Learning Strategies

Recent Posts - page 50

• What is the most popular surname in your country of origin?

  By ljd42 on January 28, 2020

  

  Thanks to Lisetta Shah, my former colleague and former student, for this link to maps and explanations of the most popular last name in every country. Check it out! Some of it will come as a surprise to you, some of… Read More ›

• The huge Amherst Railway Society Railroad Hobby Show

  By ljd42 on January 26, 2020

  

  This year’s Amherst Railway Society Railroad Hobby Show was different from previous years’ — not because the exhibits were significantly different (they weren’t) nor because it was held in West Springfield rather than Amherst (that’s been true for years). It… Read More ›

• To be in Irish and Spanish

  By ljd42 on January 25, 2020

  

  Or should that title be ‘“To be” in Irish and Spanish‘? The issue is just use versus mention, you know. (If you don’t know, check out this Wikipedia entry.) Let’s start with Spanish, since I am guessing that most —… Read More ›

• “Angry white guy unloads on new city councilor in voice mail”

  By ljd42 on January 24, 2020

  As posted by Adam Gaffin: My new city councilor, Julia Mejia (whom I wrote about on December 11 because she won by a single vote) received an angry voicemail message from a Trump supporter and gave a masterful response in… Read More ›

• Library Shelfie Day!

  By ljd42 on January 22, 2020

  

  This is an addendum to this morning’s post. I wish I had known at the time that today is Library Shelfie Day! Read the article in the second link, but note that it includes several inappropriate ways to organize your… Read More ›

• Which books are checked out from libraries most often? Can you guess?

  By ljd42 on January 22, 2020

  Forget the best-sellers lists. I don’t want to know what’s popular — I want to know what’s happening in libraries, the center of American culture. For its 125th anniversary the New York Public Library has calculated its most checked-out books of… Read More ›

• Why do so many girls and women leave STEM?

  By ljd42 on January 21, 2020

  

  No, I’m not going to mansplain the situation. I just want to draw your attention to a pair of essays about it, one by Karen Morenz, embedded within another by Scott Aaronson. My expectation is that nobody will disagree with… Read More ›

• Purple and green

  By ljd42 on January 19, 2020

  

  A present my sister Ellen made for Barbara and me: These four beautiful handcrafted quilted pot-holders in purple and green, to match the colors of the walls of our kitchen:

• Against My Better Judgment: An Intimate Memoir of an Eminent Gay Psychologist

  By ljd42 on January 17, 2020

  

  Would this headline be clickbait? “Eminent Harvard Psychologist Admits That He’s Gay!” Ho hum, it wouldn’t work as clickbait today. Nobody today would be shocked (except perhaps by the choice of verb in this made-up headline). But back in the… Read More ›

• Catch and Kill

  By ljd42 on January 15, 2020

  

  Donald Trump, Harvey Weinstein, Charlie Rose… What do these three have in common? If you’ve been under a rock for the past five years, you might not know. So read Ronan Farrow’s exposé, Catch and Kill. If, as is more likely, you… Read More ›

• How about a nice, relaxing cross-country bus ride from NYC to LA?

  By ljd42 on January 13, 2020

  

  “Miles on the MBTA.” That was the clever (but unobtrusive) title of Miles Taylor’s original blog, written for years while he was a high-school student in Cambridge. His goal was to visit and review every station on the Red, Blue,… Read More ›

• Call me by my name.

  By ljd42 on January 11, 2020

  

  “Call me either one. I don’t care.” It always surprises me when a student gives that sort of reply in response to my asking “Do you want to be called Liz or Elizabeth?” (or the equivalent, of course, depending on… Read More ›

• William is pretending he’s a hamburger…

  By ljd42 on January 9, 2020

  

  William is pretending he’s a hamburger… but I’m not fooled.

• Fake news in Fakebook… I mean Facebook.

  By ljd42 on January 7, 2020

  

  This ad just appeared in my Facebook feed. Clearly fake news!

• Which languages?

  By ljd42 on January 6, 2020

  

  “This is America. Speak English, or go back to where you came from!” I hear that too often from Trumpian Americans who feel threatened by immigrants and others whom they don’t understand. The best story about that was told by… Read More ›

• Bella Luna update

  By ljd42 on January 4, 2020

  

  I suspect that Bella Luna has been waiting with bated breath for me to review it once again. We end up going there for dinner about once a month, after all, since Barbara works upstairs in the same building. A… Read More ›

• Irregardless

  By ljd42 on January 2, 2020

  

  Irregardless of the price, I am buying a new computer. Well, no, not really. Not any time soon, at any rate. But that’s not the topic of this post; the word “irregardless” is. “That’s not a word!” you cry. “If… Read More ›

• 366 days of math

  By ljd42 on December 31, 2019

  

  You definitely want 366 days of math. Check it out as we are about to enter a new year! The American Mathematical Society offers us a page-a-day desk calendar, in the usual form factor, with a mathematical tidbit for each day… Read More ›

• The surprising truth about Donald Trump

  By ljd42 on December 29, 2019

  

  The shocking truth about Donald Trump! The book A Warning (by “Anonymous: a senior Trump administration official”) reveals it. Well, no, it doesn’t. I lied. But I figured that I would start with a lie, in keeping with the subject. Now for the… Read More ›

• A Latin Christmas Carol?

  By ljd42 on December 27, 2019

  

  Verb or noun? Two options from Gretchen McCulloch: Good King Wenceslo Good King Wenceslas Good King Wenceslat Good King Wenceslamus Good King Wenceslatis Good King Wenceslant Good King Wencesla Good King Wenceslae Good King Wenceslae Good King Wenceslam Good King… Read More ›

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