You may think the answer is “nothing.” Except maybe a failure to follow the rules. But you would be wrong. By this point you are probably familiar with Felicia Hofner, a.k.a. “Feli from Germany.” After six years in Cincinnati her… Read More ›
Life
What are we? “Jewish Americans” or “American Jews”?
The excellent PBS documentary from 2008, The Jewish Americans, is an in-depth account of three hundred years of American Jews. I have no idea why it took me 14 years to watch it! The mix of presenters includes public figures,… Read More ›
Fortunately, things have changed in the past 30 years.
Or have they? A couple of days ago, as part of an ongoing trip down memory lane on Apple Music, I happened to be listening to a 1992 song by Fred Small, The Marine’s Lament. Since it’s only two minutes… Read More ›
More chaos! More CatNet!
The second novel in a series is always worse than the first. Of course that’s not true—unless you replace “always” with “often” or perhaps even “usually.” Or perhaps the wishy-washy “sometimes.” All generalizations are false, as they say. Including this… Read More ›
Why teach gerrymandering? And why teach it in a math course in particular?
Gerrymandering is a hot topic in certain circles. Right now I am in the midst of writing and modifying some gerrymandering activities for my summer course at Crimson Summer Academy (CSA). Although we have taught various voting methods since the… Read More ›
Cats on ottoman
Apparently there’s plenty of room for both boy cats on the ottoman:
What is a city?
Massachusetts has 50 cities and 301 towns—collectively known as “municipalities.” Does it matter which ones are cities and which ones are towns? And should you care about the definition of “city”? Perhaps; perhaps not. If you’re studying civics anywhere in… Read More ›
Judging a movie that was made 60 years ago
What a cringy movie! Oddly enough, I had never seen Breakfast at Tiffany’s—neither when it was first shown in 1961 nor subsequently on TV or DVD. But now I have. So here’s the problem. In the throes of cancel culture,… Read More ›
One pączki, two pączki? Fat Thursday, not Fat Tuesday? Are you confused yet?
Let me unconfuse you, as I earlier had to unconfuse myself. Unless you are Polish, or live(d) in a predominantly Polish neighborhood (like the northern tip of Dorchester), you surely think that a Polish pastry is called a pączki (pronounced… Read More ›
How worried are you about “learning loss”?
Parents and teachers alike are understandably worried about learning loss during the pandemic. How real is the worry? Is there something else that should worry us more? And what exactly does “learning loss” mean anyway? John Spencer helps you and… Read More ›
Are we embarrassed to be Bostonians? Should we be?
Patrick Maguire’s blog, Server Not Servant, is always worth reading. Those of us who treat restaurant servers well—those of us who consider respect toward essential workers to be an important American value—have been sorely tested by some of our fellow… Read More ›
William is so handsome…
On his blue comforter, even if for some reason it has a lot of cat fur on it:
Christine Lavin, Tina Ross, and Barbara Barrie
Great short Zoom concert/interview last night by Christine Lavin, hosted by Tina Ross! Not sure whether it’s still available after the fact. In any case, you can check out her other concerts and recordings here. But I do need to… Read More ›
A Jewish Christmas, in two parts (Part Two: Dreaming of a Jewish Christmas)
After we got home from our requisite Chinese meal on Christmas Day, Barbara and I watched the requisite movie: in this case the Canadian documentary Dreaming of a Jewish Christmas. If you’ve never heard of it, go find it and… Read More ›
Rudolph in Old English
In recognition of Christmas 2021, here is Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer in the original Old English, a.k.a. Anglo Saxon, from exactly one thousand years ago, courtesy of All Things Linguistic: Hwæt, Hrodulf readnosa hrandeor – Næfde þæt nieten unsciende næsðyrlas! Glitenode and… Read More ›
People love dead Jews.
Yes, I too cringe at the title of this best-selling book of interrelated essays. But unfortunately it’s altogether appropriate. Mark Oppenheimer of the Unorthodox podcast calls it “the best collection of essays that I have read in a long, long… Read More ›
Never—no, always—take the shortcut!
“Abjure the hypotenuse!” That’s what our busy high school dean (also assistant headmaster and sole college counselor) George Grenville Benedict—called G2 by the students (behind his back)—was famous for saying. As my classmate Alba Briggs publicly observed on screen in… Read More ›
West Side Chanukah Story…and Goodbye to Stephen Sondheim
Chanukah story? Or the greatest musical of all time, West Side Story? This magnificent five-minute a cappella performance by the Manhattan Jewish Experience is both. Shoutout to David Schwartz for the link! As with all take-offs and parodies, it helps… Read More ›
Learning Strategies 