To celebrate the New Year, Barbara and I just had dinner at the Ashmont Grill, which offered a special menu for New Year’s Eve. Although we hadn’t really intended this to be a “going out in public” experience — like… Read More ›
Month: December 2006
Somebody Else's Music
I just finished reading Somebody Else’s Music, by Jane Haddam. One of the best in her Gregor Demarkian series, it is distinctly darker than its predecessors. Most interesting to a high-school teacher is its theme of high school as real… Read More ›
An obligation to vote?
Everyone knows about the 2004 decision of the Massachusetts supreme court legalizing gay marriage, and everyone knows that laws banning gay marriage have been passed in many states and are in the pipeline in others, but out-of-staters may not be… Read More ›
Elmira 2006
This year’s trip to Elmira was not nearly as interesting as last year’s.
Poincaré
On NPR’s All Things Considered tonight, there was actually a report about a math problem! To quote science correspondent David Kestenbaum’s report on the Poincaré Conjecture: The journal Science’s “breakthrough of the year” for 2006 is the solution of a… Read More ›
The Lincoln Lawyer
Recently I read The Lincoln Lawyer, by Michael Connelly, on the strength of an enthusiastic review in the Boston Globe last year. I was not disappointed. Maybe the Globe review explained the title, but if so I didn’t remember. Is… Read More ›
Windows Vista
I’m shocked, shocked, to see Microsoft labeled as “imitator, not innovator” in the review of Windows Vista in the New York Times of all places.
Balance or integration?
In many school districts, including Weston, we try to resolve the Math Wars by promoting a balance between skills and concepts. We tend to adopt the party line as promoted by former Education Secretary Richard Riley: We are suffering here… Read More ›
Black Maps
Black Maps, by Peter Spiegelman, is clearly not for just any random reader of mysteries. It combines the loner private eye — traditional in the noir side of the genre — with the much less hot-blooded (and tiny) sub-genre of… Read More ›
The Russo-Japanese War (of the condiments)
My colleague Boris gave me a jar of horseradish mayonnaise imported from Russia. Having enjoyed it on roast beef sandwiches, and even ham sandwiches, I decided to do a comparison with the Japanese equivalent, purchased at Kotobukiya in the Porter… Read More ›
Scheme overheard
This would be a pretty surprising remark to overhear at the next table at a random Chinese restaurant: I’m really enjoying programming in Scheme. At first I hated it, since it was so different, but now I really like it…. Read More ›
Brainiac
All the word geeks, game show geeks, and trivia geeks out there should go read Brainiac, by all-time Jeopardy champ Ken Jennings. Part autobiography, part history of game shows and trivia contests, this fast-reading book is fun to read and… Read More ›
Misoverestimating minority populations
It worries me that people so consistently overestimate the populations of all minority groups. We know that estimation is difficult, but the magnitude of the errors that I see has genuine political implications for us as citizens. This isn’t just… Read More ›
Honor Roll
A local suburb, Needham, has decided to stop publishing its High School’s honor roll in the newspaper. Is that a good idea? An article in the local paper explains the reasoning: “We’ve collected valuable data on the issue,” [High School… Read More ›
The Supremes
I’m shocked (but not really surprised) that nobody on Jeopardy the other night knew that Earl Warren was the Chief Justice of the United States for the Supreme Court’s Miranda decision. Isn’t that part of being a well-informed American citizen?… Read More ›
Homework, oral traditions, and religions
Many questions can be raised concerning homework, such as why it is given and what its purpose is. I’ve discussed these big issues in an earlier post. Here I just want to mention a smaller but still significant issue —… Read More ›
End in Tears
I recommend the latest novel in Ruth Rendell’s long-running Inspector Wexford series, End in Tears, at least if you’re familiar with some of the earlier installments. (This would probably not be the best introduction to Wexford and his colleagues.) As… Read More ›
Wordplay
Many documentaries are Serious with a capital S. Wordplay is lighthearted, as befits a film about crossword puzzles. If that sounds boring to you, don’t watch it. But for those of us who like to cross swords with crosswords, Wordplay… Read More ›
DHS Open House
Come to the Dorchester Historical Society Holiday Party on Sunday, December 10, 2-4 PM, at 195 Boston Street, Dorchester, for food, entertainment, a sales shop, and an exciting raffle. “It’s always a good time,” observes DHS president Earl Taylor.
The Keep
The Keep is an unusual, slightly surrealistic novel by Jennifer Egan. I can’t reveal the main gimmick because it would introduce a spoiler, but let’s just say that everything is not as it seemed in the first chapter. In the… Read More ›
Learning Strategies 