Month: May 2024

Highly Irregular (a book review)

Probably you have at least some interest in language. Probably you are not a professional linguist. If both of these describe you (having an interest in language but not being a professional linguist), then Arika Okrent’s latest book, Highly Irregular,… Read More ›

Two murders in Paris

Recently I finished reading two mysteries that happened to take place in Paris. You probably wonder whether that was a coincidence. I did too; it certainly wasn’t intentional, but maybe it was my subconscious at work. The covers of both… Read More ›

Promising Lives Cut Short

Recently I finished reading William Cohan’s non-fiction account called Four Friends: Promising Lives Cut Short. My motivation for choosing to read this book was simple. The author, his eponymous four friends, and I have something in common: we all graduated… Read More ›

Murder Crossed her Mind

Every four years like clockwork (assuming, that is, you have a strange clock with a rather vague sense of regularity*) Stephen Spotswood publishes another great novel in his Pentecost and Parker series. And now we’re on to number four: Murder… Read More ›

Gyu-Kaku

Yes, it’s a chain, but don’t dismiss it out of hand. After all, it’s a Japanese chain, not an American one. From Waikiki to Kansas City, Toronto to Dorchester, Gyu-Kaku has some five dozen locations in North American alone, supplementing… Read More ›