A Postcards from Arizona Weekly Link Round-Up

 

I was reminded recently of a favorite purchase when I was a child and on a summer road trip. One of the best places to stop was Stuckey's. Clean restrooms, good hamburgers, those pecan logs!, but-- most importantly-- the racks of postcards. I had a pretty decent collection of postcards from many of the places we visited, but I got rid of it years ago. Now I'm wondering how well the postcard market is doing. It's had to have taken a big hit from camera phones and the like. I might have to look into that... Any fellow (current or former) postcard collectors here?

 

 

Meanwhile, it's hot here in Phoenix. The only place I've been recently is the wound care clinic. Denis is still going on midnight swims and scaring the cats, and I'm about to finish a watermelon-colored baby blanket. All is well here, and I hope it is where you are, too. 

 

Stay healthy, stay cool, and read plenty of good books. Enjoy the links!

 

►Books & Other Interesting Tidbits◄

• Do authors really need to spend their own money to make a book successful?
• Same river, same man-- one person's adventures in rereading.
• A defense of Agatha Christie's The Mystery of the Blue Train.
• Britain's Simon Templar from The Saint-- and the man who made him.
• A leaked document shows that after almost thirty years, Amazon's original book business is booming.
• Monster smut is the big new thing in publishing.
• In search of the rarest book in American literature: Edgar Allan Poe's Tamerlane.
• TikTok's opaque censorship protocol has led to the development of euphemisms adopted offline, too.

 

►Book Banning & Censorship◄

• The Fort Worth (Texas) Independent School District will return some banned books to libraries after over 100 were pulled for review.
• The Ozark Library (Alabama) announced a temporary closure to remove books, complying with the new state policy.
• School officials in a Florida county seek to be shielded in a lawsuit over book bans.
• Leander (Texas) Independent School District parents call on the district to remove "graphic" and "obscene" books.
• The "Children's School and Library Protection Act" has gone into effect in Idaho.
• Franklin County (Virginia) public schools will review their book policy in an attempt to keep tabs on teens' reads.
• The Oklahoma State Board of Education has rejected a judge's advice to restore a former Norman teacher's license.
• The Prattville (Alabama) library board has filed a motion to dismiss a lawsuit.
• Brazil's unparalleled spate of book bans is a page out of the US culture wars.
• A conservative group in Texas aims to remove over 600 books from schools.
• A study has found that women of color are disproportionately targeted by book bans.
• A US Appeals Court will review its prior order keeping banned books on shelves in a Texas county.
• A law adding specific restrictions to the state's "Age-Appropriate Materials Act" went into effect in Tennessee. 

 

 

►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄

• A 2,500-year-old slate containing drawings of battle scenes and a paleo-alphabet has been discovered in Spain.
• Ernest Shackleton's last ship, Quest, was discovered off the coast of Canada.
• In this ancient workshop, Greeks crushed snail glands to make the purple dye worn by royalty.
• A treasure trove has been recovered from ancient shipwrecks 5,000 feet underwater.
• "Incredibly fascinating" Roman, Iron Age, and Bronze Age settlements have been unearthed in a UK dig.
• The Gilgamesh flood tablet: A 2,600-year-old text that's eerily similar to the story of Noah's Ark.
• A twice-looted Titian masterpiece that was once discovered at a bus stop was put on the auction block.
• A 1,700-year-old "emergency hoard" of coins dates to the last revolt of Jews against Roman rule.

 

►Channeling My Inner Elly May Clampett◄

• Kevin, the world's tallest male dog, died days after receiving the Guinness World Record.
• See 12 captivating bird images from the Audubon Photography Awards.
• Pablo Escobar's abandoned hippos are wreaking havoc in the Colombian jungle.
• Chimpanzees may self-medicate with plants, using the forest as a pharmacy.
• These ten dog breeds make the best hiking companions.
• These stunning butterflies flew 2,600 miles across the Atlantic Ocean without stopping.
• Watch a wild elk play soccer with teenage boys in Colorado.
• Five amazing dolphin behaviors, explained.

 

►The Wanderer◄

• The crime fiction of Montevideo.
• I wouldn't mind visiting the Nachusa Grasslands, 4,000 acres of restored grassland in northern Illinois.
• Inside Fiji's fiery battle against plastics.
• Watch mountain cedar trees sneeze huge clouds of pollen.
• "It's hard to communicate how unbelievable this is": Hurricane Beryl is the earliest Category 5 storm on record.
• Why American sunscreen falls short of the rest of the world.
• How about a visit to Boleskine House in Scotland-- a manor with a history of mysterious fires, magic, and eccentric tales.
• Ow an abandoned elevated railroad in New York City became the popular "High Line" Public Park.

 

►Fascinating Folk◄

• Meet Vivian Maier, the reclusive nanny who secretly became one of the best street photographers of the 20th century.
• Chris Offutt on nature, Appalachia, and the "code of the hills."
• How all-female "juries of matrons" shaped legal history.
• Aphra Behn, the first Englishwoman to earn a living with her writing, is finally getting her due.
• Dr. Marian Pettibone discovered and described new forms of oceanic life.
• The Pay Phone Bandit who baffled the FBI in the '80s.
• The remarkable legacy of artist and feminist Audrey Flack.
• Why Ernest Hemingway's younger brother Leicester established a floating republic in the Caribbean.

 

►I ♥ Lists◄

• Ram Murali's 10 favorite Agatha Christie short stories.
• New Yorkers share their 2024 beach reads and summer books.
• 13 sounds today's kids have probably never heard.
• 10 of history's most misinterpreted quotes.
• How many of these 35 general knowledge trivia questions can you get right?

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!