Learning Strategies

Recent Posts - page 24

• William says it’s important to distribute your patronage.

  By ljd42 on June 3, 2022

  

  Yesterday the kitty couch, today the round cat bed.

• William napping on his kitty couch

  By ljd42 on June 2, 2022

  

• Languages get simpler over the centuries, right?

  By ljd42 on June 1, 2022

  After all, Spanish is simpler than Latin, isn’t it? And modern English is surely simpler than old English. So that proves it. Or does it? Well, no. There are at least two things that are wrong with the common claim… Read More ›

• A gender-bending version of Stephen Sondheim’s Company

  By ljd42 on May 30, 2022

  

  The Great Performances series on PBS just aired a spectacular documentary, “Keeping Company with Sondheim,” all about making the new version of Stephen Sondheim’s great 1970 musical, Company. You can still see it. This new version of the musical differs… Read More ›

• A strange book cover puzzle

  By ljd42 on May 29, 2022

  

  You recognize this book, right? A glance at the cover makes it obvious what book this is. But then… You look again and start asking yourself why it says Garri, not Harry. And that reminds you of two things: It… Read More ›

• Nice place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to work there.

  By ljd42 on May 27, 2022

  

  There’s a fine line between a dystopia and a utopia. Unfortunately, Dave Eggers chose to draw his line with an extra-thick marker. I’m talking about his fifth novel (fifth or so—but who’s counting?), The Circle. The story focuses on the… Read More ›

• “The Therapeutic Value of Model Railroading”

  By ljd42 on May 25, 2022

  

  Depression? PTSD? GeekDad, who has both, has published a fascinating short personal essay on what he calls “the therapeutic value of model railroading.” You don’t have to be a model railroader to appreciate the essay. You don’t have to be… Read More ›

• A “more perfect language”?

  By ljd42 on May 23, 2022

  

  The Foers know what they’re talking about. You are probably familiar with Jonathan Safran Foer, and perhaps you know his brother Franklin Foer. But this post is about his other brother, Joshua Foer—in particular about a long non-fiction piece he… Read More ›

• Licorice Pizza

  By ljd42 on May 22, 2022

  

  You are probably more “with it” than I am, so you probably know that Licorice Pizza is slang for a vinyl phonograph record, that it originates both as an expansion of the abbreviation for “long playing” and as a visual… Read More ›

• Irises

  By ljd42 on May 21, 2022

  

  Irises. Perhaps, like some people I know, you don’t believe that that’s how the plural of iris is spelled. Perhaps you prefer the original spelling, ἰριδες. In any case, our ἰριδες are doing quite well, considering that it’s only mid-May.

• Index, A History of the

  By ljd42 on May 20, 2022

  

  You’re in for a treat—if you read this will book with full focus and close attention. The title of this post is also the title of the book. Right away, you notice its form, and you realize that author Dennis… Read More ›

• Seventeenth anniversary of my very first blog post!

  By ljd42 on May 18, 2022

  

  Exactly 17 years ago today. That was the day when I started this blog. You can still read my very first post, which was originally on Blogger and then transferred to WordPress. I have written 2,194 posts since then, which… Read More ›

• Stephen Sondheim’s Putting it Together

  By ljd42 on May 16, 2022

  

  Twenty-one years ago, Carol Burnett and four other actors performed a Broadway revue of Stephen Sondheim songs called Putting it Together. I didn’t get to see it on Broadway, but I just watched the filmed version on DVD, which you… Read More ›

• So you wake up one morning, blind in one eye, and soon you learn that you have a 20% chance of going blind in the other eye too…

  By ljd42 on May 13, 2022

  

  No, it has never happened to me. And I hope not to you either. But it did happen to journalist Frank Bruni. I have just finished reading his resilient memoir, The Beauty of Dusk. Bruni’s affliction, non-arteritic anterior optic neuropathy,… Read More ›

• A quiz: why can’t you read this?

  By ljd42 on May 11, 2022

  

  Yes, I know you can read this, namely this blog post. The question is why can’t you read the passage below this paragraph. OK, OK, so it’s not in English, but that’s not the point. It’s from the Greek Old… Read More ›

• “God created the integers…”

  By ljd42 on May 9, 2022

  

  No, it’s not about theology. It’s about math! The title of this book, edited by Stephen Hawking, is the first half of a famous quotation from Leopold Kronecker: “God created the integers, all else is the work of man.” Actually,… Read More ›

• Don’t be misled by the name.

  By ljd42 on May 7, 2022

  

  The Neponset Cafe is a small Japanese restaurant in Dorchester that primarily features ramen, despite the restaurant’s name—which comes from its location on Neponset Avenue, right next to Neponset Circle. (Don’t confuse it with a very different Neponset Cafe across… Read More ›

• My next challenge: (re)reading Ulysses!

  By ljd42 on May 6, 2022

  

  Perhaps the title to this post is misleading: is it strictly correct for me to say that I am “re”reading Ulysses? Well, in a way. I like to claim that I’ve already read it one and a half times, because… Read More ›

• Revisiting Brasserie

  By ljd42 on May 5, 2022

  

  In honor of Star Wars Day, Barbara and I returned to Brasserie for our third visit yesterday. OK, I lied. It wasn’t really for Star Wars Day (but still: May the Fourth be with you). It was for another holiday… Read More ›

• A Pop History of Asian Americans from the Nineties to Now

  By ljd42 on May 4, 2022

  

  The title of this post is the subtitle of the book, even though it describes it perfectly. The much more cryptic title is simply Rise. This is not the kind of book you read cover-to-cover. It’s more the type you… Read More ›

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