Learning Strategies

Recent Posts - page 54

• Language Unlimited: “Syntax is where the magic happens.”

  By ljd42 on December 4, 2019

  

  “Syntax is where the magic happens. It takes the words we use to slice up our reality, and puts them together in infinitely varied ways.” — from Language Unlimited, by David Adger. If I had to pick one paragraph as the thesis statement… Read More ›

• The apostrophe? Its no longer needed.

  By ljd42 on December 3, 2019

  

  Ive written earlier about apostrophes, but now we have the definitive essay on the subject for all the peevers and prescriptivists out there: “Thats all Folks: The Apostrophe Protection Society Gone for Good” by the distinguished Dennis Baron. Read it… Read More ›

• Murder on the Toy Town Express

  By ljd42 on December 2, 2019

  

  Toy Town is East Aurora, NY. Although you probably already knew that, I didn’t know it until I read Barbara Early’s Murder on the Toy Town Express. Don’t confuse this novel with the famous murder on that other express. You can tell… Read More ›

• “40 Ambitious Ideas to Save Transportation in Boston” plus an MBTA view from 1947

  By ljd42 on November 30, 2019

  

  OK. We know that Boston traffic is a mess. We also know that large swaths of people are unwilling to take the T for a variety of reasons, many of which reflect legitimate frustrations. So here we have a number… Read More ›

• Mollie, Vincent, and… William

  By ljd42 on November 29, 2019

  

  Mollie loves her black-and-white brother Vincent. She’s not so sure about her orange brother William:

• Election Math: A British approach from Plus Magazine

  By ljd42 on November 28, 2019

  

  As you know, Hillary Clinton received more votes than Donald Trump in 2016, which is why she is president today. What? You say that isn’t true? But she really did get more votes — and we live in a democracy,… Read More ›

• To Say Nothing of the Dog and Three Men in a Boat (to say nothing of the dog)

  By ljd42 on November 26, 2019

  

  Two books — each called (in part) To Say Nothing of the Dog. Is this a coincidence? Actually, no. Let’s look at each title in turn: The first of these, which has the full title of To Say Nothing of the Dog: Or… Read More ›

• Greenberg Model Railroad Show

  By ljd42 on November 24, 2019

  

  There were some interesting items at this weekend’s Greenberg Model Railroad Show in Wilmington… But ultimately it was disappointing. The big problem was the ratio of layouts to vendors: it was much too small, maybe 20% layouts and some of… Read More ›

• State University of Murder

  By ljd42 on November 23, 2019

  

  State University of Michigan? Hmm… SUM? Is this perhaps a heavily disguised Michigan State University (MSU)? Or would that be too subtle? Anyway, you should read State University of Murder, Lev Raphael’s latest novel. This academic satire is the latest… Read More ›

• Are teachers entitled to get Social Security benefits?

  By ljd42 on November 21, 2019

  

  “All the money you’ve put into Social Security goes down the drain,” a certain Weston teacher explained to me in 1998. We had been talking about our work histories and future plans. You need to know three facts: Massachusetts public-school teachers… Read More ›

• Shady Characters

  By ljd42 on November 19, 2019

  

  You don’t have to be a typography nerd to enjoy this book, as long as you read it slowly and carefully. Keith Houston (who is not a professional typographer) has written a surprisingly lively book with the title Shady Characters: The… Read More ›

• “The biggest problem teachers have with parents”

  By ljd42 on November 18, 2019

  

  The Math Curmudgeon writes: The biggest problem teachers have with parents is getting them to let go the reins, stop the constant hovering, … essentially to back off and let their children learn in peace. … HS is the time… Read More ›

• The Newish Jewish Encyclopedia

  By ljd42 on November 17, 2019

  

  How does one review an encyclopedia? Look specific things up in it? Dip into it randomly? Read it in order cover-to-cover? I suppose one solution is for us to look up a term that we are familiar with, and then… Read More ›

• “Tell it to Kim and I.”

  By ljd42 on November 15, 2019

  

  “Tell it to Kim and I.” That’s grammatically correct, right? Not to those of us who were traditionally trained: older people like me and younger people who were indoctrinated by people like me. But apparently it’s correct now. And not… Read More ›

• The Quantum Spy

  By ljd42 on November 13, 2019

  

  Espionage, quantum computing, cryptography: a fascinating trifecta of themes. Mostly techno-thriller, with a bit of science fiction, The Quantum Spy by WaPo columnist David Ignatius seamlessly combines all three themes. There are two orthogonal ways to look at a novel like this…. Read More ›

• Forensics? Forensic linguistics?

  By ljd42 on November 12, 2019

  

  What does the word “forensic” mean to you? And what on earth could forensic linguistics possibly be? Let’s see what Mr. Google says about “forensic”: relating to or denoting the application of scientific methods and techniques to the investigation of… Read More ›

• BuffySpeak

  By ljd42 on November 10, 2019

  

  Who remembers Buffy? Hands up so I can see them! OK. You can put them down now. If you remember Buffy, you probably also remember some of the quirky language used in that show.  Or maybe it was too long… Read More ›

• The Doomsday Book

  By ljd42 on November 9, 2019

  

  Connie Willis is my second favorite science fiction author, so I decided to read The Doomsday Book for the third time. Yes, I do read books more than once. I know that I’m in the minority in that respect. And yes, I… Read More ›

• Language families: amazing maps!

  By ljd42 on November 7, 2019

  

  What a diversity of languages we have! With 7000 languages spread out over the world in a patchwork quilt, we can fuse linguistics and maps into a single combined representation. That’s what Annemarie Verkerk’s article “Language Family Maps” is all… Read More ›

• Wedding follow-up: Why is this ratio so strange?

  By ljd42 on November 6, 2019

  

  A couple of mathematical follow-ups to my recent post about my niece’s wedding: Wedding favors are a standard perk; in this case we received tote bags hand-made by the bride. But there was a mathematical twist to the posted sign:… Read More ›

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