Learning Strategies

Recent Posts - page 14

• Promising Lives Cut Short

  By ljd42 on May 16, 2024

  

  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 ›

• Step-by-step: Building a structure on my model railroad layout

  By ljd42 on May 13, 2024

  

  Q As asked by a randomly chosen reader of this blog: When will your model railroad finally be completed? It has been “in progress” for years now! A Never. What counts is the journey, not the destination. A model railroad… Read More ›

• Murder Crossed her Mind

  By ljd42 on May 10, 2024

  

  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 ›

• The Pearl, a well-named restaurant

  By ljd42 on May 7, 2024

  

  On our way home from yet another doctor’s appointment (they come far too often, don’t they, when you’re getting close to 80), Barbara suggested stopping for lunch at The Pearl. She had to twist my arm, but I finally agreed… Read More ›

• Gyu-Kaku

  By ljd42 on May 4, 2024

  

  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 ›

• Ishihara—who’s that?

  By ljd42 on April 26, 2024

  

  No, not a professional baseball player. OK, so how about Munsell—who’s that? And are/were they real, or are they fantasy? (Why am I asking these odd questions?) And how are Ishihara and Munsell related to regulations like the following? 2.1.01.05.002:… Read More ›

• But what if that little engine just couldn’t?

  By ljd42 on April 25, 2024

  

  You probably remember the inspirational story from your childhood, The Little Engine that Could. Yes, I understand, that story is supposed to be inspirational…but I’ve always considered it pernicious. Pernicious. How can that be? Well, I was reminded of that… Read More ›

• Conlangs

  By ljd42 on April 23, 2024

  

  No, conlangs are not languages spoken at cons (science fiction or mystery or cosplay conventions) — although they could be spoken at some of these. Nor are they languages spoken by convicts. The portmanteau word “conlang” simply means “constructed language.”… Read More ›

• Buskin & Batteau (and Friends)

  By ljd42 on April 21, 2024

  

  Probably it was at least 20 years ago that I had last attended a live concert. So clearly it was now time to do so when I saw that David Buskin and Robin Batteau were going to be performing (with… Read More ›

• Linguini, meet clams!

  By ljd42 on April 19, 2024

  

  A month ago I posted this comment: “I’ve already written many times about Tavolo, so just a word about one new item.” And now, once again a new item. You guessed it from this post’s title: linguini with clams on… Read More ›

• Dorchester-Italian (two ways): Via Cannuccia and Tavolo

  By ljd42 on March 18, 2024

  

  Everyone knows North End Italian — but the North End is approximately a thousand miles away and parking is impossible. Yes, there’s always the MBTA, but… well… the T is the T. So why not think about Dorchester Italian, a… Read More ›

• Happy St. Gertrude’s Day!

  By ljd42 on March 17, 2024

• Posts you may have missed

  By ljd42 on March 15, 2024

  Now that I’m back to writing in my blog, I just remembered that there are friends who follow me on Facebook but don’t follow my blog directly, so they no longer see automatic summaries of my posts! (Other settings also… Read More ›

• Three cheers for the heroes at Beth Israel!

  By ljd42 on March 13, 2024

  

  As you know if you’ve been following this blog, I spent 18 days of this past July as a patient at Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital in Boston. Unfortunately, since I was unconscious or confused most of that time, I remember… Read More ›

• “My cat likes to be pet.” Does that sentence sound grammatically correct to your ear?

  By ljd42 on March 11, 2024

  To my ear, at any rate, it does not sound correct. Shouldn’t it be “to be petted”? But I’ve recently heard this use of pet as a past participle (more on that below) from at least two well-educated native speakers… Read More ›

• Truly Vera [get it?]

  By ljd42 on March 9, 2024

  

  Apparently I’m the last person in the Western Hemisphere to learn who Vera is. Truly. That is because I watch so little television, and television is the main way in which Americans know Vera. But this post is about a… Read More ›

• Read Desert Star again (but maybe it would be best for you to wait until you’re in your seventies)

  By ljd42 on March 7, 2024

  

  Actually, don’t wait until then! If you’re in your thirties or forties or whatever, read Michael Connelly’s Desert Star now…and then read it again when you’re in your seventies. It will be a different book. Of course if you’re already… Read More ›

• Vietnamese and Chinese Food on the Dot

  By ljd42 on March 5, 2024

  

  Where oh where do you go for Vietnamese and Chinese lunches? Dorchester, of course! Over the past week, one day for the Davidson-Bean household was Vietnamese food day and two were Chinese food days. Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures… Read More ›

• Happy Ἐξελαύνω Day!

  By ljd42 on March 4, 2024

  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 two years ago, which happens to be mostly about learning Ukrainian (!) but opens with remarks about Exelauno… Read More ›

• I’m back!

  By ljd42 on February 28, 2024

  Where, you may be wondering, have I been for the last eight months? Actually, I’ve been in Boston the whole time, so why no blog posts? For those who don’t know the answer, here’s the Readers Digest condensed version. Like… Read More ›

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