Not your typical Robin Williams movie, One Hour Photo is an intense psychological thriller. Most of it takes place in a fictional big-box store called SavMart, which I first thought was supposed to be Target but eventually was clearly WalMart…. Read More ›
They taught it once. They taught it twice. They taught it thrice. So, in the well-known (or perhaps no longer so well known) words of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (definitely better known as Lewis Carroll), it must be true: “Just the… Read More ›
Helen DeWitt is one of my favorite authors. That’s what I decided after reading her first novel! Actually I decided it at the halfway point. She may be one of my favorites, but she has never achieved true popularity; she’s… Read More ›
You’ve always wanted to learn the truth about the interaction between numbers and names, haven’t you? James Propp will be your teacher. In this month’s Mathematical Enrichments, he makes this observation: Poincaré once wrote “Mathematics is the art of giving… Read More ›
Of course I played Monopoly a fair amount as a preteen, teen, and young adult. I even played it a bit as a not-so-young adult. The political implications were never in the front of my mind—except for the one summer… Read More ›
Why do I continue reading Kathy Reichs’s Temperance Brennan novels? Because I enjoy them, of course! They hold my attention; I like the geeky details of the forensics; and I’m always interested in the character development through the series. Cold… Read More ›
Ron DeSantis wants to tell me what to teach. And what not to teach. Even though he has broken with Donald Trump, he is following in the Trumpian footsteps. Maybe it’s only half of current Republicans who have authoritarian impulses,… Read More ›
We’ve all had this experience. You hear or read an unusual word that’s completely new to you—and then, a day or so later, you hear or read it again! Is it a coincidence? It just happened to me with the… Read More ›
Over 97% of Americans are either immigrants or descendants of immigrants—even if some so-called conservatives don’t want to admit it. But many of us who grew up with immigrant parents or grandparents are unable to speak or read the language(s)… Read More ›
This is my not-quite-annual “march forth” post wishing everyone a happy Exelauno Day. In case you’ve forgotten, here is my post from a year ago, which happens to be mostly about learning Ukrainian (!) but opens with remarks about Exelauno… Read More ›
Learning Strategies 