A Good-bye Godzilla Weekly Link Round-Up

 

Last week, I received a card from a friend that described the days of my electrical panel installation as "Godzilla Days." Rather fitting, I thought, and it reminded me of the summer when I took a short break from college and went back to central Illinois. My best friend, Carol, planned an entire day for us, ending with a sleepover at her house. (Her husband was on National Guard duty.) The afternoon was spent at the movie theatre in Decatur where we watched a movie that had just been released. Has anyone heard of "Jaws"? 😉  Then, popcorn and Pepsi at the ready, we watched the Late Late Show: "Godzilla versus the Smog Monster." Simple pleasures are the best, aren't they? And am I ever glad that, as far as Casa Kittling is concerned, Godzilla has left the building!

I've been asked to make some tissue box covers by another friend, and I've given him four color combinations from which he's to choose three. It will be interesting to see if my guesses match his choices. I'll show them to you now--

Virtual hugs to you all! Enjoy the links!

►Books & Other Interesting Tidbits◄

• Hugh Jackman is to star in Ridley Scott's Treasure Island. (Big Hugh Jackman and Robert Louis Stevenson fan here.)
• How National Geographic conquered American culture.
• In an encouraging move, lawmakers are beginning to tweak school and library policies to allow for nuance.
• The right is using AI content scanners to try to supercharge book banning.
• How PayPal and other platforms help silence alternative media.
• An electronic eye implant restored vision on patients with age-related macular degeneration.

►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄

• A shipwreck "almost beyond belief" stunned archaeologists in Norway with its cargo of intact porcelain dishes and luxury goods.
• See the spectacular gold-and-gemstone ring a Roman likely buried for safekeeping 1,700 years ago.
• Italian teenagers discover an 1,800-year-old Roman luxury house underneath their high school gym.
• A fisherman and his son noticed strange pieces of wood on a beach. They turned out to be fragments of a Polynesian canoe.
• "Extremely rare" English coins meant to ward off Vikings were fond in Denmark-- because the Vikings wore them as jewelry.
• Archaeologists unearth more than 40,000 pieces of pottery that ancient Egyptians used like scrap paper.

►Channeling My Inner Elly May Clampett◄

• A multi-million-dollar wildlife bridge in northern California got its first travelers before it opened.
• The blue-fronted lorikeet had been seen only once over the past century. Birders just rediscovered it in an unexplored Indonesian forest.
• See the rare, endangered Przewalski's horse born at the Bronx Zoo.
• In the world's best place to see wild jaguars, residents are using the big cat's appeal to reach conservation goals.
• The "rising star" of a prominent Yellowstone wolf pack was illegally killed, sparking a poaching investigation.
• Human trash is "kick-starting" the domestication of city-dwelling raccoons.

►The Wanderer◄

• Photographing the afterlives and second acts of America's movie palaces.
• Secrets from centuries of Paris history are emerging from archaeological digs after the Notre-Dame Cathedral fire.
• Crime and the City: Cleveland, Ohio.
• How to explore the Australian Outback by train.
• Behold Belgium's beauty in these 15 scenic photographs.
• 5 American towns that give you a taste of Scandinavia.

►Fascinating Folk◄

• When patent protections couldn't keep pace with ingenuity in the colonies, Sybilla Righton Masters took her case to Britain.
• Clive Cussler and the art of the thriller.
• Before The Kiss, Gustav Klimt got his first big art assignment at this Austrian theater.
• 6 celebrities with surprising connections to true crime cases.
• Spirited revolutionary Pasquale Paoli led the fight for independence in Corsica-- and also inspired America's colonial rabble-rousers.
• The real story behind Abigail Adams' "Remember the ladies" letter.

►I ♥ Lists◄

• 8 mysteries set in Hawaii.
• Yoga cozy mysteries to bend your wit and soothe your mind.
• Barack Obama's favorite books of 2025.
• 6 mysteries and thrillers recommended by presidents.
• 24 books about book clubs.
• Must-read non-fiction books.

That's all for this week! No matter how busy you may be, don't forget that quality Me Time curled up with a good book!