Learning Strategies

Recent Posts - page 5

• Welsh of the West End

  By ljd42 on May 30, 2025

  

  The West End, you say? Where is that? Well, that should be easy: we all know that the West End is the portion of Boston that was “urban-renewed” (i.e. demolished) in 1958. But surely it didn’t have a significant Welsh… Read More ›

• Cassie perched precariously

  By ljd42 on May 27, 2025

  

  Cats, of course, are notorious for having a good sense of balance. That they do, but physics can sometimes have other ideas in mind. So here’s Cassie relaxing on top of a book, which was unstably balanced on top of… Read More ›

• Gobsmacked!

  By ljd42 on May 25, 2025

  

  As you can see in the image below, Gobsmacked! is the title of the latest book by Ben Yagoda. The subtitle, The British Invasion of American English, provides (as usual) much more information than the title itself. Of course those… Read More ›

• A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor, a.k.a. Прекрасная глупая попытка

  By ljd42 on May 21, 2025

  

  A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor is a sequel to An Absolutely Remarkable Thing, which I reviewed last month. These books are similar but different, if you know what I mean. I very much enjoyed both of them, but I would never… Read More ›

• Barnaby and Cassandra have settled in to their new forever home very nicely.

  By ljd42 on May 18, 2025

  

  But which one is this? The lighting was very different, which makes it hard to tell. Now Cassandra has volunteered to wear a collar, making it much easier for us to tell who’s who, especially if they aren’t side by… Read More ›

• Welcome to your forever home, Barnaby and Cassandra!

  By ljd42 on May 15, 2025

  

  Abigail wanted a brother, so we went to the Animal Rescue League today to find a suitable rescue cat to adopt. What we found was a bonded pair of siblings who had come here all the way from Texas (escaping… Read More ›

• Abigail, supervising…

  By ljd42 on May 14, 2025

  

  …me as she lies on the couch.

• The Social Network

  By ljd42 on May 11, 2025

  

  Yes, I know, I was supposed to have watched this movie 15 years ago. But I didn’t do that. Better late than never — right? I’m referring, of course, to the 2010 film The Social Network, the biopic written by… Read More ›

• VE Day

  By ljd42 on May 8, 2025

  

  A song for today from the inimitable Marsh Family:

• Via Cannuccia

  By ljd42 on May 5, 2025

  

  After a long —long for no particular reason — hiatus, Barbara and I went back to Via Cannuccia last night for a special dinner. As we had expected, the food was exceptional. We started by sharing a delicious and very… Read More ›

• The Future of the Republican Party (as written 61 and 75 years ago)

  By ljd42 on April 30, 2025

  

  How did the Republican party get into the condition it’s in today? And where is it headed? Let’s start by looking at what was being said in 1964 and in 1950, in a book that I was assigned to read… Read More ›

• Pronoun Trouble

  By ljd42 on April 27, 2025

  

  “I never use pronouns,” says one Susan Sparks Smith in a Facebook post. I don’t know her, but I was sorely tempted to reply “You just did.” That’s just one example of Pronoun Trouble, the new popular linguistics book by… Read More ›

• El Barrio

  By ljd42 on April 24, 2025

  We don’t get food from El Barrio often enough, considering that it’s right in the neighborhood, as the name suggests. In fact, the original branch is less than one short block away from us! Last night we wanted tacos and… Read More ›

• An Absolutely Remarkable Thing

  By ljd42 on April 21, 2025

  

  Poor Hank Green: if you ask a random person who Hank Green is, the likely answer is either “the brother of John Green” or “never heard of him.” I suppose sibling rivalry is inevitable when your brother sells 23,000,000 copies… Read More ›

• Twice in the same month?

  By ljd42 on April 18, 2025

  

  But Barbara and I had just gone to Tavolo last week! So, you ask, why did we have to go there again yesterday? Because it was Buck-a-Shuck, of course! Starters were easy. We shared a kale-Caesar-salad-without-kale (which came pre-split by… Read More ›

• And what was she doing in the kitchen sink?

  By ljd42 on April 16, 2025

  

• And it’s back to Tavolo!

  By ljd42 on April 11, 2025

  

  Dinner at Tavolo was delicious as always, even though service was unusually (but unavoidably) slow because it turned out to be much busier than usual for a Thursday evening. Barbara started with the steamed mussels, which came with fennel, garlic,… Read More ›

• Passover in Australia — during the Second World War

  By ljd42 on April 10, 2025

  

  As Passover approaches, when there is renewed antisemitism and too much hatred in this world, even from the president of our own country, we want to remember the Passover of 1943. On April 19 the revolt began against the Nazis… Read More ›

• Слава Україні

  By ljd42 on April 6, 2025

  

  They’re singing to you, Donald and Elon:

• The Talented Miss Farwell

  By ljd42 on April 3, 2025

  

  Who, you may ask, is this Miss Farwell? Probably the protagonist of a novel by Emily Gray Tedrowe, right? Right. Let me explain (without spoilers!): Becky Farwell buys far too many original works of art — more than she can… Read More ›

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