deals. 

 

►Book Banning & Censorship◄

• A Republican delegate in Virginia Beach wants the names of Virginia Beach City Public Schools librarians to know if they're going "rogue" and ordering sexually explicit books.
• What's it like to be banned? Ask the author of one of America's most controversial books.
• Books that are part of the sexual violence curriculum for young students worry Topsham (Maine)-area parents.
• An Enid, Oklahoma LGBTQ+ group is planning a Pride library exhibit after the board changed its policy.
• Which books have been banned in the Greater Houston school districts?
  

 

►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄

• Volunteers have uncovered a rare 4,800-year-old stone circle in England.
• Scientists have recreated Cleopatra's favorite perfume. 
• What 4,500-year-old poop teaches us about the people who built Stonehenge. 
• This 12,000-year-old Wyoming quarry could be North America's oldest mine. 
• Fifty years ago, they traded a grilled cheese sandwich for a painting. Now the painting is worth a small fortune. 
• The lost cities of the Amazon are being discovered from the air. 
• Ancient DNA is revealing the secrets of Pompeii victims. More frrom Smithsonian Magazine.
  
• Temple restoration is revealing the vibrant art of vulture-like Egyptian goddesses. 

 

►Channeling My Inner Elly May Clampett◄

• Watch beavers Maple and Filbert give a tour of their cozy Cascade stream and pond lodge at the Oregon Zoo.
• 5,000 of the world's smallest penguins waddle onto an Australian beach in a record-breaking parade.
• Could ants, termites, and fishes make humans better farmers?
• Cargo ships are killing whale sharks.
• A rattlesnake wakes up an Arizona woman and then takes over her bedroom. (I'm having flashbacks to the time when I unwittingly got into the pool with a snake. Michael Phelps could not have beat me out of the water that day.)
• A zoo in Florida captured the moment when a baby sloth met its father for the first time.
• The illegal wildlife trade is a multi-billion dollar business.
• Dogs, the four-legged crime-fighters of Paris.
• The minerals used in kitty litter could help fight climate change.

 

►The Wanderer◄

• Through a recession and a pandemic, the book business is thriving in Buenos Aires.
• Chicago's Field Museum confronts its outdated, insensitive Native American exhibition. 
• Deep in the Vatican Archives, a scholar discovers "flabbergasting" secrets. 
• This artwork in the American Indian Museum recognizes the sacrifices made by Native American soldiers in Vietnam. 
• Twenty-two of America's best preserved ghost towns. 
• A new candidate for the oldest tree in the world has been discovered in Chile. 
• The world's biggest clone is a 77-square-mile meadow of seagrass in Australia. 

 

►Fascinating Folk◄

• L. Frank Baum, shop window dresser par excellence.
• Joan Carlile was one of Britain's first female professional portraitists. Why isn't she better known?
• Ten memoirs from the friends and family of famous people.
• American Hopwood DePree went online to search his genealogy. Now he's saving his English ancestral castle.
• Imogene Rechtin, the woman who fought to end the "pernicious" scourge of kissing.
• The women who ran Genghis Khan's empire.
• The California chefs showcasing the diversity of Native American cuisine.

 

►I ♥ Lists◄

• Learn the stories behind your favorite sleuths in the Mysterious Profiles books.
• Five Jewish heritage books to read. 
• Seven books where fun and games threaten to turn fatal. 
• New Spanish literature in translation. 
• Eight books with characters you'll want to hug. 
• Twenty must-read road trip books. 
• Ten captivating apocalypse novels. 
• Twelve cozy Irish mysteries. 

 

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!