What a Beautiful Day! Weekly Link Round-Up

 

When I went outside this morning, it was overcast, and it made me smile. Phoenix gets about 300 days of sunny skies, and cloud cover makes a welcome change, especially in summer. It was nice not feeling as though I were being charbroiled while filling the birdbaths. I was also reminded of something that happened years ago. A customer came into the store where I worked and exclaimed, "What a beautiful day!" and she was met with smiles and much approval. Want to know why it was such a beautiful day? Because it was overcast! It made me think that Phoenix is the first place I've lived where people say that.

JR the raccoon visits every other day. He has his favorite ground-level birdbath he likes to paddle in, and if he splashes all the water out, he tips the neighboring birdbath over to refill it. He gets in the pool, too.

It's time to roundup this week's batch of goodies. Virtual hugs to you all, and enjoy the links!

►Books & Other Interesting Tidbits◄

• Why is Anthropic destroying books?
• How a ball of thread gave us the word "clue."
• There are more "book boyfriends" than ever on our screens. Are they cringe or cool now?
• The Defense Department wants to ban hundreds of books. Here are the weirdest titles. 
• Artists are lawyering up against AI slop, and some are even winning.
• The peacock flower and reproductive resistance under slavery. (I have some of these in my garden. They're also known as red birds of paradise.)

►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄

• A man used this Civil War artifact as a paperweight on his desk. The bomb squad told him it was actually a live explosive. (From the size of the thing, he must've had a lot of papers to weigh down...)
• Australia's most notorious shipwreck tells a story of murder, slavery, mutiny-- and, now, "surprisingly sophisticated" trade in the 17th century.
• Archaeologists discovered two thumbnail-size bird sculptures carved from mammoth ivory 40,000 years ago.
• Mysterious shapes hidden beneath the Amazon canopy reveal a sprawling ancient civilization much bigger than researchers expected. More from Live Science.
• See a rare ceiling fresco from Pompeii that archaeologists are carefully reassembling, piece by piece, like an ancient puzzle.
• Vounous Bowl: A 4,000-year-old basin holding 4 miniature cows and 18 people-- that was buried in a Bronze Age tomb in Cyprus.

►Channeling My Inner Elly May Clampett◄

• Yellowstone is among the world's best places to see wild wolves. Here's the story of the animal called both "public enemy" and cultural icon.
• An endangered Kemp's Ridley sea turtle named Pancake makes a triumphant return to the ocean after months of rehabilitation.
• From collecting whale snot to capturing surprising behaviors, aerial drones are giving scientists a new view of sea life.
• Colugo: the "flying lemur" that doesn't fly and isn't a lemur.
• How cancer research for dogs is helping improve treatment for pets and humans alike.
• The U.S. Army is getting rid of most of its ceremonial horse units. (I never will forget Black Jack in JFK's funeral procession.)

►The Wanderer◄

• This 400-year-old impenetrable Japanese castle that survived a samurai siege just crumbled in an earthquake.
• The best countries for quality of life, ranked.
• The lost civic life of movie rental stores.
• See 20 picturesque views of Paris.
• Before cultural and natural wonders earn UNESCO World Heritage status, they are put on a "tentative" list. Here are five nominees worth visiting now.
• Crime and the City: Bath.

►Fascinating Folk◄

• Discover the story of Gertrude Ederle, an Olympic gold medalist and world record setter who made waves as the first woman to successfully swim the English Channel.
• James Baldwin's complicated relationship with psychoanalysis.
• How Jack the Ripper became a legend.
• American pilot Richard Bong downed 40 enemy aircraft during World War II. Researchers discovered the wreck of his plane in a Pacific jungle and brought a wing back to his home state.
• Stanford University's founding matriarch, Jane Stanford, was a travel-loving philanthropist who met a tragic end. A new exhibition explores her life, grief, and death by poison.
• Jackie Mitchell, the woman who (maybe) struck out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig.

►I ♥ Lists◄

• 10 Roman mythology words you use every day.
• 8 of Anthony Bourdain's favorite books.
• The buzziest mysteries and thrillers coming in the second half of 2026.
• Barack Obama's 2026 summer reading list.
• Mysteries where the whole town is a suspect.
• 6 beach cozy mysteries.

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!

A Staying Cool Weekly Link Round-up

 

With temperatures consistently in the 110°F/44°C range, I'm being sensible. I get my outside chores done quickly and get myself back inside in the air conditioning. I have noticed, however, that my outside chores have given me an interesting "farmer's tan." In looking up that phrase, I see that few mention a true farmer's tan. There's not only forearms darkly tanned from wearing short-sleeved shirts, but there's also the white forehead from wearing some sort of hat. How do I know this? I grew up in farm country, that's how!

Now my own version is a bit more esoteric. I'm developing a bit of a white mask from wearing sunglasses, and my forearms are nicely tanned down to two inches above my hand. Those tan lines are due to the gloves I always wear. The garden hose I use is metal, and I touch other metal objects in doing those outside chores, so I don't want severe burns on my hands and fingers. (My mama didn't raise an idiot.) So far, the only person who's noticed my tan lines is my home health nurse, but I don't care if everyone sees them. (And take into consideration that those outside chores only take an average of ten minutes a day. Never underestimate the desert sun!)

Other than that, inside chores, reading, watching television, and doing needlepoint, all done in the comfort of air conditioning, is the order of the day. That, and watching hummingbirds making good use of the hanging solar fountain, and two huge dragonflies chasing each other back and forth above the pool. It's too hot for the starlings, so I'm enjoying their absence. 

Want to see the wall of tissue box covers I'm building?

Five are for one friend, and I'll bet you can guess which one's Daisy's. I'm working on one for my niece, Karen, right now. The wall isn't going to get much higher-- I think-- because I don't have much canvas left. Once it's gone, I'll switch back to knitting.

I hope you're all staying cool and reading some good books. Virtual hugs to you all, and enjoy the links!

►Books & Other Interesting Tidbits◄

• The rise of the "hot literati"-- how reading became sexy.
• How the role of book cover design has changed in the age of social media.
• How owning books became everybody's business.
• The open-source software saving the internet from AI bot scrapers.
• Barbie vs. Barbie: Inside the legal battle over the world's most famous doll.
• Jeopardy!'s most controversial moment was years in the making. It took many more for the fallout to come into full view.

►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄

• Mummy mask with wig: A 1,000-year-old "false head" found in Peru that was crafted with real human hair and toxic red cinnabar.
• This ship sank in the Baltic Sea with presents bound for a Romanov czar. Its cargo included champagne, luxury mineral water, and rare meteorites.
• Stone Age tombs in Scotland reveal "webs of descent" among male relatives.
• The millennium-old sacrificial altar in Mexico belonged to a civilization that thrived before the Aztecs.
• Massive Iron Age hoards discovered in England may be from the funeral of a powerful Celtic queen.
• If Mount Vesuvius erupted in August, why were Pompeii victims wearing heavy wool garments?

►Channeling My Inner Elly May Clampett◄

• Why are these whales floating upside-down? They might just be moms who need a break from feeding their babies. (Can you blame them?)
• "A forest with bonobos has never been so quiet": The most extreme case of violence in the "hippie" species recorded, with females ganging up on a male in an unprecedented attack.
• This massive web-- home to more than 100,000 spiders-- found in a cave in Europe could be the world's largest.
• Watch a wolf cleverly raid a crab trap for a snack. It might be the first evidence of a wild canid using a tool.
• Newly discovered toads skip the tadpole stage and give birth to live "toadlets."
• A closer look at the kestrels, hedgehogs, and other wild animals that inhabit Rome.

►The Wanderer◄

• This 1863 massacre was the deadliest slaughter of Native Americans in U.S. history. Now, the Shoshone are restoring the site of the attack. 
• This alligator-rich swamp in the American South just joined the UNESCO World Heritage list, along with the home of the Greek gods.
• Kale Island disappeared under rising seas in the Pacific. A new sculpture marking the spot will morph into a home for seabirds, coral, and marine life.
• Months after burglars stole crown jewels from the Louvre, the Apollo Gallery reopens, highlighting its origins as a royal reception hall.
• Hollywood's iconic Cinerama Dome, one of the world's most famous movie theaters, is set to reopen in early 2028.
• Jane Austen never loved Bath, but Bath loves Jane Austen. Now, the city is exploring why the novelist was so unhappy there.

►Fascinating Folk◄

• Meet archaeobotanist Kevin Wann who's studying how ancient human migrations shaped a hotbed of avocado diversity in Central America.
• Art sleuths discovered a lost and "enormously important" portrait of an elite Indian woman by pioneering Scottish painter Katherine Read.
• Did these ancient Egyptian princesses wield weapons and train in martial arts, just like the men of their time?
• Country music legend Dolly Parton's autobiographical musical exploring her journey from East Tennessee will hit Broadway this winter.
• A scholar recognized the inscriptions in the margins of this manuscript. The scribbles turned out to be Galileo's handwritten notes.
• James Sallis: What this crime fiction master leaves behind.

►I ♥ Lists◄

• Kirkus' 20 best books to read in August.
• 7 household items every British Regency family owned.
• BookBub's most anticipated historical fiction of the second half of 2026.
• Visit 24 islands in these summery novels.
• 7 of the best mysteries set in British villages.
• 5 mysteries set at literary events, conferences, and retreats.

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!

A Little Dirt and Water Weekly Link Round-Up

 

As many of you already know, this week has not been unremarkable for the simple fact that I went to The Poisoned Pen for an author event. I've already posted about that, but I teased you by withholding information about my trip back home.

I waited inside the bookstore for as long as I could because I didn't want to wait outside in the heat. However, I wasn't about to keep the employees from going home, so I girded my loins and zipped outside. 

I should have been paying more attention to what was going on outside. 

Found Image. Phoenix dust storm.

As the door closed behind me, my mouth and eyes were filled with dirt from the tail end of a dust storm. (That'll teach me to keep my mouth shut!) The wind was so strong that I almost lost my pinwheel, but I managed to grab it in the nick of time. Then it began to rain, so I did manage to lose a lot of my dust coating. I sheltered as much as I could because mobility scooters can get cranky if they get too wet. By the time Paratransit arrived, the rain had stopped, a fresh breeze had mostly dried me out, and the scooter wasn't in a bad mood.

So it would appear that travels from The Poisoned Pen to Casa Kittling demand a bit of drama. I'd say that I'd take an umbrella with me when I return to the bookstore next month, but I don't have one, and the wind would probably turn it inside out anyway. Yes, there was drama, but it just made me laugh and shake my head. (I think I heard Denis laughing, too.)

Virtual hugs to you all, and enjoy the links!

►Books & Other Interesting Tidbits◄

• AI companies are buying tons of old books because they're free of AI slop.
• Stop saying kids can't read.
• Quiz: Can you name all the countries that begin with "A"?
• What comes after book bans? One school district is questioning traditional libraries.
• As book criticism disappears, the booksellers are stepping in.
• Cushty, prat, cowson... and other British terms I can no longer say in America.

►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄

• Oops! DNA has revealed that an ancient Bronze Age shaman long assumed to be a man was actually a woman.
• An ancient bronze chariot has emerged among the remains of a mysterious society that burned down its own buildings and then disappeared.
• An Elamite helmet with divine figures: A warrior king's 3,500-year-old bronze armor depicting a raptor and gold-plated gods.
• Railway construction revealed a coin minted by a Roman officer who proclaimed himself "Emperor of the North" in Britain 1,700 years ago.
• How has Roman concrete lasted for millennia?
• Enslaved and free workers built Thomas Jefferson's Monticello brick by brick. Archaeologists just discovered on the of the kilns they used.

►Channeling My Inner Elly May Clampett◄

• Giraffes might be even smarter than we think.
• 15 kitten photos.
• An unusual-looking raccoon nicknamed Jimothy is winning hearts across the internet for his short, round, body.
• An orange-lipped monkey that roars and snorts deep in the Congo rainforest is a new species to science.
• Scientists are deep-freezing koala eggs and sperm to protect the species from extinction.
• Scientists are releasing the lovingly nicknamed "snot otters" into Ohio waterways in a big success for conservation.

►The Wanderer◄

• A culture of collaboration: the legacy of Lunigiana's traveling booksellers.
• Florida dumped half a million oyster shells into the Gulf of Mexico. No one expected the results to be this good.
• The Chocolate Hills: the color-changing mounds in the Philippines that inspired legends of mud-slinging giants.
• The Italian bells that survived the Nazis, fires, and even the medieval ages.
• Here's why you should set your crime novel in Boston.
• One morning in Auckland.

►Fascinating Folk◄

• Maharajah Digvijaysinhji Ranjitsinjhi Jadeya, ruler of the princely state of Nawanagar, opened his realm to young Poles who had been detained in Soviet labor camps as the children of the intelligentsia. (Please don't ask me to type that name again!)
• Polly Cooper walked over 200 miles in the snow to feed a starving army. The Oneida Nation has remembered her for 250 years.
• Thousands of intimate photographs reveal the everyday lives of the Romanovs, Russia's last imperial family.
• How the bicycle gave women unprecedented independence from restrictive Victorian society.
• Who, exactly, were all those girls in Renoir's paintings?
• This 19th-century diary written by enslaved Maryland man Adam Francis Plummer, is a crucial record of his life and family history-- and the only one of its kind found in the United States.

►I ♥ Lists◄

• Every state's favorite type of pizza, mapped.
• BookBub's most anticipated books of the second half of 2026.
• New historical mysteries.
• 13 books to read if you're excited about The Odyssey.
• 6 cozy mysteries set in the publishing world.
• 9 memorable animal detective 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!

A Hallelujah We're Getting Some Rain Weekly Link Round-Up

 

Another unremarkable week here at Casa Kittling. I may be becoming dull, but I've gotten to the point where I rather like unremarkable weeks, and for some strange reason, this has reminded me of a pet peeve.

I'm sick to death of being hounded to review every person I come in contact with and everything that I buy. How about you? And-- have we as humans gotten so feeble-minded that every time we make any sort of appointment, we have to be reminded by phone, by text, and by email that we do, indeed, have an appointment? For cryin' out loud, I haven't lost my mind yet! I value not only my time but the time of the people I have to deal with. If I make an appointment, I immediately put it on my calendar. I do not need to be reminded over and over again starting two weeks out that I have somewhere I have to be. And to get back to my original thought, the more businesses bug me about leaving reviews, the more I'm tempted to leave them bad ones. Not that I'm contrary or anything...

Yes, I know I have an appointment!

Now that I have that off my chest, it's time to round up some goodies. Virtual hugs to you all, and enjoy the links! (And please keep your fingers crossed that our monsoon season keeps giving us some badly needed rain. Thanks!)

►Books & Other Interesting Tidbits◄

• Copyright is not enough. Why writers need new strategies to stand up to AI.
• How-- and why-- to cull your book collection.
• The Terminator is about the last moments in a woman's life before she becomes a mother.
• Marriage and the maiden name.
• Researchers say the 800-year-old mystery of a lost medieval legend is solved.
• In the wake of court losses, Rhode Island codifies the Right to Read.

►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄

• 18 Egyptian tombs with dozens of gold "tongues" have been discovered along the Mediterranean Coast. More from Smithsonian Magazine.
• Take an exclusive look at three newly discovered medieval shipwrecks in Menorca's "Cove of Mysteries."
• Ancient DNA suggests that Kazakhstan's Iron Age "Golden Man" and other elite Scythians of Eurasia inherited their high social status.
• A long-lost ice-age ecosystem, including fossils of lion-size armadillos and giant ground sloths, have been discovered in a Texas "water cave." 
• Researchers have found an ancient Korean society that practiced sacrifice and high inbreeding.
• See artifacts that archaeologists discovered in this 1,600-year-old Byzantine Christian town buried in an oasis in Egypt.

►Channeling My Inner Elly May Clampett◄

• The spiritual meaning of dragonflies.
• Are moose Colorado natives or introduced outsiders?
• The lucrative bird-singing contests that are pushing species to the brink.
• "Murder hornets" might strike terror in humans, but these frogs can eat them for lunch.
• Scientists found a rare tusked whale alive at sea for the first time.
• Lemurs are having a mysterious "baby boom" in Madagascar. Here's why that might not be a good thing.

►The Wanderer◄

• Life inside Icelandic turf houses.
• This 700-year-old English church nearly closed-- but then the vicar discovered a stash of gold coins under the altar.
• Welcome to Toronto, world capital of the urban raccoon.
• Malaria had nearly been eliminated around a giant dam in the Amazon, but then it came roaring back. Experts just discovered why.
• Ireland launches its permanent "Income for the Arts" scheme, becoming the first government committed to paying artists. 
• See 11 images of mangrove forests and their wildlife, showcasing the trees' beauty and fragility.

►Fascinating Folk◄

• The two Dolly Parton classics she wrote on the same day.
• Meet Sak Tahn Waax, a Maya math whiz who lived more than 1,000 years ago and left behind a "really elegant, complex" formula.
• The public shaming of Jonas Hanway, England's first umbrella user.
• 5 historical figures who didn't actually exist.
• DNA reveals the identity of teenager John Pumphrey who died in the Revolutionary War, cracking a nearly 250-year-old cold case.
• Rebecca Lehmann on Anne Boleyn and the fatal power of unmanageable women.

►I ♥ Lists◄

• 15 books that deserve a sequel.
• 7 fascinating Italian jobs you didn't know still exist.
• The most searched word definitions in every U.S. state.
• 6 comedic crime novels and thrillers.
• 5 suspense novels driven by female ambition and competition.
• 18 new dual-timeline novels.

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!

JR Returns & I Make a Guess This Weekly Link Round-Up

 

Some of you may remember JR the raccoon who showed up here a couple of years ago to paddle in the swimming pool and eat the treats I put out for him. Well, he came back for a couple of days this week. Someone asked me how I knew it was the same raccoon. For one thing, he pulled over the same birdbath that I put his treats in, even though the birdbath is in a different place now. He also went over and checked the spot where that birdbath used to be. I waited for him to show up twice before I put out anything for him, but he hasn't been back since. I guess I wasn't fast enough, darn it.

I've also mentioned my nameless friend that I was concerned about. I may have an aversion to deerstalker caps (or hats in general), but not knowing his name has been bugging me for a long time. Persistence has paid off-- I think-- and I now believe I've identified him. All I will say is T.M., and perhaps I will find out if I'm right. (Although I do understand if he wishes to remain anonymous. I just have one of those inquiring minds.) 

I have a new pinwheel to add to my collection. It came in the mail this week. (Thank you for it and everything else. You know who you are!) It's the best spinner of them all and is now on my scooter whirring away every time I go outside. Hey, it even spins when I'm around the ceiling fans here in the house!

It's been another scorching week here in Phoenix. I've been doing my outside chores as quickly as possible to avoid the worst of the heat, then I come inside to read and work on tissue box covers.

Virtual hugs to you all, my friends! Enjoy the links!

►Books & Other Interesting Tidbits◄

• The end of reading is here.
• The heat wave that made America legalize shorts.
• New Hampshire Governor Kelly Ayotte vetoed a bill calling for increased book bans.
• Austin, Texas, could become a "Book Safe Harbor" as censorship fights escalate.
• Amazon offers AI translation for self-published Kindle books.
• Everything you need for a a reading picnic.

►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄

• A pair of 2,000-year-old gold rings, one engraved with Indian script, was discovered in an Iron Age burial ground in Thailand.
• A 2,500-year-old tomb of a "warrior prince" with a chariot and helmet was discovered on Italy's Adriatic coast. 
• Builders discovered an ancient Minoan ruin on Crete. Then, things got tense.
• 3D printing gives new life to an ancient game board discovered at a Roman fort near Hadrian's Wall in England.
• The oldest known plague victims have been found in a 5,500-year-old burial ground in Siberia-- and many of them were children.
• Hundreds of Spanish settlers died at the "Port of Famine." This newly discovered silver coin reveals where the doomed colony was founded 400 years ago.

►Channeling My Inner Elly May Clampett◄

• Sperm whales living in the eastern Mediterranean Sea seem to have developed a distinct dialect from those in the west.
• The return of Florida's wild flamingos.
• Cyborg cockroaches could help find survivors of natural disasters. New diving suits allow the insects to expand their search underwater. (Finally, a roach I can like...)
• Can a turtle tuck its head all the way inside its shell?
• Stream the beautiful highs and violent lows of albatross life with this new 24-hour camera on Midway atoll.
• How do dogs watch TV? A new study suggests that it might depend on their personalities.

►The Wanderer◄

• Crime and the City: Bari, Italy.
• Alexander Hamilton's First National Bank revolutionized the U.S. economy. After sitting shuttered for years, the Philadelphia landmark reopened as a museum.
• Vincent van Gogh adored the color yellow. A new exhibition in Amsterdam wants you to fall in love with the hue, too.
• Experience the grandeur of the Italian Alps with these 15 photographs.
• How America's industrial elite built their own palaces.
• A scenic road winding through Theodore Roosevelt National Park finally reopens after six years.

►Fascinating Folk◄

• Did this duke poison his brother? A new DNA analysis may solve the centuries-old Medici mystery.
• Spanish officer Bernardo de Gálvez besieged the British during the American Revolution, giving George Washington time to plan a pivotal attack.
• Meet Julia Ward Howe, the remarkable poet who wrote the Battle Hymn of the Republic and fought for women's suffrage.
• The true story of Laura Ingalls is wilder than Little House on the Prairie.
• To finance their lifestyle, Clara and André Malraux went to Cambodia to steal antiquities. They did almost everything wrong.
• The King and I spotlights an English governess who modernized Siamese society. The real Anna Leonowens exaggerated her influence and lied about her origins.

►I ♥ Lists◄

• 8 vineyard mysteries you can savor.
• 9 great books about survival at sea.
• 21 mysteries and thrillers set at sea.
• 6 films Silvia Moreno-Garcia recommends for writers.
• July's best international crime fiction.
• 9 murder mysteries set in resorts.

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!

A Color Me This Weekly Link Round-Up

 

This past week has been another pleasant one, with little to talk about other than the deep scratch on my elbow that I have no idea how it got there, and the huge bright yellow butterflies that use my back garden as a freeway. The hummingbirds absolutely love the bubbling hanging solar fountain-- so much so that they spend a lot of time chasing each other away from it, the territorial little devils!

The rest of the time, I've been stitching. Here's my growing pyramid of tissue box covers. There's one missing because it's a surprise that hasn't yet been seen by its recipient.

I'll be starting work on the one for my home health nurse, and then-- if the spirit still moves me-- I'll work on a few more. My niece, Daisy, has requested one, and I found the perfect pattern for it. I dug up a few more patterns from my stash that I'd like to use. Want to see how I work out color combinations? It helps if you have the empty top of a run of bookcases to plot things out.

Decisions, decisions!

Virtual hugs to you all. Enjoy the links!

►Books & Other Interesting Tidbits◄

• Vintage READ posters adorning libraries and classrooms for decades go on auction as the American Library Association turns 150. (I love those posters and had some of them adorning the walls of my workspace for years.)
• A new study says that your brain prefers to read on paper rather than on screens. (My brain always has to be different. It prefers my Kindle.)
• Why has the will to ignorance become so virulent in our time? (I never have thought ignorance was cute.)
• Why Jane Austen adaptations just keep coming-- and we keep watching.
• Publishers charge Anna's Archive with copyright infringement.
• What if readers like A.I.-generated fiction?
• Teenage boys in the UK are reading primary-level books while girls' tastes expand.

►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄

• This ancient monolith unearthed in Mexico may depict people receiving "divine liquid" in a ritual.
• See these ancient Etruscan frescoes that Italy bought for millions and put on public display in Rome.
• Sold for just £5,588, this amber pendant turned out to be a rare Tudor-Era portrait of Elizabeth I. Now it's going on auction for £100,000.
• 500-year-old freeze-dried potato snacks were discovered in an Inca storage room in Peru.
• Deep in the Mexican jungle, archaeologists discovered a lost Maya city that may yield clues about the civilization just before it collapsed.
• Were Vikings really "uncivilized" barbarians? A large textile-production site discovered in Denmark challenges that stereotype.

►Channeling My Inner Elly May Clampett◄

• The elusive, critically endangered manumea-- and one of the closest living relatives of dodos-- was spotted for the first time in five years.
• Incredible, first-of-their-kind images show an orca being born in Norway-- and the rest of its pod forming a protective circle.
• Listen to a lion's second type of roar, which was just discovered by scientists.
• "Robo-Bunnies" are the newest weapon in the fight against invasive Burmese pythons in Florida.
• The life and times of Brighty, the Grand Canyon's most legendary burro.
• These urban birds evolved longer beaks during Covid-19 lockdowns. Then, they changed back.

4 for me. How about you?

►The Wanderer◄

• The U.S. ghost town that periodically rises out of a lake.
• 5 isolated islands that are strictly forbidden (and why).
• The Old Patent Office Building hosted Lincoln's inaugural ball and displayed that Declaration of Independence. Today, it's home to two world-class art museums.
• See stunning photos of new national park land that soon will be accessible from America's longest national trail.
• The Claude Glass revolutionized the way people saw landscapes.
• Raymond Island, the tiny Australian island where you can see koalas, kangaroos, and kookaburras.

►Fascinating Folk◄

• How Indonesia's feminists use the internet.
• During World War I, progressive reformer Frances Kellor asked Americans to welcome immigrants-- and urged new arrivals to assimilate.
• Excluded at the March on Washington, Dorothy Height went on to become the "Godmother of the Civil Rights Movement."
• Indigenous ecologist Jason Baldes is restoring the keystone bison on tribal lands.
• How German button maker John Boepple searched the rivers of the American Midwest for the shells that could make him a fortune.
• Alan Lomax spent years traveling the country to record the sounds of America. The legacy of his obsession will live forever.

►I ♥ Lists◄

• 20 great U.S. history books for July 4.
• The average salary needed to rent in each state, ranked.
• Eccentric investigators in Asian American and Asian cozy mysteries.
• Eight thrillers with beach and jungle settings.
• 18 must-read biographies and memoirs.
• 7 of the best crime thrillers and neo noirs from the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s.

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!