A Something Weird Weekly Link Round-Up

 

The time is fast approaching when Daisy and Suzanne will be here, and I'm trying to succeed in two totally different objectives: (1) get everything ready for them, and (2) rest up so I have some energy while they're here. 

The only thing I want to mention is that something weird has been going on around here.  For almost a month, I couldn't use the remote to get to the streaming home page on our television. I was doing everything exactly the same as I always had, but I simply could not get on that blasted Roku home page. Denis was not amused every time I asked him to navigate to that page. He was convinced that I'd suddenly lost my mind and had forgotten how to do it.

I knew that-- although my grasp on my marbles is loose sometimes, I had not lost them. Something weird was definitely going on!

Well, guess what? During this last week-- all of a sudden-- I can use the very same remote, using the very same buttons in the very same order, to get anywhere I want to on that TV. Do you have any idea what happened? Any thoughts would be appreciated because I'm stumped!

Have a great weekend, and enjoy the links!

►Books & Other Interesting Tidbits◄

• Writer Tajja Isen tells us how to subtitle your book so people will read it. 
• Drinking with Agatha Christie.
• Dune and the delicate art of making fictional languages.
• How a century of Black Westerns shaped movie history.
• Can song lyrics ever be literature?
• How Indie publishing meets corporate bookselling.
• Wander into this miraculous miniature library with thousands of book made entirely by hand.
• RuPaul's new bookstore dragged for selling controversial books.
• Mr. Darcy's famous wet shirt sells for $25,000.
  

 

►Book Banning & Censorship◄

• The West Virginia House Judiciary inserts stalled library obscenity bill into the Senate AI child porn bill.
• A book pulled from a classroom in West Virginia hints at a larger debate.
• Book bans? Make that "intellectual freedom challenges".
• How the book banning movement is censoring sexual violence.
• The Chino Valley (California) Unified School District board is considering a new policy that could remove books with "sexually obscene content" from school libraries, classrooms, and all other district facilities.
• Stratford (Connecticut) public schools may lose all remaining librarian positions.
• World Book Day finds children are put off reading for pleasure. Why is this in the book banning section? Read it and find out.
• State legislatures are waging war on public schools.
• Books on Black history and immigration were found in the trash by a Staten Island (New York) school, sparking an investigation.

 

►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄

• A tube of ancient red lipstick was unearthed in Iran.
• Words etched into an ancient bronze hand hint at the mysterious origins of the Basque language.
• A metal detectorist unearthed a 1,500-year-old gold ring in Denmark. More from Smithsonian Magazine.
  
• The graves of a Roman family held jewelry, coins, and vials for storing mourners' tears.
• Divers recovered the bell from the wreck of an American destroyer sunk in World War I.
• DNA reveals the presence of Down Syndrome in ancient society.
• 1,000 burials and a medieval village were found in the excavation of an abbey destroyed in the French Revolution.
• Fourteen wrecks that expose "what life was like on slaver ships" have been identified in the Bahamas.
• A Roman fort near Hadrian's Wall reveals that bedbugs plagued Britain 1,900 years ago.
  

 

►Channeling My Inner Elly May Clampett◄

• Hidden DNA found in blue whales reveals they've been mating with other species-- and their hybrid offspring.
• A study suggests that clownfish can "count" stripes on other fish to identify intruders.
• Smithsonian scientists discover a new species of hedgehogs hiding in plain sight.
• The dugong, a huggable, seagrass-loving sea cow, has a new best friend: drones.
• A study suggests that air pollution makes flowers smell less appealing to pollinators. (Makes sense to me.)
• According to a U.N. report, Earth's migratory animals are in peril.
• Two squirrels released into the wild come back often to visit their rescuer.
• Great apes love to tease, poke, and pester, suggesting that the urge to annoy is millions of years old.

 

►The Wanderer◄

• Nassau and the Bahamas: death in paradise.
• A brief history of organized crime in the Florida Keys.
• Are the Great Lakes really inland seas?
• Paris is preparing for the Summer Olympics with a new exhibition at the Louvre.
• You can spend the night in the secret library tucked inside St. Paul's Cathedral.
• A Scottish castle with links to Mary, Queen of Scots' third wedding comes up for auction.
• Gabriel García Márquez's hometown awaits his last book and more visitors.
• Point Nemo, the most remote place on Earth, has space junk and a sea monster.

 

►Fascinating Folk◄

• Longmire series author Craig Johnson talks about its development and its future.
• The forgotten women who shaped the Roman Empire.
• Mildred and Patty Hill, the forgotten sisters behind "Happy Birthday to You."
• Before Beyonce and Taylor Swift ran the world, there was Joan Baez.
• Dolly Parton and sister Rachel Parton George reveal their new cookbook, Good Lookin' Cookin'.
• Aina Cederblom, the Swedish female adventurer who sailed solo around the world.
• Selina Zhang, the high schooler who invented an A.I.-powered trap that zaps invasive lanternflies.
• Mohammed V, the Moroccan sultan who protected his country's Jews during World War II.

►I ♥ Lists◄

• Hulu's Shōgun is a hit. Check out author James Clavell's five best movies and shows, ranked.
• The 2024 Audie Winners for Best Audiobooks.
• Ten of the best bookish gifts for gardeners.
• Women behaving badly: a reading list.
• Thirteen must-read new World War II novels.
• Seventeen books set on islands.
• Books that inspired Oscar-nominated films.
• Saddle up for these Western mysteries.

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.

No matter how busy you may be, don't forget that quality Me Time curled up with a good book!