Two more

22 out of the total of 24, 10 books ahead for the year. It helps to be unemployed.

Wonderful

Nearly a millennium ago sky-watchers recorded a new star so bright it was visible in daylight for weeks, and Hubble has now traced how far its remnant, the Crab Nebula, has expanded since — a thousand-year-old explosion still visibly unfolding

In July 1054, court astronomers in China recorded a new "guest star" near Tianguan, the star we now call Zeta Tauri.

Hubble Space Telescope mosaic image of the Crab Nebula. Credit: NASA, ESA, J. Hester and A. Loll (Arizona State University).

 

I didn't know this part - it makes it even sadder

Woman, 78, Last Polio Survivor Living In Iron Lung, Passes Away After Machine Becomes Too Old To Repair

This was on top of the post-polio syndrome and long Covid issues she was already dealing with. 😢

My sincerest condolences to her loved ones.

 

Anticipation

Everything is happily staked now. The Kellogg's Breakfast tomato is taller than I am, with the pot.

Kellogg's Breakfast Tomatoes getting bigger

Jalopeños almost ready to pick

Carmen Sweet Italian peppers
They are red at maturity but sweet green, too.

Indigo Cherry Drops fruit heavy on the vine, just needing to ripen

 

Eureka!!! A memory from long ago...

So I saw this on Facebook Marketplace, and it jogged my memory. These were the primers we found up in the attic that I taught myself to read at age three from (obviously from the lower grades). I'd forgotten what they were called, just that they predated the Dick and Jane books. 120 million copies of McGuffey's Readers were sold between 1836 and 1960, per the National Park Service. They're still popular in homeschooling, because their stories are drawn from the Bible (and other classical sources), often with morals. Bringing the third-grade reader to show-and-tell and reading from it in first grade is what got me skipped up a grade (they wanted to skip me up two; thankfully, my mom said no, one was enough of a challenge, being the youngest kid in class. Just because you're gifted doesn't mean you're good at everything. They were practically trying to teach me to multiply before I had addition down. Cool to see these, though.

[UPDATE: Every single one of them (The McGuffey's Eclectic Primer through the Sixth Eclectic Reader, plus the Eclectic Spelling Book) is available in .EPUB and other formats on Project Gutenberg, meaning they can be sent to a Kindle or be read on a Nook or Kobo. I just sent them to my Kindle Scribe. There is much happiness here now. You can find them here. All but the 2nd and 5th readers are also in .PDF (not sure why they're not), so they can be printed.]

 

I adore pop-up books

I would love to see this in person.

A giant pop-up book unfolds at LA’s Central Library

A pop-up book that’s seeking to break the world record for size has unfolded at the Central Library in downtown Los Angeles.

The art piece is 31 feet wide, more than 11 feet tall, and weighs in at 1,800 pounds.

Luceros y Penumbras, which roughly translates to “starlight and shadows,” is rooted in L.A. artist Daniel González’s experience visiting the library and his family in Mexico as a child.

Here is the site for the actual exhibition: Luceros y Penumbras from the Library Foundation of Los Angeles.

Worrisome

Reading for pleasure builds empathy in children, but fewer kids are picking up books just for the fun of it

Reading allows children to live in a vibrant world, surrounded by fairies, elves and talking animals, transporting them to places where the impossible becomes real. But reading for pleasure also helps children learn more effectively and broadens how they view, interpret and interact with the world. It gives them a form of expression that fuels their imagination and empathy for themselves and others.

But the percentage of children who read for fun is declining.

Just 37% of 9-year-olds and 14% of 13-year-olds read for fun almost every day in 2025, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress. By middle school, just 1 in 7 kids say they read for pleasure each day.

#20 of goal of 24 for 2026

Cody Cook-Parrot. The Practice of Attention: Cultivating Presence in a Distracted World. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2026. 239 pp. I actually didn't get a chance to pick it up to read till today, but finished in one sitting.  Not the best  I've read, not the worst; I'd say the Goodreads rating is about on par.

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To be honest

Getting the cat out of the tree would be the harder test [with greater injury].

©Hot Paper Comics

Trying to garden again

With some success.

On May 14th, I went to the public library's Northside Branch for the Master Gardeners' plant giveaway and informational session, and they gave me four plants: a Carmen sweet Italian pepper, a Craig's Grande jalopeño heirloom pepper, a Kellogg's Breakfast Tomato, and an Indigo Cherry Drops Tomato. I planted them in some containers that hadn't had anything in years except decaying leaves and some earthworms, hoping they'd do well, knowing I'd have to water and fertilise. Thanks to Mother Nature, I haven't actually had to water more than a couple of times, even during a drought, as the leaves kept the soil moist and we've had quite a bit of rain since it got very hot. I did have something get the first couple of cherry tomatoes, and nothing has actually ripened yet. I have a very long Carmen pepper that I'm considering taking green rather than red, as they're still sweet. We'll see. I need to tie the Indigo Cherry to the stakes better, as it's starting to fall over; it has so much fruit on it, and I'm afraid it'll break. Here it is in pictures:

First day, just arrived

Just planted

Jalopeño Pepper, Carmen pepper, then Indigo Cherry on the right, with a bell pepper, anise hyssop, and rosemary behind

Fourth of July with the Kellogg's Breakfast Tomato in the front

And just a few days make a difference. Here was July 9th from the car once I parked in the driveway:

(Sorry, it's behind auto glass, so it's a little cloudy.)

I'm hoping I can beat the squirrels to the tomatoes.  That's been a problem in the past. We'll see.