The He's Home! Weekly Link Round-Up

 

Although the rehab facility seemed to drag its feet when it came to bringing him home, Denis is home at last, and I can't begin to describe how good it is to have him back here where he belongs. He's given his new recliner a rave review, and we spent his first hours home going through the changes I've made, and moving things around a bit to better suit his needs. The morning following his arrival was a telephone blitz-- all sorts of places calling to check to see how he's doing. What? Did they think I was going to lace his coffee with arsenic or something? (I know... by law they have to check up on us.) Hopefully, we can get his schedule for physical therapy set up quickly.

The only other thing that has been going on is the Saga of the Kittling AC. Instead of three to four hours installing a new coil, it took them 7½ because they had to dismantle and rebuild a big section of the heat pump. (Naturally, the new coil wasn't the same size.) Then a few days later, I noticed that the laminate flooring around the heat pump was soggy. I immediately sent up a flare. Since this is the absolute worst time of year to get your AC repaired, they couldn't send out anyone until the next day. The twelve to four window stretched to 6:30 PM. The pump had packed it in and was sending all the water out to be soaked up by the flooring. He installed a temporary pump, and as of this writing, I'm waiting for them to call and schedule the installation of the "permanent" pump. And keeping a sharp eye on the soggy floor.

Before I send you on to the good stuff, I'll share a photo I took shortly after Denis's arrival Monday. Sometimes a picture is worth way more than a mere thousand words.

Denis in his new recliner after weeks and weeks of being gone.

 

Enjoy the links!

►Books & Other Interesting Tidbits◄

• What discourse regulation by social media giants means for democratic societies.
• On James Patterson and diversity in crime fiction. 
• Romance novels are getting increasingly hot and heavy in the kitchen. (Move over bodice rippers, it's all about apron tuggers now.) 
• Not to be confused: Book title edition. 
• Southern Gothic crime fiction: a palimpsest and primer. 
• Conlangs: how many fictional languages are there? 
• Is it fake news? How to evaluate the news sites you're reading. 
• This interesting video explains why people looked a lot older in the past than they do today. 
• How guillotine haircuts became all the rage in France. 

 

►Book Banning & Censorship◄

• The ACLU is investigating the Nampa (Idaho) School Board book removal.
• A group of mothers demanded that the books in a Coventry (Connecticut) library Pride display be burned. Yes. You read that right. They want to burn books.
• A man in Florida has sued a library board over LGBTQ and anti-racism books, using one of the nuttiest arguments possible.
• Parents discuss banning books at a Madison (Mississippi) School Board meeting.
• Independence (Missouri) parents are divided over their school board's banning a book over a nonbinary character.
• "A slippery slope": residents defend a Dixon (Illinois) library following a push to remove LGBTQ comics.
• The correlation between sundown towns and book bans: Forsyth County, Georgia.
• The book ban movement has a chilling new tactic: harassing teachers on social media.
• This library director resigned after continuous dramatics over featured books. 

 

►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄

• The secrets of a long-overlooked cipher linked to Catherine of Aragon are being revealed.
• The 17th-century Spanish galleon that inspired The Goonies may have washed ashore in Oregon. 
• An ancient sanctuary used by Roman soldiers nearly 2,000 years ago has been discovered in the Netherlands.
• Archaeologists have unearthed a Roman mosaic in a rural British town. 
• The second ever soldier from the Battle of Waterloo has been unearthed... with his teeth intact. 
• Everyone wants to cast the blame on someplace else. Manuscripts and art support archaeological evidence that syphilis was in Europe long before explorers could have brought it home from the Americas. 
• The earliest known images of two Biblical heroines have been unearthed in Israel. 
• A hidden Van Gogh portrait has been found on the back of a painting at the National Galleries of Scotland. 

 

►Channeling My Inner Elly May Clampett◄

• Hawaiian waters may get too hot for breeding humpback whales due to climate change.
• The maned wolf is a strange cross between a fox and a deer, and you've never seen anything like it.
• A bizarre translucent "Jell-O fish" has been pulled from the icy depths in Alaska.
• The lost art of looking at nature.
• "Pawternity leave" is a real things and a few companies are leading the way.
• Seal strandings in Maine have been linked to bird flu.
• Have antillean manatees crossed the Panama Canal into the Pacific?
• Wild bats can remember sounds for years.

 

►The Wanderer◄

• Inside Rome's secure vault for stolen art.
• A tour through Italy's massive "Museum of Abandonment."
• What human-made structures can be seen from space? 
• The mystery of the world's least American cactus. 
• Preservationists say that the Library of Congress makeover plan is vandalism. 
• Wildfires blaze in London during a record heatwave. 
• The best places to discuss books online.
  

 

►Fascinating Folk◄

• One name, two writers: the story of Michael Field.
• Parveena Ahangar, the Iron Lady of Kashmir.
• Meet the authors with Philadelphia ties working to diversify children's books.
• Jim Thorpe's stripped Olympic gold medals have finally, officially been reinstated. More from Smithsonian Magazine. A 110-year wrong has finally been righted.
• After more than 150 years, sculptor Edmonia Lewis finally gets her degree.
• The bookish life of Dolly Parton.

 

►I ♥ Lists◄

• Seven locked-room mysteries that will keep you in suspense.
• Seven frosty thrillers to cool you down on sweltering summer days. 
• Nine books about women who can't get out of their heads. 
• Fifteen thought-provoking non-fiction reads for your book club.
• Fourteen ways to get out of a reading slump. 
• The best places to find audiobook narrator jobs for beginners. 
• Bookish magnets. 
• Almost perfect: 55 movies with 99 percent ratings on Rotten Tomatoes.
• The top ten TV dramas for those who like true crime. 
• Five brilliantly plotted mysteries recommended by Louise Penny. 

 

 

That's all for this week! Don't forget to stop by next Friday when I'll have a freshly selected batch of links for your surfing pleasure.

 

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