Learning Strategies

Recent Posts - page 18

• Did Hemingway write in short sentences? You probably think so. But you’re wrong! Science wins again.

  By ljd42 on December 12, 2022

  

  You can believe actual data. We’ll call that Door #1. Or you can believe your general “impression.” We’ll call that Door #2. Or you can believe what other people tell you—the “common knowledge” that everyone “knows.” We’ll call that Door… Read More ›

• Why are there so many Thai restaurants when there are so few Thai Americans?

  By ljd42 on December 10, 2022

  

  According to the U.S. Census, far fewer than one tenth of one percent of Massachusetts residents identify as Thai. So why are there so many Thai restaurants? For instance, on Dorchester Avenue alone we have three: Just Thai, Thai Oishi,… Read More ›

• Searching for Italy in Dorchester

  By ljd42 on December 8, 2022

  

  Pizza and pasta: that’s what 72% of all Americans think Italian food consists of. But we know better here in Dorchester. There’s no need to drive to the North End, where it’s impossible to park. Just go to Chris Douglass’s… Read More ›

• “Dear parents of math geniuses…,” writes Tanya Khovanova

  By ljd42 on December 6, 2022

  

  As a teacher, would you prefer hearing from Parent A or Parent B? Parent A: “My ten-year-old finished her calculus course: here is her picture to post on your blog.”  Parent B: “My daughter can’t do math, but I told… Read More ›

• A dozen new Miss Marple stories… but how is that possible?

  By ljd42 on December 4, 2022

  

  Agatha Christie died in 1976. So how could she be publishing a collection of new Miss Marple stories in 2022? Did she leave them behind, only to be discovered four decades later and published posthumously? That’s certainly what a glance… Read More ›

• Who cares about the burning of the library at Alexandria?

  By ljd42 on December 2, 2022

  

  “At least half of what Sagan says about history is outright false, but his authority is still seemingly unimpeachable today, forty-two years after the programme first aired.” So says the distinguished “Kiwi Hellenist”, Peter Gainsford, who is a classicist from New… Read More ›

• It’s Magpie Murders, not The Magpie Murders!

  By ljd42 on November 30, 2022

  

  Yes, the definite article makes a difference…not because we’re being pedantic, but because we’re being attentive to anagrams and acrostics. Here’s the problem: I’m talking, of course, about the recent PBS Masterpiece series by Anthony Horowitz, titled Magpie Murders, as… Read More ›

• Math anxiety

  By ljd42 on November 28, 2022

  

  When people find out that I’m a math teacher, the most common response among adults over 30 is “I was never any good at math.” An excellent short article in the Harvard Gazette recently explained what’s going on here. The… Read More ›

• The Department of Rare Books…

  By ljd42 on November 26, 2022

  

  Speaking of women in libraries…this seems to be the time of year to read and review books about women in libraries, especially mysteries about them. After The Woman in the Library, my next example is The Department of Rare Books… Read More ›

• The solution to that Estonian puzzle

  By ljd42 on November 24, 2022

  And here is the full solution to the puzzle about telling time in Estonian. First the answers, in case you want to check your answers before following the link to the full solution: Challenge 1a. 9:25b. 11:45c. 2:30d. 3:15e. 6:35… Read More ›

• Shy (the book, not the song)

  By ljd42 on November 22, 2022

  

  “Everyone should marry a gay man at least once,” says Mary Rodgers (better known as the daughter of Richard Rodgers, but an important figure in her own right, and not just for Once Upon a Mattress) on page 128 of… Read More ›

• How can girls succeed at the highest level of high-school debate?

  By ljd42 on November 20, 2022

  

  You know the problem, right? If a girl is meek and submissive, she won’t impress the debate judges. If she is strong and assertive, the judges will call her an aggressive bitch and she won’t do well. So there’s no… Read More ›

• How to tell time (in Estonian, of course)

  By ljd42 on November 18, 2022

  

  Alex Bellos, on Atlas Obscura, has written a fine linguistics/math puzzle about telling time in Estonian. No knowledge of Estonian is required (in fact, it would spoil the puzzle), nor is any advanced knowledge of math or linguistics expected. Here… Read More ›

• What is Jewish Noir?

  By ljd42 on November 16, 2022

  

  According to Wikipedia, film noir comprises “stylish crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and motivations.” So, what then is Jewish Noir? Moving the medium from film to short stories, we get a series (two books so far) edited by… Read More ›

• Ukraine: Its intertwined history and linguistics

  By ljd42 on November 14, 2022

  

  A great article in The Spectator teaches us the history of language in Ukraine in the context of the rest of the history of the country. Author Norman Davies is remarkably thorough and thankfully straightforward, teaching us a lot in… Read More ›

• And Justice for Mall

  By ljd42 on November 12, 2022

  

  Yet another entertaining Jersey Girl mystery by E.J. Copperman. This is the fourth. Although we’re firmly out in SoCal at this point, there are still enough reminders of her Jersey origins that you won’t forget where Sandy Moss, the protagonist,… Read More ›

• The plural of “you” is…“y’all”? “youse”? “yinz”? “you guys”? “you”?

  By ljd42 on November 10, 2022

  Prescriptivists and right-wingers were all outraged back in Shakespeare’s day, when progressives and descriptivists started using the plural pronoun “you” to address a single person. It would be the death of the English language! How dare they try to change… Read More ›

• Remember the…the what? Remember the Alamo? Remember the Maine? No, remember the Horn & Hardart Automat!

  By ljd42 on November 8, 2022

  

  If you are from either the New York or the Philadelphia area—and if you are of a certain age—you will fondly remember the Horn & Hardart Automat. And now there is a wonderful documentary about it, simply titled The Automat,… Read More ›

• What is your favorite mispelling?

  By ljd42 on November 7, 2022

  

  If you look cooly at the maps of common mispellings, paying attention to the miniscule details, it won’t take you a millenium to recognize that many of these words are frequently mispelled. The lists in those maps may or may… Read More ›

• Catch Me If You Can

  By ljd42 on November 5, 2022

  

  Not the book, not the musical: I’m talking about the 2002 Steven Spielberg movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio along with Christopher Walken, Tom Hanks, Amy Adams, Martin Sheen, and others that I haven’t heard of but you have. As you probably… Read More ›

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