On the R train, pulling into Atlantic Avenue-Barclays Center. The N is across the platform, doors wide. I get up to stand near the door because although the N looks to be waiting, you never know. The woman already standing at the door taps on the window glass and says, “Wait!” as if scolding a potentially disobedient child. She mutters, “N across the platform, but who knows if it’s going to wait? Are you going to wait? Why would it… Read more »
Posts By: Claire
Where to go?
It always seems like I’m going to have great swaths of time available for summer travel, since tutoring slows down so much. And it’s true that I already went to California for four days and will visit my parents in Cincinnati for four days in July…but even if the calendar isn’t getting filled UP by any means, it’s getting chopped into smaller portions. In August I’ll go to London to teach a class and, when it’s over, will either go… Read more »
Duolingo: The Neverending Story, Part III
I was going to call this post “Duolingo Squared,” which doesn’t quite make sense even if it were the second post I’ve done about Duolingo’s subliminal messages…but it really didn’t make sense when I realized it would be the third Duolingo post (Part I, Part II) Since my posts last year, Duolingo has added Mandarin! Now I’m just holding out for Thai and Latin. I’ve taken a break from studying Spanish, since I also tutor it and that keeps me… Read more »
Double vision, Double audition?
Continuing with the topics of hearing seeing (though not in the mind’s eye or ear this time), I discovered a new (to me) song that I like (Waiting, by Alice Boman) and subsequently found out it’s part of an entire album of remixes (of that same song). When I hear “album of remixes” I think to myself, “I will figure out which one is my favorite and then listen to it exclusively,” but although that’s mostly true, there are numerous… Read more »
Mind’s Eye
This is not a recent article, but I only read it a few weeks ago and I haven’t stopped thinking about it since. This will probably rank as my strangest week ever. Here's the story of what happened. Posted by Blake Ross on Friday, April 22, 2016 I’m still reeling from this. I had actually had a conversation prior to this with someone who can’t picture things in his mind, but I don’t think I fully bought into it…I assumed it… Read more »
Dreams
I’ve been having weirdly quantifiable dreams lately. Quantifiable isn’t the right word, but it feels right–that or codifiable. They aren’t like most dreams, wherein upon trying to describe them to another person you find yourself stumbling over the “then I was in my house but it wasn’t my house” and “so-and-so was there but then all of a sudden it was whats-her-name” and so on. These are more along the lines of: “I had to recreate the cover of Nirvana’s In Utero using… Read more »
Booklist
2018 started out slow, reading-wise. I’m lucky in the amount of free time I have and unlucky in the amount of commute time I have, so I’m not sure why this year has a lower book count than past years so far. Here are the first ten books I read in 2018: Goodbye, Vitamin by Rachel Khong: Technically I read most of this in 2017, but I finished it in January. It was pretty delightful. Kitchen/“Moonlight Shadow,” by Banana Yoshimoto:… Read more »
Topsy
I have a young student who has always had a particular comic style. The other day, she decided she’d had enough of the pedagogical balance and that she wanted to do more teaching and less student-ing. So I got a very detailed lesson on how to create headings for English essays, which I think I retained pretty well. After I had mastered formatting, she gave a little lecture on SOHCAHTOA…but first told me she didn’t like the mnemonic and had… Read more »
A catalogue of bruises
That’s definitely the group name of bruises. That or constellation, but maybe that’s better saved for freckles. I seem to be slightly anemic–vegetarian things–and I also walk into things more frequently than I would prefer, so I generally have at least three bruises at all times. Most of them are unremarkable, but I’ve had a few that were epic. After sustaining–not twin bruises, but definitely half-sibling or maybe first cousin bruises–on both legs when I walked into some sound equipment,… Read more »
Thievery
The only thing I have ever really had a serious itch to shoplift is fresh basil. Basil is one of the select herbs that just doesn’t translate at ALL when forced into dry form. It’s like a really ineffective shape-shifting superhero. Very powerful fresh! Very ineffective when powdered. Basil seems to only be sold in outsize containers of 50 leaves or more. Here is the number of leaves that I need in order to enjoy fresh basil in my farro:… Read more »
