Recent Posts - page 2
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The Tartan Army: the day Scottish FIFA fans drank Boston dry
How long has it been since I’ve been to a Kim Wallach concert? Literally decades, as it turns out, but the YouTube algorithm decided it was time for me to listen to her newest song: “The day Scottish FIFA fans… Read More ›
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Too much light!
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Les Miz in Boston
Unfortunately I was just so disappointed! Les Miz is one of my three favorite musicals, and I had never seen a professional live performance of it. (I’d seen the movie, and I’d seen an excellent high-school performance.) So I had… Read More ›
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“Belly rubs needed over here.”
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Roses
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Claude vs. ChatGPT
I asked ChatGPT and Claude to create a 3D image of me, both using the same prompt: Create a 3D image of me using your knowledge of my jobs and interests, based on this photo. The photo was this: Here’s… Read More ›
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Judeo-Arabic
That title sounds a bit like an oxymoron, doesn’t it? But it isn’t. It’s a real language, spoken by some 240,000 Jews throughout the Arab world. For a quick intro, see the Wikipedia article, but I first want to make… Read More ›
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How was last night at Tavolo different from all other nights?
Because it was the first Wednesday of the month and therefore provided the option of choosing Tavolo’s Pasta Tour! I almost went with that option, as I had never done it before and it looked tempting. But I decided (or… Read More ›
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Signs of being an introvert
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Dot Block Diner
Yay! The Dot Block Diner has finally opened! (Still waiting for Sweet Teez Bakery to open next door… but one out of two ain’t bad.) And they even have parking! Barbara and I enjoyed our lunch there today. Barbara had… Read More ›
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Where are the women?
What is your typical stereotype of a model railroader? Let’s see… well… perhaps a retired white male introvert in his ’70s? In other words, me? As is the case with most stereotypes, there is actually a grain of truth to… Read More ›
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Interesting address
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My front yard says that it must finally be spring!
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The story of classic crime in 100 books
The longer you spend trying to decode this book title, the more confused you will be. You can probably think of six different interpretations before breakfast, depending on what you think story, classic, crime, and books might mean in this… Read More ›
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First do no harm.
Yes, I do know what they say about books and their covers. And I do love S.J. Rozan’s Lydia-Chin-and-Bill-Smith series. But I was still initially irritated as soon as I glimpsed the cover of the latest book in that series,… Read More ›
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At Midnight Comes the Cry
As you can see in the image below, that’s the title of a novel by Julia Spencer-Fleming. If you like having the context that you can get by reading previous books in a series, you may want to go back… Read More ›
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Happy spring! Happy buck-a-shuck!
According to Google AI, cioppino is “a hearty Italian-American seafood stew from San Francisco, made with a tomato and wine broth filled with a variety of fresh fish and shellfish like clams, mussels, shrimp, and crab, using whatever the “catch… Read More ›
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Famous railway modellers
Or railroad modelers, as we spell it on this side of the pond. I don’t know why the Brits have such problems with spelling two perfectly good words that we ’Murricans invented: railroad and modeler. Nonetheless, railroad modelers are of… Read More ›
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Vance and Moore… back when both of them were younger
Every day, it seems, I read something by or about two of our distinguished politicians: J.D. Vance and Wes Moore. Well, one of them is distinguished; the other is, well… what are the appropriate adjectives to describe someone who has… Read More ›
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The Dry
This is not a review. More of a warning, I suppose. The reason it’s not a review is that I can’t write one for a book that I didn’t finish, and I didn’t even come close to finishing Jane Harper’s… Read More ›
Featured Categories
Books ›
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The Odyssey (my failed attempt to see the movie)
August 12, 2026
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Murder off the Page
August 6, 2026
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With Prejudice
July 31, 2026
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Happy birthday (or maybe not), Messrs. Strunk and White!
July 30, 2026
Dorchester/Boston ›
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Bred
August 21, 2026
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Morning glories
August 13, 2026
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Good stuff cheap! The story of Jerry Ellis and Building #19
August 4, 2026
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Hydrangeas
July 27, 2026
Food & Restaurants ›
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How was last night at Tavolo different from all other nights?
May 7, 2026
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Dot Block Diner
April 21, 2026
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Happy spring! Happy buck-a-shuck!
March 20, 2026
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A special brunch at Tavolo
March 1, 2026
Life ›
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Fireworks
July 3, 2026
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Christina II
July 1, 2026
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Speaking of Les Miz…
June 27, 2026
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The Tartan Army: the day Scottish FIFA fans drank Boston dry
June 26, 2026
Linguistics ›
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What, I hear you ask, is an inverted oloid? (For that matter what is a plain vanilla oloid?)
August 14, 2026
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Why don’t Native Americans want to be called Native Americans?
July 28, 2026
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Unabridged
June 28, 2026
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Judeo-Arabic
May 24, 2026
Math ›
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Very sad news
October 17, 2025
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The metric system has gotten an update!
July 14, 2025
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As Tom Lehrer says, that’s mathematics!
July 9, 2025
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The Plinko Bounce
June 28, 2025
Model Railroading ›
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Only the best…
July 22, 2026
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Where are the women?
April 13, 2026
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Famous railway modellers
March 16, 2026
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“So you want a model railroad” — a well-known… okay… not-so-well-known Warner Bros. film from 1955
November 22, 2025
Movies & (occasionally) TV ›
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Picard: Welcome to the Sticks!
March 6, 2026
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The new Springsteen bio-pic
November 11, 2025
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Breaking Silence: a truly outstanding documentary!
July 29, 2025
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The Social Network
May 11, 2025
Teaching & Learning ›
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Who’s better at understanding written English — you or some random teen in South Korea?
January 22, 2026
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Triple threat: Carl Sagan, critical thinking, and an exam
October 13, 2025
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Truly these are oldies but goodies — songs from… wait for it… two millennia ago!
September 28, 2025
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Measles and polio down in the schoolyard
September 8, 2025
Technology ›
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Claude vs. ChatGPT
May 28, 2026
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Will the real John McWhorter please stand up? (No, no, that’s not the real one; that’s the AI John McWhorter!)
January 18, 2026
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Not the other Wes Moore
June 22, 2025
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Bye bye Mark Z.
February 6, 2025
Travel ›
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Interesting address
April 8, 2026
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Taunton vs. Colmar?
March 4, 2026
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Written in the South Pacific during World War II
February 17, 2025
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Globle
February 15, 2023
Weston ›
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A former student’s PhD defense
August 15, 2025
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“Dear parents of math geniuses…,” writes Tanya Khovanova
December 6, 2022
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How can girls succeed at the highest level of high-school debate?
November 20, 2022
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Reading Latin and Ancient Greek for fun and profit. For what? Fun? Yes, fun. Really. And the profit was purely intellectual, not financial.
October 19, 2022





