You may well wonder what a five-minute linguist might be. I’ll leave you to ponder that question. Before you do that, here are some of John McWhorter’s opening remarks to the third annual five-minute linguist competition: You try to explain… Read More ›
Do we believe what the Wolfram Blog says about computational thinking? Maybe. I’m suspicious of the very title of the post: The Computational Classroom: Easy Ways to Introduce Computational Thinking into Your Lessons. Anything that promises “easy ways” is automatically… Read More ›
I suppose it would be Amhersteisenbahngesellschafteisenbahnhobbyausstellung if you spoke German, but fortunately we don’t have to do that. What we did have to do was go to West Springfield, not Amherst, since this annual show had outgrown all available facilities… Read More ›
Neal Stephenson is the best. As a long-time fan, I can assure you that this conclusion is an objective fact, not a matter of personal opinion. Your mileage may vary, but I doubt it. Up to this point I have reviewed… Read More ›
What’s Generation Z? I’m just starting to hear that terminology being used. We’re all familiar with the Baby Boomers (I’m near the older end of that generation), and I grew up hearing about the preceding ones, the Silent Generation and… Read More ›
Please welcome the newest member of the Davidson-Bean household. Flicka was an abandoned cat who has lived on our front porch for two years now, and today’s weather report was enough to convince Barbara and me that it was time… Read More ›
Three of our cats cuddled up together: do they love each other, or are they just heat-seeking mammals?
For some reason I had never seen the classic film All the King’s Men (nor have I read the novel, for that matter, although I’ve owned a used copy of it for decades). But I finally got around to watching… Read More ›
If you like Donald Trump, don’t bother reading Shell Game, Sara Paretsky’s newest mystery novel: it will only irritate you. For the rest of us, it’s definitely worth reading. For a long time I always read every Paretsky book, but… Read More ›
George R.R. Martin Larry Davidson People have often claimed that I look like George R.R. Martin. I always thought that they were just paying attention to the beard, the suspenders, and the physique — but now I know of another… Read More ›
John Spencer writes: My dog is also an introvert. I didn’t realize that was possible with dogs, but it is. She likes to have “me time.” If things get too loud and crazy, she will walk into the other room…. Read More ›
William thinks he’s a hamburger:
A mystery novel in a model railroading setting? Who could resist? Not I! Murder to Scale, by Debra B. Schiff “with” Mike Blumensaadt, is a good enough story in which the setting plays a major role, not just a background part. When… Read More ›
“Andover will go coed over my dead body!” That’s what my AP Latin teacher told us at least three or four times during my senior year. His prediction didn’t quite come true, but it was close: in 1973, the year… Read More ›
Douglas thanked me for moving his purple mat so that it’s right next to the space heater: William says it’s not fair for Douglas to be in so many photos, so he wanted to make sure that I got a… Read More ›
As everyone knows — everyone, that is, except certain cats — Robert Galbraith is the pseudonym that J.K. Rowling adopted for her Cormoran Strike series of detective novels for adults. Lethal White is the fourth in this series. This is a long… Read More ›
Learning Strategies 