Learning Strategies

Recent Posts - page 3

• Chinese food in Greater Boston, then and now

  By ljd42 on November 1, 2025

  

  A shout-out for Richard Auffrey, the Passionate Foodie, whose blog by that name has been providing thorough and accurate info about food and wine for almost 20 years! In particular, I want to commend him for his numerous posts about… Read More ›

• Abby wants more admirers.

  By ljd42 on October 24, 2025

  

• “I am a Jewish man.” —Daniel Cainer

  By ljd42 on October 19, 2025

  As I was thinking about these matters yesterday (for obvious reasons), this popped up in my YouTube feed. Who knows why the algorithm chose it for me. In any case, even though I was never a bar mitzvah — or… Read More ›

• No Trump. No Kings.

  By ljd42 on October 18, 2025

  Be sure to turn on closed captioning for this one, so you can see the parts that you can’t hear: https://youtu.be/_2KOMWr0qNA

• Very sad news

  By ljd42 on October 17, 2025

  

  My sister, Ellen Davidson, died unexpectedly in her sleep Wednesday morning at age 77. No information yet about cause of death, although she did have Parkinson’s, so that may be it. If you knew her, you realize that she was… Read More ›

• Triple threat: Carl Sagan, critical thinking, and an exam

  By ljd42 on October 13, 2025

  

  Carl Sagan. A blast from the past, you’re going to tell me! But not really. As several commenters have pointed out after watching the video linked below, he’s more relevant than ever at this point. So go watch it yourself… Read More ›

• Dumpling Kitchen

  By ljd42 on October 11, 2025

  

  Yum! Barbara and I enjoyed a truly delicious dinner yesterday evening from Dumpling Kitchen in Mattapan, a new-to-us Chinese restaurant. We started with three flavorful appetizers: har gow, Peking ravioli, and scallion pancakes. Each was better than the next, and… Read More ›

• The Last One

  By ljd42 on October 8, 2025

  

  Don’t read this novel if you are susceptible to nightmares! Amazon calls Will Dean’s The Last One “an unputdownable locked-room thriller,” which is true as far as it goes. I would like to tell you more, but I don’t know… Read More ›

• A Scourge of Vipers

  By ljd42 on October 3, 2025

  

  My one-word review is “meh.” Bruce DeSilva’s A Scourge of Vipers is not a bad mystery. (There’s litotes for you. You can look it up, as I think I said in my last post in a different context, though still… Read More ›

• Morning glories on a glorious morning

  By ljd42 on October 1, 2025

  

  Chiasmus here. (You can look it up.)

• Truly these are oldies but goodies — songs from… wait for it… two millennia ago!

  By ljd42 on September 28, 2025

  Back in the ancient world, when I was in high school, a friend and classmate of mine was named Dwight Wayne Batteau, better known (then and now) as Robin Batteau. For quite a while now he has been half of… Read More ›

• Dead in the Frame

  By ljd42 on September 20, 2025

  

  Sooner or later, in the lives of all private investigators, they always get arrested for a murder they didn’t commit. At least the fictional ones do. It’s apparently a requirement of the genre. And sure enough it happened to Lillian… Read More ›

• Quick! Живојиновић and more

  By ljd42 on September 16, 2025

  

  What is that strange word in Cyrillic letters in the title? At first glance it looks like Russian… but then the letters ј and ћ show that it isn’t Russian. Hmmm… Be patient now; you’ll find out soon what’s up…. Read More ›

• An Enemy in the Village

  By ljd42 on September 14, 2025

  

  Clearly this is another familiar, comforting Bruno-Chief-of-Police novel by Martin Walker. What’s not so clear is what the title, An Enemy in the Village, refers to. My initial guess, based on previous novels in the Bruno series, was that the… Read More ›

• The kittens (a follow-up to my 8/31 post)

  By ljd42 on September 10, 2025

  

• Measles and polio down in the schoolyard

  By ljd42 on September 8, 2025

  

  The Brits know the danger of RFK Jr, so why don’t Americans? Click on the image to hear what the Marsh family says — or rather sings. (If you aren’t old enough to recognize the song they’re parodying, go back… Read More ›

• 100 places to see after you die: A travel guide to the afterlife

  By ljd42 on September 4, 2025

  

  That’s a strange title, isn’t it? And the subtitle is almost as strange. But this book by Ken Jennings — yes, that Ken Jennings — is perfectly normal if you’re looking for some Jeopardy fodder concerning the afterlife according to… Read More ›

• Barnaby & Cassandra convincing you…

  By ljd42 on August 31, 2025

  

  Barnaby & Cassandra in the process of convincing you that they are indeed a bonded pair of Russian Blue cats:

• Is Superman circumcised?

  By ljd42 on August 28, 2025

  

  That question does sound like clickbait — but it’s not. In fact, the book titled Is Superman circumcised? is surprisingly rather academic and serious. Author Roy Schwartz explores the history and sociology of the Superman character with an emphasis on… Read More ›

• The Photographer

  By ljd42 on August 25, 2025

  

  Unlike most of the books I review, The Photographer by Mary Dixie Carter is not genre fiction of any kind. Not exactly a mystery, not quite a thriller, this is a mainstream story that has the vibe of a thriller… Read More ›

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