Learning Strategies

Recent Posts - page 6

• 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 ›

• Trying to find my ancestors in the 1890–1920 U.S. Censuses

  By ljd42 on March 31, 2025

  

  Censuses? Or should it be “censi”? (Or maybe even “censūs,” for us Latin scholars? I always liked the 4th Declension.) Whatever. The first problem is where to look. Google, of course, is your friend. And some people swear by various… Read More ›

• A close-up view of Neighborhood #5, Newtown

  By ljd42 on March 28, 2025

  

  Despite its name, the neighborhood of Newtown is actually the second oldest part of Rose City, being preceded only by the Center City neighborhood. (I guess that still made the name somewhat appropriate, comparatively speaking. It’s rather like the name… Read More ›

• They understand us across the pond.

  By ljd42 on March 26, 2025

  

  The Marsh Family responds quickly and on point:

• Jet Lag and The Amazing Race

  By ljd42 on March 24, 2025

  

  Eight years ago I wrote several posts for this blog about June Academy at Weston High School. You may want to read the first of those posts before continuing with this one. Anyhow, one of the courses offered for June… Read More ›

• Pretty as a Picture

  By ljd42 on March 19, 2025

  

  When you look at the front cover of Elizabeth Little’s Pretty as a Picture, you notice an apt blurb by Laura Lippman (see image below): “A twisty story, a cinephile’s delight, a knockout of a heroine. I loved it.” Let’s… Read More ›

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