Recent Posts - page 51
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Library Shelfie Day!
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 ›
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Which books are checked out from libraries most often? Can you guess?
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 ›
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Why do so many girls and women leave STEM?
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 ›
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Purple and green
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Against My Better Judgment: An Intimate Memoir of an Eminent Gay Psychologist
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 ›
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Catch and Kill
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 ›
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How about a nice, relaxing cross-country bus ride from NYC to LA?
“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 ›
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Call me by my name.
“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 ›
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William is pretending he’s a hamburger…
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Fake news in Fakebook… I mean Facebook.
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Which languages?
“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 ›
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Bella Luna update
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 ›
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Irregardless
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 ›
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366 days of math
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 ›
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The surprising truth about Donald Trump
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 ›
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A Latin Christmas Carol?
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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Gyu-Kaku for the second time
Veering slightly from the Jewish-American tradition, Barbara and I made a second visit to Gyu-Kaku (Japanese and Korean, not Chinese) for an excellent Christmas dinner. See my post of September 13 for a review of our first visit, so I’ll… Read More ›
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Carols for editors (and writers too)
Listen closely to the words (and don’t pay attention to the quality of the singing, which isn’t the point):
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Conviction
Denise Mina’s latest novel, Conviction, is about podcasts — in part. It’s also about family. And murder. And #MeToo. And mystery. And true crime. And power and wealth. And betrayal. And trauma. And Ukrainian gangsters. (How up-to-date!) And storytelling. Not to mention… Read More ›
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“Why don’t high schools teach CS?” asks Mark.
Say what? Of course high schools teach CS! Weston has done so for decades. Surely Mark Guzdial knows better, but his recent blog post asks that very question. So what’s going on? It turns out that I have MB (Massachusetts Blindness)…. Read More ›
Featured Categories
Books ›
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The story of classic crime in 100 books
March 27, 2026
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First do no harm.
March 24, 2026
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At Midnight Comes the Cry
March 21, 2026
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Vance and Moore… back when both of them were younger
March 11, 2026
Dorchester/Boston ›
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My front yard says that it must finally be spring!
April 5, 2026
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Happy spring! Happy buck-a-shuck!
March 20, 2026
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A special brunch at Tavolo
March 1, 2026
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Milkweed
January 16, 2026
Food & Restaurants ›
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Thai Oishii
November 16, 2025
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Chinese food in Greater Boston, then and now
November 1, 2025
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Dumpling Kitchen
October 11, 2025
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Totto Ramen
July 23, 2025
Life ›
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Taunton vs. Colmar?
March 4, 2026
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Streets of Minneapolis
January 28, 2026
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They understand us across the pond.
January 11, 2026
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A note from Langston Hughes to my dad
January 10, 2026
Linguistics ›
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Picard: Welcome to the Sticks!
March 6, 2026
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Everything you wanted to know about the Great Vowel Shift but were afraid to ask
February 8, 2026
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Who’s better at understanding written English — you or some random teen in South Korea?
January 22, 2026
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Will the real John McWhorter please stand up? (No, no, that’s not the real one; that’s the AI John McWhorter!)
January 18, 2026
Math ›
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Very sad news
October 17, 2025
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The metric system has gotten an update!
July 14, 2025
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As Tom Lehrer says, that’s mathematics!
July 9, 2025
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The Plinko Bounce
June 28, 2025
Model Railroading ›
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Famous railway modellers
March 16, 2026
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“So you want a model railroad” — a well-known… okay… not-so-well-known Warner Bros. film from 1955
November 22, 2025
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Three cheers for Jason Jensen — not only a model railroader but also a true American artist!
November 17, 2025
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No need for instructions?
June 4, 2025
Movies & (occasionally) TV ›
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The new Springsteen bio-pic
November 11, 2025
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Breaking Silence: a truly outstanding documentary!
July 29, 2025
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The Social Network
May 11, 2025
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Dylan
January 8, 2025
Teaching & Learning ›
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Triple threat: Carl Sagan, critical thinking, and an exam
October 13, 2025
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Truly these are oldies but goodies — songs from… wait for it… two millennia ago!
September 28, 2025
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Measles and polio down in the schoolyard
September 8, 2025
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A former student’s PhD defense
August 15, 2025
Technology ›
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Not the other Wes Moore
June 22, 2025
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Bye bye Mark Z.
February 6, 2025
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Posts you may have missed
March 15, 2024
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I’m back!
February 28, 2024
Travel ›
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Written in the South Pacific during World War II
February 17, 2025
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Globle
February 15, 2023
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No pirates. And it’s not in Penzance. But it’s nearby: It’s Death in Cornwall.
August 9, 2022
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Miriam and Alan explore Scotland.
July 6, 2022
Weston ›
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“Dear parents of math geniuses…,” writes Tanya Khovanova
December 6, 2022
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How can girls succeed at the highest level of high-school debate?
November 20, 2022
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Reading Latin and Ancient Greek for fun and profit. For what? Fun? Yes, fun. Really. And the profit was purely intellectual, not financial.
October 19, 2022
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Trust what you read! (On second thought…)
September 2, 2022


