And the Pack Grows Weekly Link Round-Up

 

Last Friday, I was outside, basking in the sun, working on my needlepoint project, and listening to a book when the pest control guy showed up. (We don't want scorpions or roof rats to take up residence, thank you very much.) We chatted for a few minutes, and then he went to work.

A few minutes later, he came back from the far side of the house and told me that he'd just seen two coyotes on the other side of the fence back by the old irrigation ditch. They weren't bothered at all by the neighbors' yappy dog, but weren't too crazy about his presence, so they left. 

 

So Wile E has a companion, eh? I found this interesting, and wished I could get a photo of them at some point.

Coyotes in San Francisco.

A couple of days later, I was checking my NextDoor app and found a video taken a few blocks away of two coyotes trotting down the street, totally uninterested in a little white dog that ran past them. And let me tell you, they were in much better condition than the two animals in the photo above! The two here in this neighborhood look so well-fed, and their coats are so thick and shiny, it's almost as if they're someone's pets. For them to be unconcerned with that little dog tells me that they're getting plenty of food from other sources. Who knows? Maybe they're the reason why we don't have roof rats.

The sun is out after another storm moved through, so don't mind me while I go out to do some more basking in January. 

 

Enjoy the links!

►Books & Other Interesting Tidbits◄

• Aesthetic book pictures for your viewing pleasure.
• Did Jack really need to sacrifice himself for Rose in Titanic?
• Librarians are meeting younger readers where they are: TikTok.
• America's public libraries reflect the systematic failures and social inequality of our country.
• Toni Morrison's rarely seen papers will go on view at Princeton.
• Bookish 2023 planners and reading trackers.
• The story of the romance novelist who allegedly faked her suicide isn't a story about the book world at all.
• This rare Robert Burns book was found in a barber shop... where it was used to clean razors.

 

►Book Banning & Censorship◄

• These students in Texas are fighting to take back ownership of their education.
• Hermon (Maine) parents are concerned over 80+ books they consider sexually explicit. 
• With book bans on the rise, public school districts in St. Cloud (Minnesota) mostly avoid controversy. 
• General Motors funded a program that sends controversial books to U.S. school libraries. 
• How should police handle library book complaints in Louisiana? A district attorney offers guidance. (Personally, I think they have better things to do with both their time and their budget.)
• The Polk (Florida) school board has given a conservative group more time to review books for two new schools. (At the rate they're moving, these two schools will open with no libraries... which may be their intent.) 
• Hempfield (Pennsylvania) area remains stuck on the placement of books in their school library and curriculum. 
• Ohio County (West Virginia) schools book selections draw questions from the public. 
• Here are 5 book ban trends to watch in 2023. 
• What would a perfectly inoffensive school library look like? 
• What anti-censorship groups are actively fighting book bans? 

 

►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄

• Ancient Roman baths have been discovered in Egypt's Temple of Khnum.
• Lasers have revealed five ancient civilizations that were hiding in plain sight.
• Archaeologists have recovered 275 artifacts from a mysterious Arctic shipwreck.
• Quarry workers made an unexpected discovery of a ship from Queen Elizabeth I's reign. More from Smithsonian Magazine.
  
• The secret ingredient in Roman concrete that means buildings can last for millennia. More from Smithsonian Magazine.
• See the lavish Pompeii home owned by two men freed from slavery.
• A giant Viking hall, possibly connected to Harald Bluetooth, has been uncovered in Denmark. More from Smithsonian Magazine.
  

 

►Channeling My Inner Elly May Clampett◄

• Scarborough, England, canceled its New Year's Eve fireworks to let Thor the walrus sleep. I doubt many other places would have put an animal's welfare above a fireworks display.
• Can scientists save the world's tiniest rabbit? 
• The world's first vaccine for honeybees is here. 
• Why do beavers build dams? 
• To save birds from invading Americans, one man in Poland built floating forts.

 

►The Wanderer◄

• The largest exhibition of Vermeer paintings will open in Amsterdam next month.
• Handicraft vendors block the roads to Mexico's Chichen Itza ruin. Sounds like a pain in the neck, but I'd love to wander through those stalls!
• The travel that changed me: Stanley Trollip.
• A new discovery puts Panama as the site of the first successful slave rebellion.
• The new Los Angeles crime canon.
• A guide to Arizona's most striking natural wonders.
• The tree that owns itself.
• Utah's Great Salt Lake is on the verge of collapse and could expose millions to arsenic-laced dust.

 

►Fascinating Folk◄

• My first thriller: Diana Gabaldon.
• Jean Rhys's voyage in the dark. (Her Wide Sargasso Sea is one of my all-time favorite books.) 
• Galla Placidia, the misunderstood Roman empress who willed her way to the top. 
• Who was Yasuke, Japan's first Black samurai? 

 

►I ♥ Lists◄

• Eight authors like Silvia Moreno-Garcia.
• Five biographies of groundbreaking scientific inventors.
• Twenty-one of the best travel books.
• "It changed my world view": leading authors pick eight non-fiction books to change your mind.
• Getting lost in the world's largest stack of menus.
• Items that have become obsolete since the year 2000.
• Ten facts about Diana Gabaldon's Outlander.
• Ten best reads for your book club.

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.

Don't forget to spend quality Me Time curled up with a good book!