Trip the links fantastic

The posting of links does not constitute an endorsement of the sites linked, and not necessarily even agreement with the specific posts linked.

* African-American Gospel Music Timeline -- "The Fisk Jubilee Singers set out on their inaugural tour to raise money to help save Fisk University from closure. Eventually becoming an international tour, the choir brings the sacred music of African Americans the attention of the world."
* A Holistic View of Song Leading -- "Many song leaders develop technical competence in their craft but they do not develop emotional intelligence."
* A woman who lives in the past: the 1930s, to be exact -- "The owner of a historical consultancy company, Teeuwisse, 41, lives her work, forgoing most modern belongings and conveniences of the 21st century in favor of a life straight out of the 1930s."
* English Is Crazy! A Poem -- "This is for anyone who is occasionally frustrated by the oddities of English spelling."
* Everything You Don’t Know About Tipping -- "The most critical step in avoiding Ambiguous Tipping Situations is just knowing what you’re supposed to do...if you’re in the average range, you’re fine and forgotten. If you’re in the low or high range, you’re noticed and remembered. And service workers have memories like elephants."
* Families Protest Alabama Lawmaker's Racist Comments -- "Alvin Holmes said, 'I will bring you $100,000 cash tomorrow if you show me a whole bunch of whites that adopted blacks in Alabama. I will go down there and mortgage my house and get it in cash in 20 dollar bills and bring it to you in a little briefcase.'"
* Life Lessons From Marina Keegan's Posthumous Book of Essays -- "With this week’s publication of “The Opposite of Loneliness,” Marina Keegan’s posthumous collection of essays and stories, comes a gift no one ever fully wants to receive — bright and youthful wisdom from a talent who died too soon."
* Pharaonic seal found in ancient coffin in Israel -- "Israeli archaeologists unveiled on Wednesday a 3,300-year-old coffin containing a signet ring bearing the name of an Egyptian pharaoh among the remains of what they believe was a local nobleman."
* The gay marriage bigots strike again -- "Who could possibly have predicted that the drive for equal marriage rights for homosexuals would take a turn into bigotry and intolerance?...numerous critics denied it would ever happen — and then implied that if it did, the homophobic bastards would deserve it anyway."
* Two moms, a baby and a legal first for U.S. gay marriage -- "Last month a baby in Tennessee made history: Emilia Maria Jesty was the first child born in the state to have a woman listed on the birth certificate as her 'father'."
* Vikings in London: Just Like Family -- "Vikings have long had a special place in British lore, not least as the guys who got there first."
* What's Closer to Texas Than Texas Is to Itself? -- "Finally, you have something to show your out of state relatives, who ask if why you don't visit your distant cousin in Corpus Christi more often..."
* Where I Stand -- "...this conversation best belongs in true relationships, around dinner tables, over coffee, in real life, and I still believe that."