An Umbrella Stand by Any Other Name Weekly Link Round-Up

 

It's occurred to me that, over these weeks and weeks that Denis has been hospitalized and in rehab, I've gotten used to living by my lonesome again. It's been twenty years since I've been solo in this old ranch house, and although I seem to have slid easily back into that old lifestyle, I'm looking forward to having my darlin' man back with me. For one thing, I'm tired of talking to myself!

 

I've been bustling around trying to put the finishing touches on things, and our caregiver and I have a To Do list to get through on the day this posts. The tentative date for Denis's release is July 24, so I want everything to be ready.

 

One recent purchase was a flat-pack umbrella stand. Now, you might think that's a strange purchase for a desert dweller to make, but who says that just because it's called an umbrella stand means that you have to put umbrellas in it? 

 

Starting to put it together. Technicians were installing a new coil in our air conditioner while I was doing this.

 

All done!

 

The finished piece of furniture holds two purple canes, one orange cane, two camera monopods, and Denis's collection of four "grabbers." (I use a foldable grabber, and have a few stashed in important areas of the house.) In case you're wondering, that canvas hamper holds my yarn leftovers.

 

That may be an umbrella stand, but in Casa Kittling, there's not one umbrella to be found in it. In fact, the last time I had to use a bumbershoot was in 2015 when Denis and I were in the UK.

 

Enjoy the links!

 

 

►Books & Other Interesting Tidbits◄

• According to The Guardian, romantic fiction writers are creating a more diverse happily ever after.
• How much time and money does it take to maintain a Little Free Library?
• Build an outdoor reading oasis.
• Why does it take so long to publish a book?
• A trip down the fake-book rabbit hole.
• I think this qualifies as "speaking out of both sides of their mouths": Amazon, Disney, and AT&T gave to abortion foes like DeSantis while vowing to help their employees.
• They're a 10, but... bookish edition.
• How TikTok became a bestseller machine.

 

►Book Banning & Censorship◄

• With rising book bans, librarians have come under attack.
• How to contact your legislators about book bans (and why it matters).
• How to fight book bans and challenges: an anti-censorship toolkit. 
• How to use the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to uncover book challenges. 
• Billboards with quotes from LGBTQ books were placed in book-banning states. 
• Articles like this make my blood boil: What's happening with the Vinton (Iowa) Public Library.
  

 

►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄

• For the first time, scientists have successfully sequenced the DNA of a man from the Pompeii eruption.
• A head of Hercules and other treasures have been found on the Roman "Antikythera Mechanism" shipwreck.
• A mysterious "vampire slayer kit" sold at auction for $15,600.
• A 1,600-year-old Anglo-Saxon cemetery holds a speared man and a wealthy woman.
• Alignment and artifacts connect Indiana's Angel Mounds to Ohio's Hopewell culture.
• 8,200-year-old burials in Russia contain pendants crafted from human bone.
• An ancient hoard of gold Roman coins has been discovered in a plowed field in the UK.

 

►Channeling My Inner Elly May Clampett◄

• Watch a tuxedo cat escape a shed by turning the doorknob with both paws to open the door.
• There's a monument to a heroic little Cocker Spaniel in a park in Belgrade, Serbia. 
• There has been rare bipartisan agreement on the topic of wildlife conservation crossings. 
• A dolphin has been living solo in this Irish harbor for decades.  
• Watch a wildlife photographer carefully release seven baby owls into their new burrowing pipe home. 
• Mellon, a rescue dog in Florida, sniffs out a snail species that could lead to a meningitis outbreak in humans. 
• A three-legged tortoise seized from smugglers has found a new home in the Chester Zoo in England. 
• Introducing facial recognition software for seals. 

 

►The Wanderer◄

• Human pee might just be the key to saving seagrass.
• Have you visited the McDonald's in Roswell, New Mexico?
• Why Hungarians make the world's most beautiful gingerbread.
• Munich: Raise a beer to southern German crime writing.
• How Scotland is reinventing its centuries-old canals for paddlers.
• Utah's Great Salt Lake is drying out.
• London and the long, dark shadow of Charles Dickens.

 

►Fascinating Folk◄

• Meet Diane Nash, the Civil Rights icon awarded the U.S.'s highest civilian honor.
• Mary Sears' pioneering ocean research saved countless lives in World War II.
• 13-year-old Alena Analeigh Wicker has made history as the youngest Black person to get accepted into medical school.  
• The hidden history of Anna Murray Douglass (wife of Frederick). 
• Where the Crawdads Sing author Delia Owens  is wanted for questioning in a 1990s murder. Here's another article about it from Vulture.
• Ada Límon has been named U.S. Poet Laureate. 
• Susie Steiner: An appreciation. 
• Anna Essinger, the schoolteacher who saved her students from the Nazis.
  

 

►I ♥ Lists◄

• Eight dark academia mysteries to feed your hunger for answers.  
• Ten stories of male friendship. 
• Seven unconventional women at the center of great novels.
• Eight feminist cozy mysteries.
• Bookish patches for readers.
• Twenty-one new and upcoming historical fiction titles to check out this summer.
• Fifteen pretty origami bookmarks.
• Ten thrillers to put you off traveling.
• Ten psychological thrillers featuring nannies.
• Thirteen books about big families.

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 cool. Stay healthy. And don't forget to curl up with a good book!

Enjoy the summer!