Learning Strategies

Recent Posts - page 11

• Another Day’s Pain

  By ljd42 on November 2, 2024

  

  Two very different mysteries: K. C. Constantine’s Another Day’s Pain is quite a contrast to Maria DiRico’s The Witless Protection Program, which I recently reviewed. As Constantine’s mystery is dark, serious, and grim, it might seem strange when I say… Read More ›

• The Witless Protection Program

  By ljd42 on October 30, 2024

  

  As you can see in the cover image below, the publisher claims that The Witless Protection Program was written by Maria DiRico, even though we all know that it was written by Ellen Byron. This, of course, must be because… Read More ›

• RIP Flicka, 2006–2024.

  By ljd42 on October 25, 2024

  

  She was a very good cat, 🐈‍⬛😢 She always brought along her extra toes and her stripy nose.

• I can see clearly now…

  By ljd42 on October 22, 2024

  

  No, not the famous song from the ’70s! In this case I mean it literally: I have just completed going through cataract and glaucoma surgeries in both eyes (a month apart), and the world looks different. Even though the surgeries… Read More ›

• All nine neighborhoods

  By ljd42 on October 20, 2024

  

  So here’s the thing about neighborhoods. In some cities, neighborhoods have official names, and precise boundaries, and even signs telling you which neighborhood you’re in — often with the name of the mayor attached (you might wonder why that’s done,… Read More ›

• The Killings at Kingfisher Hill

  By ljd42 on October 16, 2024

  

  What a deceptive cover! Take a look: You can see immediately that this is the new Poirot novel by Agatha Christie, right? But how is that possible? Was it just recently discovered, lurking in a file cabinet somewhere? Well, no…. Read More ›

• A new development

  By ljd42 on October 13, 2024

  

  Rose City’s wealthiest real estate developer, J. Elon Mark Jorgensen — who happens to be the mayor’s brother-in-law, but that of course is just a coincidence — has proposed building a new development of ranch-style tract houses on a piece… Read More ›

• “You can’t possibly be asking me to read an entire book!” he exclaimed.

  By ljd42 on October 10, 2024

  

  At his public high school, [this first-year student at an Ivy League university] had never been required to read an entire book. He had been assigned excerpts, poetry, and news articles, but not a single book cover to cover. That… Read More ›

• Never Saw Me Coming

  By ljd42 on October 7, 2024

  

  This fast-paced novel by Vera Kurian will hold your attention from beginning to end. Never Saw Me Coming falls clearly into the psychological thriller subcategory of the mystery genre, although it has aspects of the traditional mystery as well. Without… Read More ›

• This song is for you, Donald.

  By ljd42 on October 5, 2024

• Santa

  By ljd42 on October 2, 2024

  

  So here I was at CVS, waiting patiently to pick up a prescription, right behind a mother and child, when I heard the kid (maybe four years old or so) exclaim: Mama, mama, look, look! Santa is black! I looked… Read More ›

• The house under construction: the final phase

  By ljd42 on September 28, 2024

  

  The “house under construction” kit for my model railroad is finally completed! I remind you that that does not mean that the house is fully constructed, just that Meredith has completed it up to the snapshot in time provided by… Read More ›

• Thank you, Atrius, for making everyone feel welcome!

  By ljd42 on September 25, 2024

  

  On entering the Chestnut Hill branch of Atrius Health, I see this sign as I’m about to enter Visual Services: And I do in fact feel welcome! It still looks a little blurry to me, but that might be because… Read More ›

• Same Difference (Copperman)

  By ljd42 on September 19, 2024

  

  Same Difference is apparently a popular title with contemporary authors (or at least their publishers), as you will conclude if you search for books with that title in various catalogs. The novel by E.J. Copperman is the one being reviewed… Read More ›

• Duck!

  By ljd42 on September 13, 2024

  

  Duck and lamb are my two favorite entrées to ask for in restaurants, but most of the time I just don’t find them on menus. Sure, you can usually find duck on a fancy French menu, or lamb on any… Read More ›

• Flicka feels safe, showing off her extra toes in her sideways box.

  By ljd42 on September 9, 2024

  

• “Raise high the roof beam, carpenters.”

  By ljd42 on September 7, 2024

  

  As you look at the title of this post, you’re probably thinking of J.D. Salinger’s novella. Or perhaps, if you are of a more classical bent, you’re thinking of Sappho’s fragment #111, which of course I still remember from Greek… Read More ›

• Remember this?

  By ljd42 on September 5, 2024

  I’ll talk about like nine different things, and they all come back brilliantly together, and it’s like, friends of mine that are, like, English professors, they say, “It’s the most brilliant thing I’ve ever seen.” DJT

• Happy Labor Day!

  By ljd42 on September 2, 2024

  Today is Labor Day. Remember, as Billy Bragg wrote (and sings), that there is Power in a Union… Not to mention https://youtu.be/wI7ONJ60DIc?si=3-4wk__QSQMWYVcg, but apparently WordPress won’t let me embed two links in the same post. And as Capybara8868 posted on… Read More ›

• For anyone who has had to interact with an INTJ

  By ljd42 on August 29, 2024

  

  Found in the INTJ group on Facebook: Interviewer: What is your greatest weakness? Me: Interpreting the semantics of a question but ignoring the pragmatics. Interviewer: Can you give me an example? Me: Yes, I can.

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