The Saturday Night Bath Weekly Link Round-Up

 

I had a treat Saturday afternoon. A female kestrel came to take a leisurely bath in the birdbath right outside the window. This isn't the first time she's visited; I looked out in time to see her cannonball into the fairy duster bush in pursuit of a sparrow a couple of weeks ago. This time she had personal hygiene in mind. (Hot date that night?)

 

While she was bathing, a clueless house finch flew up and landed on an arm of the cactus next door. Evidently, it just thought an ordinary large bird was in there and it would wait until the big bird was done so it would have more flapping room for its own bath. THEN the house finch took a closer look and realized that Big Bird was a raptor. The little bird got an "Oh, sh*t!" look on its face and flew away. Fast. It's a wonder the kestrel didn't hear me laughing.

 

I've crossed all limber body parts in hopes that the video will play properly. 

Enjoy the links!

►Books & Other Interesting Tidbits◄

• A parliamentary report in the UK calls for the government to support and modernize libraries.
• How porcelain dolls became the ultimate Victorian status symbol. 
• A roundtable discussion on Christmas mysteries. 
• Smithsonian Libraries and Archives has opened the "Nature of the Book" virtual tour. 
• Enola Holmes 2 delivers. 
• Document detectives are using smudges and bloodstains to investigate the past. 
• Fifteen years of Kindle: a look back at its setbacks and successes. 
• The Feds have seized one of the largest sites for pirated books and articles. More from Publishers Weekly.
• The Guardian asks: What makes good winter reading? 

 

►Book Banning & Censorship◄

• No, books should not have content ratings like movies.
• Freedom to Read advocates warn of proposed "book rating" bill in Texas and the rising book bans in Missouri.
• A Kansas town is threatening to kick out its library after it refused to remove "divisive"  books.
• Notes from a brutal school board takeover in South Carolina.
• A controversial book conversation heats up at Old Rochester (Massachusetts) regional schools.
• Book challenges have been shot down by St. Joseph (Michigan) Public Schools, but change is coming.
• A Connecticut church held a book giveaway after a school board member's objections to LGBTQ novels.

 

►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄

• A rare emerald discovered in a 300-year-old shipwreck could sell for $70,000.
• The discovery of two dozen well-preserved bronzes from an ancient Tuscan thermal spring is rewriting Italy's Etruscan-Roman history. More from Smithsonian Magazine.
  
• Archaeologists have unearthed a trove of Viking Age jewelry in Sweden. More from Yahoo News.
  
• Protective childbirth tattoos have been found on ancient Egyptian mummies. 
• Archaeologists have discovered a 4,300-foot-long tunnel under an ancient Egyptian temple. (Bring your flashlight, Margot!)
  
• A 5,000-year-old silver ring found in Oman gives a peek into an ancient culture.
• The first sentence ever found in an ancient alphabet, and it's about... beard lice? More from Live Science.
  
• A 2,500-year-old "monumental" temple has been discovered next to an identical set of ruins in Italy. 
• Hundreds of mummies and the pyramid of an unknown queen have been unearthed at Saqqara. (Hope you brought extra batteries for that flashlight, Margot!) More from Popular Mechanics.

 

►Channeling My Inner Elly May Clampett◄

• A student in Australia turned over a rock on the forest floor and spotted an elusive critter that hadn't been seen for 80 years.
• Watch a dachshund and a tortoise play a lively game of soccer.
• The media seemed to go wild for octopuses throwing things at each other. Yahoo News. Laughing Squid. Smithsonian Magazine.
  
• Great white sharks are now a tourist attraction at a beach in San Diego.
• A woman put a GPS tracker on her cat to learn his movements whenever she let him outside.
• Rare albatross eggs go missing from protected nests in New Zealand under suspicious circumstances. (Why did I immediately think of Vera Stanhope's father?)
• Watch divers get hugged by a giant Pacific octopus (which reminded me of Marcellus in Shelby Van Pelt's Remarkably Bright Creatures.)
• Scientists suggest a new layer to crows' cognitive complexity.

 

►The Wanderer◄

• I wouldn't mind visiting the Wendell Gilley Museum in Maine.
• Or the Toltec Mounds in Arkansas. 
• Six reasons Germany is a dream for nature lovers. 
• Elly Griffiths shares ten of the most unusual places in fiction. 
• In response to climate protests, Italian museums may raise ticket prices. 
• The Biltmore Estate's secret passages. 

 

►Fascinating Folk◄

• How stoicism guided Ryan Holiday through opening a small town bookstore in the midst of the pandemic.
• Nine powerful memoirs from veterans.
• Helena Bonham Carter has been named London Library's first female president.
• The enduring legacy of Celia Cruz, the Queen of Salsa.
• Sara Josephine Baker, the doctor and public health pioneer who saved the lives of 90,000 children.
• Fourteen-year-old Leanne Fan has been named America's Top Young Scientist for inventing headphones that treat ear infections.
• The Night of Terror when women were beaten and tortured for the right to vote.
• Twelve facts about author Thomas Hardy.

 

►More Best Books of 2022 Lists◄

• You can vote for SheReads Best Mystery/Thriller of 2022.
  
• Audibles' Best Mysteries and Thrillers of 2022. 
• Indigo's (Canada) Best Thrillers of 2022.
• Booktopia's (Australia) Best Crime and Thrillers of 2022. 

 

►I ♥ Lists◄

• I can see my house from here: 30 great astronaut books.
• Eight mysteries with non-detective main characters.
• Four books remind us that a bookish life can be so fulfilling.
• Twelve clever mysteries with curmudgeonly detectives.
• Twenty-two must-read Indigenous authors.
• Seven books about the pharmaco-industrial complex.
• Six Italian crime dramas to binge watch tonight.
• Nine Christmas novels.

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!