Learning Strategies

Recent Posts

• Unabridged

  By ljd42 on June 28, 2026

  

  You do remember Stefan Fatsis, right? Maybe from NPR, maybe from Word Freak/Scrabble. Now he has published a must-read called Unabridged. Yes, as you suspect, it’s about dictionaries. In particular, it’s about Webster’s Third New International Dictionary of the English… Read More ›

• Speaking of Les Miz…

  By ljd42 on June 27, 2026

  Speaking of Les Miz, I mentioned in that post that “This [the Boston cast] was a cast of no-name pros whose heart just wasn’t in it. They seemed to be going through the motions, alas.” Perhaps you’d like some contrasting… Read More ›

• The Tartan Army: the day Scottish FIFA fans drank Boston dry

  By ljd42 on June 26, 2026

  How long has it been since I’ve been to a Kim Wallach concert? Literally decades, as it turns out, but the YouTube algorithm decided it was time for me to listen to her newest song: “The day Scottish FIFA fans… Read More ›

• Too much light!

  By ljd42 on June 25, 2026

  

  Apparently the light is too bright for Cassie’s delicate eyes, so special measures are required:

• Les Miz in Boston

  By ljd42 on June 22, 2026

  

  Unfortunately I was just so disappointed! Les Miz is one of my three favorite musicals, and I had never seen a professional live performance of it. (I’d seen the movie, and I’d seen an excellent high-school performance.) So I had… Read More ›

• “Belly rubs needed over here.”

  By ljd42 on June 18, 2026

  

  “More belly rubs needed over here,” says Cassie.

• Roses

  By ljd42 on June 17, 2026

  

  They officially belong to the neighbors… but they like visiting us on our side of the fence.

• Claude vs. ChatGPT

  By ljd42 on May 28, 2026

  

  I asked ChatGPT and Claude to create a 3D image of me, both using the same prompt: Create a 3D image of me using your knowledge of my jobs and interests, based on this photo. The photo was this:  Here’s… Read More ›

• Judeo-Arabic

  By ljd42 on May 24, 2026

  That title sounds a bit like an oxymoron, doesn’t it? But it isn’t. It’s a real language, spoken by some 240,000 Jews throughout the Arab world. For a quick intro, see the Wikipedia article, but I first want to make… Read More ›

• How was last night at Tavolo different from all other nights?

  By ljd42 on May 7, 2026

  

  Because it was the first Wednesday of the month and therefore provided the option of choosing Tavolo’s Pasta Tour! I almost went with that option, as I had never done it before and it looked tempting. But I decided (or… Read More ›

• Signs of being an introvert

  By ljd42 on April 29, 2026

  

  Posted by someone who doesn’t know me… but they sure have it right! Seven out of eight in my case. I don’t know the significance of the color of the numbers, but only #7 doesn’t fit for me:

• Dot Block Diner

  By ljd42 on April 21, 2026

  

  Yay! The Dot Block Diner has finally opened! (Still waiting for Sweet Teez Bakery to open next door… but one out of two ain’t bad.) And they even have parking! Barbara and I enjoyed our lunch there today. Barbara had… Read More ›

• Where are the women?

  By ljd42 on April 13, 2026

  

  What is your typical stereotype of a model railroader? Let’s see… well… perhaps a retired white male introvert in his ’70s? In other words, me? As is the case with most stereotypes, there is actually a grain of truth to… Read More ›

• Interesting address

  By ljd42 on April 8, 2026

  

• My front yard says that it must finally be spring!

  By ljd42 on April 5, 2026

  

• The story of classic crime in 100 books

  By ljd42 on March 27, 2026

  

  The longer you spend trying to decode this book title, the more confused you will be. You can probably think of six different interpretations before breakfast, depending on what you think story, classic, crime, and books might mean in this… Read More ›

• First do no harm.

  By ljd42 on March 24, 2026

  

  Yes, I do know what they say about books and their covers. And I do love S.J. Rozan’s Lydia-Chin-and-Bill-Smith series. But I was still initially irritated as soon as I glimpsed the cover of the latest book in that series,… Read More ›

• At Midnight Comes the Cry

  By ljd42 on March 21, 2026

  

  As you can see in the image below, that’s the title of a novel by Julia Spencer-Fleming. If you like having the context that you can get by reading previous books in a series, you may want to go back… Read More ›

• Happy spring! Happy buck-a-shuck!

  By ljd42 on March 20, 2026

  

  According to Google AI, cioppino is “a hearty Italian-American seafood stew from San Francisco, made with a tomato and wine broth filled with a variety of fresh fish and shellfish like clams, mussels, shrimp, and crab, using whatever the “catch… Read More ›

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