Learning Strategies

Recent Posts - page 20

• How many Massachusetts cities and towns can you name?

  By ljd42 on October 28, 2022

  

  Well, at least I beat Steph Solis. But she’ll probably remind me that “it’s not a competition” if she ever sees this. So here’s the situation. Axios Boston posted a link to a site where you can test yourself by… Read More ›

• I’m shocked, shocked! Middle-schoolers were hiding Satanic messages in their mural!

  By ljd42 on October 27, 2022

  

  Take a look at the mural, designed and painted by a high-school student for the Child and Adolescent Health Center at Grant Middle School in Grant, Michigan, a suburb of Grand Rapids: I’m sure you can see the Satanic messages…. Read More ›

• “When napping on the ottoman…

  By ljd42 on October 25, 2022

  

  …it’s very important to show off your extra toes, and to sprawl out so there’s no room for anyone else to sit there.” So says Flicka.

• The woman in the library handed me The Woman in the Library.

  By ljd42 on October 24, 2022

  

  This is the second time in less than a month that I’ve had to use typography to disambiguate the title of a post. This is the better of the two examples, both because it contains the very same phrase twice… Read More ›

• How to build a metaverse

  By ljd42 on October 22, 2022

  

  Cats may have nine lives. You don’t, but at least you can have a Second Life. Second Life, as you probably know, is an example of a metaverse. Do not confuse this with the new name of Facebook’s parent corporation,… Read More ›

• Think globally, eat locally…at Tavolo.

  By ljd42 on October 20, 2022

  

  Another delicious destination last night, all of half a mile away, a relaxing evening at one of our neighborhood’s pair of favorites: Chris Douglass’s Tavolo Ristorante. We started with rosemary focaccia, which always comes with chili flakes, parmesan, and evoo…. Read More ›

• Reading Latin and Ancient Greek for fun and profit. For what? Fun? Yes, fun. Really. And the profit was purely intellectual, not financial.

  By ljd42 on October 19, 2022

  

  Even in my circles, Latin and Greek are not exactly common topics of conversation. Friends and relatives are surprised whenever I read something in Ancient Greek—or even in Latin—for fun. OK, I’m weird. But you probably knew that already. What… Read More ›

• “A round kitty bed…

  By ljd42 on October 17, 2022

  

  …is the perfect shape for curling up in,” says William. “Circles rule!” he added geometrically.

• Do you say Shábbos or Shabbát?

  By ljd42 on October 16, 2022

  

  Shabbos (stress on first syllable, second vowel “o,” ends in “s”) or shabbat (stress on last syllable, second vowel “a,” ends in “t”)? Why can’t we agree on how to pronounce Hebrew? How about beth, bet, or beis? Shibboleth or… Read More ›

• Revisiting Jane Langton

  By ljd42 on October 14, 2022

  

  No, not revisiting her in person: she died four years ago, and I had never met her. The title of this post means that I have just finished rereading two of her Homer Kelly novels. If you know the first… Read More ›

• Why was this esteemed professor fired?

  By ljd42 on October 12, 2022

  

  Apparently because his organic chemistry course was difficult (“too hard,” some students said). Organic chemistry, of course, is supposed to be difficult. So there must be more to the story than that. But what is the rest of the story?… Read More ›

• Standardized tests: what (if anything) do MCAS results tell us?

  By ljd42 on October 10, 2022

  

  You can readily find both sides of the ongoing MCAS debate, a debate that has been ongoing for 30 years now. Like many—most? all?—other states, Massachusetts has a threshold score on a set of standardized tests as one of its… Read More ›

• The library had Something to Hide.

  By ljd42 on October 8, 2022

  

  No, no. The typography is wrong in that title: it should be “The library had Something to Hide,” not “The library had something to hide.” Something to Hide is the latest novel by Elizabeth George; I had to wait for… Read More ›

• So you think you don’t have an accent?

  By ljd42 on October 6, 2022

  You do have an accent—even if you think you’re speaking unaccented English. And you do speak a dialect—even if you think you’re speaking “ standard English.” In an amazing three-part must-see video, dialect coach Erik Singer takes us through a… Read More ›

• Remember the Ebonics controversy?

  By ljd42 on October 4, 2022

  

  Just over a couple of decades ago, the whole country was buzzing about something called Ebonics, now known as AAVE (African-American Vernacular English). You may or may not remember this, depending on your age and ethnicity. Go watch this short… Read More ›

• Have you read For Whom the SUV Rolls and Farewell to Legs?

  By ljd42 on October 2, 2022

  

  Those two titles may remind you slightly of a couple of books by some guy named Hemingway, who was famous mostly for his many six-toed cats. Actually, however, I cheated slightly: the first title is really For Whom the Minivan… Read More ›

• “Scottish cuisine”: an oxymoron?

  By ljd42 on September 30, 2022

  

  Think of the world’s great cuisines: French, Italian, Chinese, Greek, Turkish, Japanese, Indian, Thai, and Spanish (though YMMV). You’ll note that most of these are from warm or even hot climates. Very few people list Norwegian, Russian, or Scottish among… Read More ›

• Revisiting Chinatown. (That’s Chinatown, not Chinatown.)

  By ljd42 on September 29, 2022

  

  After nearly half a century, I finally decided to rewatch Chinatown, which I only dimly recalled. I remembered that it had been one of my favorite movies at the time. Would it hold up after so many decades? The answer… Read More ›

• What did you read in high-school English?

  By ljd42 on September 27, 2022

  

  Just over three months ago I wrote a post about the pros and cons of my high-school experience. One paragraph, in the list of cons, focused on what my classmates and I read in my English classes: When I asked… Read More ›

• We have Open Streets in Dorchester!

  By ljd42 on September 25, 2022

  

  Yesterday was Dorchester’s turn to participate in Open Streets Boston. A 2-mile stretch of Dot Ave was closed to traffic and open to pedestrians, bicyclists, pedicabs, community activities, booths for non-profits…and even math! Pictures speak louder than words, right? So,… Read More ›

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