A Break Out the Camera! Weekly Link Round-Up

 

Before Wednesday, I would have been able to tell you that I could count on the fingers of one hand how many times I'd left the property in 2022 and still have two fingers left over. As of Wednesday, I only have one finger left over!

 

Since getting ourselves around on an electric scooter and a motorized wheelchair is a bit problematic, planning a pleasure trip isn't easy, but on Wednesday-- thanks to Adam, who uses his van to transport the "less mobile" around the valley-- Denis and I got to spend three blissful hours at the Desert Botanical Garden.

 

Almost every scrap of 2022 has been filled with pain and anxiety for us here at Casa Kittling, and this trip was the first pleasure trip for us both for this entire year. We didn't care that it was 100°; we soaked up the heat and the sun and the flora and the fauna like they were manna from heaven. Denis and I both were beginning to have trouble keeping a good grip on our sanity, and this outing was just what our inner doctor ordered.

 

Denis, thrilled to be someplace that wasn't a doctor's office, hospital, or rehab facility. What a year this has been!

 

We have vowed to do something like this at least once per month, and nothing had better throw a monkey wrench into our plans. Almost three months ago, Denis and I applied to the City of Phoenix Dial-a-Ride program, which would make getting out and about much easier, but we haven't heard a peep from them. Hopefully, we will soon because I don't want to go back into a doctor's office to get another waiver signed!

 

If you're wondering if there will be photos from the Garden, yes, there will be. I just don't know when.

 

Enjoy the links!

 

 

►Books & Other Interesting Tidbits◄

• On the political weaponization of words: from "miscegenation" to "groomer".
• The liberating and sexual potential of gender nonconformity circa 1611. 
• How to keep your book club from becoming a wine club. 
• The importance of setting in crime fiction. 
• Why the writer is not impressed by the number of books you've read. 
• How to find the author behind the pseudonym. 
• Allen Eskens on why lawyers make such good (and bad) mystery novelists. 
• The long road to translating books into English. 

 

►Book Banning & Censorship◄

• Ibram X. Kendi on his new book and why kids today need the type of books being banned.
• The American Library Association's latest book censorship data.
• An EveryLibrary poll has found that book bans are widely unpopular with voters.
• PEN America's sobering new report shows that over four million students have been impacted by book bans.
• The banned books you haven't heard about.
• A Colorado library board has voted to ban book bans. (I wish I could turn cartwheels...)
• Chuck Keller: "I'm a retired teacher. I know you can ban books, but you can't ban their ideas."
• A new report shows that Texas has banned more books than any other state.

 

►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄

• Lion-sized otters prowled Ethiopia three million years ago. Yikes!
• Skulls have been found with "surfer's ear", suggesting there were pearl divers in ancient Panama. 
• An early medieval woman was buried with a rare object: a metal folding chair. 
• "Massive trauma" has been found on 1,000-year-old South American mummies. 
• A Palestinian farmer discovered a rare ancient treasure in Gaza. 
• Archaeologists have found that a wrongly identified 1,800-year-old structure in Israel is actually a Roman temple. 
• A hoard of Islamic-era gold and silver coins has been found behind an Egyptian temple. 
• A prominent Egyptologist claims he has discovered the lost mummy of Queen Nefertiti. 

 

►Channeling My Inner Elly May Clampett◄

• An emotional support dog is the only thing that chills out a cheetah.
• How cheetahs vocalize their needs.
• Scientists are using these high-tech tools to study bird migration.
• California says the beaver can be a superhero in fighting climate change.
• Eebbers, TSA's "cutest canine", has retired after almost ten years of service.
• Wildlife conservation tends to save charismatic species. That may be about to change.
• Watch a Jacana father save his chicks from a crocodile.
• This photographer has captured the undeniable similarities between dogs and their humans.

 

►Fascinating Folk◄

• The true stories of the women on the front lines of America's fledgling intelligence services.
• Kate Atkinson: a crime reader's guide to the classics. 
• Nina Totenberg looks back on her decades-long friendship with Ruth Bader Ginsberg. 
• The other Monuments Men. 
• Arnold Rothstein: New York's first criminal genius. 
• Erica Hart has been hailed as a hero for the unique way she's found over 200 lost dogs. 

 

►The Wanderer◄

• The world's largest collection of standing totem poles keeps getting bigger.
• Florence (Italy) fiction: a criminal renaissance.
• Watch as 1,000 drones create a magnificent light show over Black Rock City during Burning Man 2022.
• Doctors in Brussels are prescribing free museum visits to boost mental health.
• How Vietnam's ancient whale temples are helping science.

 

►I ♥ Lists◄

• Los Angeles has been obsessed with healthy food for a century, and these cookbooks prove it.
• Ten epistolary novels for literary letter lovers. 
• Pre-Revolution Chinese detective fiction. 
• Ten novels about Turkey. 
• The worst character names in the history of literature. 
• One misconception about each U.S. state. 
• Thirty words Merriam-Webster just added to the dictionary. 

 

 

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!