Hey there! Welcome back, everyone!
First one, thank you all for the gardening tips. So far, the cat grass is growing and just yesterday I noticed the tiniest little green beginning to emerge from my cilantro pot. To me, that’s a success.
The heat wave has broke here and I hope the same for all of you. It was pretty brutal. I also had to take my darling cat Linus to the vet. The old, scraggly guy has a thyroid condition. Honestly, it’s probably the best outcome I could have hoped for given the other possibilities for his sudden weight loss. Treatment seems pretty easy, but I worry that for a little trash goblin, he’ll be surprisingly picky about his meds. (We’re going with getting it compounded into chicken treats to start!)
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Did y’all catch the images from the Webb Space Telescope? Well those images are having big effects in the astronomy world!
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Author Emily Henry just dropped news about her next book! Catch up in her substack newsletter.
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Ever wondered what Singin’ in the Rain would be like if the actors were replaced by raptors? Well wonder no more!
https://twitter.com/ButWithRaptors/status/1551598450655068160
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For Butter or Worse by Erin La Rosa, a romance debut I’m excited for, is getting a super cute, bread and butter themed subscription box by Read It and Eat (such a great name)!
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Lastly, lets bask in the star power of Joni Mitchell at 78, performing at the Newport Folk Festival over the weekend.
https://twitter.com/JasonReidUK/status/1551500933435203584
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Don’t forget to share what cool or interesting things you’ve seen, read, or listened to this week! And if you have anything you think we’d like to post on a future Wednesday Links, send it my way!
As a teenager in the 1970s, I grabbed each new Joni Mitchell album the moment it was released and would spend every free moment in the subsequent weeks holed up in my room, playing the record over and over, and poring over the lyrics. I can still sing every song from “Blue”, “For the Roses”, “Court and Spark”, and “The Hissing of Summer Lawns”. I’m not ashamed to say that I watched the clip of Joni with tears leaking from my eyes.
For something completely different, take a deep dive into the gig economy underpinning werewolf erotica:
https://restofworld.org/2022/china-romance-novels/
My joining a James Webb telescope/astronomy group somehow cued Facebook to fill my wall with every crackpot ancient alien/UFO page in existence. As though my search for intelligent content must immediately be offset by the exact opposite.
All I want is to see galaxies far far away where no one has gone before.
And I can’t listen to Joanie Mitchell anymore without crying. (Fist shaking) Damn you Love Actually!!
Joni Mitchell being able to perform again is nothing short of a miracle of modern medicine. Her rehabilitation is remarkable. https://www.npr.org/2022/07/26/1113608539/joni-mitchell-newport-folk-festival-aneurysm
I am supremely enjoying watching the return of the Tour De France Femmes – all the stages have been full of action, and the sprint at the end of Stage 3 was amazing, as is the camaraderie among the women teammates. The announcers are saying that the watched/views numbers around the world are beyond what was expected, BUT REALLY THE MALE PRODUCERS ALWAYS ASSUME THAT NO ONE IS INTERESTED IN WOMEN AND NEVER GIVE THEM A CHANCE!! So I love that the Tour is going great, I LOVE that the viewer numbers are high, and if anyone has Peacock or another way to watch I recommend it – I want to help prove the sexists wrong about the visibility/interest of women’s sports!
Sending love to you and Linus, Amanda! My forever soul-feline Milo had thyroid issues, so I’ve been there and it’s not easy. I’m hoping that you find a treatment that keeps Linus happy and healthy for a long time yet. <3
This caught my eye because I remembered the podcast episode featuring Kaia Alderson, the author of “Sisters in Arms”, about the all-Black battalion of the Women’s Army Corps who served overseas in World War II. The article is about honoring one of those veterans who just turned 100! (one of the only 6 who are still alive)
https://www.eastorange-nj.gov/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=343&fbclid=IwAR06C-XMsELCMD1WjQe3Owp-GPi3LDnfbEQOGst5Vj21E9VHtD6EMYh-x38
@DiscoDollyDeb Funny you should post that. Just yesterday I was playing a game on my phone and an ad popped up that was a woman reading a (not great) snippet from some kind of lycan/fae romance followed by an invite to download the app. My only thought was WTAF? Now I know!
My dogs need daily meds and are super-picky about them. We started putting them in a pill wrap from Chewy that you can wrap around the pill, then adding a few tiny liver training treats (their high value snack). They pretty much push each other out of the way for pills now. Just in case the compounded treats don’t work!
I just wanted to share an anime (there’s a manga too) I just discovered. It’s really soothing to watch. Natsume’s Book of Friends or Natsume Yujin-cho is a story about a young man who can see yokai. His grandmother sort of enslaved a bunch by writing their names down and he’s trying to release them all by giving their names back. I’m watching it on Crunchyroll, though it may well be available elsewhere. So sweet!
@DiscoDollyDeb:
Thanks for the link to the restofworld.org article, but, oh, this quote was a dagger in my heart: “If it’s free and the story is good, the grammar and spelling errors are easier to overlook.” (Unfortunately, nothing new there.)
Signed,
A Copy Editor
Thank you so much for the Read It & Eat shout out! The For Butter or Worse box includes an autographed copy of Erin’s book and it’s AMAZING!