And then he became the murder victim in Archer Mayor’s latest novel, Marked Man. Of course “moving up in the world” is a matter of opinion; I don’t mean that he moved north, although he definitely did do that. No… Read More ›
Month: August 2022
Linguistics/math interface
People keep wondering how I journeyed from linguistics to math. Maybe they’re the same thing:
When you pronounce that middle consonant, do you hear z or s?
How do you pronounce “Tesla”? Do you pronounce the middle consonant like a z, as the Italians do, or like an s, as it is spelled? Both pronunciations are “correct,” but how do you say it? Linguists will tell you… Read More ›
No pirates. And it’s not in Penzance. But it’s nearby: It’s Death in Cornwall.
What, I wonder, draws me to the Celtic languages and Celtic lands, when I’ve never even been there and speak none of those languages? Irish, Manx, Scottish Gaelic, Welsh, Cornish…all are missing from my language repertoire. And I’ve never visited… Read More ›
The books of the century (Which century? The 20th, of course!)
You’re surely wondering which books were the most influential, or most popular, or most important in the 20th Century. Fortunately, Daniel Immerwahr has done the work for you. “Who’s he when he’s at home?” you’re asking. Well, in his own… Read More ›
Interdisciplinarity (if there really is such a word)
Yesterday was the final day for this summer’s session of the Crimson Summer Academy. It was a successful return to in-person teaching after two summers of Zoom. We were all relieved to be back in front of real people instead… Read More ›
Dan Kennedy is part of the solution!
Northeastern University professor Dan Kennedy is always worth reading. And also worth listening to—on Beat the Press with Emily Rooney and other shows. For my just-concluded Quantitative Reasoning class at the Crimson Summer Academy I wish we had had time… Read More ›
No, Mark Twain didn’t say that!
“I never said half of the things I said,” remarked Yogi Berra. Or so the story goes. Similarly, Mark Twain is often credited with writing things that he never wrote. As are Winston Churchill and Benjamin Disraeli and other distinguished… Read More ›
Learning Strategies 