A Territorial Weekly Link Round-Up

 

All's quiet on the Kittling Front. My muscles are behaving themselves. So are Denis's. I've been playing hooky from some of my usual duties and spending that time with my nose stuck in a book. Things are so quiet that I thought I'd tell you what has (or has not) been going on in our back garden.

The critters here tend to be territorial. When I see video clips of dozens of hummingbirds crowding peacefully around feeders, I am in awe because the hummingbirds here will expend untold amounts of energy to chase each other away from the feeders we have hanging in our back garden.

We have also had an endless parade of cats (most of whom I do not believe are feral) through our back garden, usually during the wee hours of the morning when they're caught on our security cameras. Like the birds, they appreciate all the birdbaths and fountains that are kept filled with water. It would be nice if they, like the birds, did not damage any of our property. But I'm beginning to digress.

Like I said, every night it's been an endless parade of marauding cats. Until about two weeks ago. Denis likes to go out at night and swim in the pool during the summer... and that's when the cats stopped showing up. Their absence probably has something to do with their owners moving and taking the cats with them, or a pack of coyotes that are now in this area, but I thought of a more amusing reason for the cats to stay away.

 

 

One night when Denis came in from his swim, I mentioned the absence of felines and asked him, "What are you doing? Marking your territory?" We're still laughing about it.

 

Here's hoping you're all staying cool, healthy, and happy, with plenty of good books to read. Enjoy the links!

►Books & Other Interesting Tidbits◄

• Why books evolved from a square to a rectangular shape.
• Scholastic will publish a new Hunger Games novel by Suzanne Collins.
• Quiz: Can you identify these classic detectives from their descriptions?
• It's time we added full credit pages to books.
• Bookmarks: the definitive ranking.
• The American novel has a major problem with fat people.
• A majority of Canadians now get their books for free.
• What Covid did to fiction.

 

►Book Banning & Censorship◄

• The Mission (Texas) Conroe Independent School District agreed to remove 676 books.
• The Athens (New York) library director resigned following an internal pushback over a book display.
• A Souderton (Pennsylvania) area high school purged 3,224 library books.
• Howard County (Maryland) students were mostly quiet about book bans-- until now.
• The Great Barrington (Massachusetts) teacher who is suing over an incident in which the police came to her classroom to search for inappropriate books has resigned, saying the school is no longer safe for her.
• A St. Charles County (Missouri) library board has scrapped its plan to close three branches.
• A polarized Huntington Beach (California) City Council is squabbling over a library proposal process.
• DeSantis has vetoed all arts grants in Florida.
• The Prattville (Alabama) Library is poised to rescind its ban on LGBTQ+ books for minors.
• LGBTQ+ librarians grapple with attacks on books-- and on themselves.
• South Carolina is poised to impose a draconian censorship regime on school libraries. 
• Iowa state senator Sandy Salmon tells schools to use Moms for Liberty's BookLooks to remove books.
  

►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄

• Ramesses II's sarcophagus has finally been identified thanks to some overlooked hieroglyphics.
• Miniature Fabergé animals that enchanted the ROmanovs and other royals were put up for sale.
• Groundbreaking research shows ancient Egyptians were conducting cancer surgery over 4,000 years ago.
• Research reveals early Jamestown settlers ate indigenous dogs to survive. (I'm glad my ancestors didn't get there until 1636.)
• 2,000-year-old rock art, including a nearly 140-foot-long snake may mark ancient territories in Colombia and Venezuela.
• A Viking sword with a very rare inscription was discovered on a family farm in Norway.
• A government-issued map became a fashionable family keepsake.
• The most lavish Mesopotamian tomb ever found belongs to a woman.

 

►Channeling My Inner Elly May Clampett◄

• Wild dogs have muscles for "puppy eyes," suggesting the cute expression did not evolve just for humans.
• Please. Save the birds by embarrassing your cat.
• Giant pandas are coming back to Washington, DC.
• "She is so old": A one-eyed wolf in Yellowstone has defied the odds by having her tenth litter of pups in eleven years.
• You ought to see these otters.
• Yes, dogs can get sunburned. Here's how to protect them.
• Watch a fruit-loving beaver throw a tantrum when the banana she's eating is all gone.
• Whales sound like birds when sped up, and birds sound like whales when slowed down.

 

►The Wanderer◄

• The lure of faraway places in crime fiction.
• Barnes & Noble bought Denver's Tattered Cover Bookstores for $1.83 million.
• The ten most Instagrammable bookstores in the world.
• How David Attenborough changed the color of tennis balls from white to optic yellow.
• A brief history of Bedlam Hospital.
• Why Mount Rainier is the US volcano keeping scientists up at night.
• Kanas Lake in China harbors the giant "Terror Trout" or "Chinese Nessie."

 

►Fascinating Folk◄

• Indigenous author K.A. Cobell on letting her characters shine the light.
• Author Tracy Chevalier has no time for writers who don't read.
• Author Rachel Howzell Hall on grief, strength, and the purifying nature of fire.
• Author Henry Wise on bridging the inner divide and defining justice in Holy City.
• The long shadow of the Jolly Bachelors.
• Ford's striking Dagenham Women.
• How the photo of 17-year-old Civil Rights activist Mamie Nell Ford at a "Swim-In" against segregation changed history.
• An early run-in with censors led Rod Serling to The Twilight Zone.

 

►I ♥ Lists◄

• The 25 best movie trailers of all time.
• The best sentient houses in literature.
• Fifteen must-read historical mysteries set during World War II.
• Eight lakeside mysteries.
• Fifteen mysteries about strange disappearances and reappearances.
• Eight non-fiction books about little-known historical events.
• All 27 Pixar movies ranked from best to worst, according to Rotten Tomatoes.
• The best historical fiction of Summer 2024.

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!