“True-blue American Yalie George Bush versus pinko-Crimson Harvard Mike Dukakis.” That‘s what some Republicans were saying back in 1988 when George H.W. Bush was running against Michael Dukakis. The color prejudices are understandable, and maybe even the college prejudices, but… Read More ›
Not everything went wrong. In many ways we did change the world. Continuing to describe my 50th reunion of the Harvard Class, let’s move on to a Tuesday symposium titled “We were going to change the world. What went right?… Read More ›
No, it wasn’t a political rally. It was a reunion: the 50th reunion of the Harvard Class of 1969. One speaker, Bob Hughes, exemplified a running theme of the entire reunion by pointing out what we can do: “Vote early… Read More ›
Exhausting and overwhelming! That’s what the first day of my 50th Reunion was like. Not so much for the usual reason that exhausts and overwhelms us introverts — too many people — but because of the intensity of the experiences… Read More ›
We all love impressively long words, don’t we? We especially love words from languages like German and Turkish, which are known for harboring such beasts —like Donaudampfschiffahrtsgesellschaftskapitän and muvaffakiyetsizleştiricileştiriveremeyebileceklerimizdenmişsinizcesine. But those are not particularly natural words in German and Turkish respectively,… Read More ›
The new biopic, Tolkien, was clearly written for me. But you’ll enjoy it too. What, you may wonder, do I mean by claiming that it was written for me? Of course that is not literally true: the film-makers don’t know… Read More ›
So I’m in a certain store in Jamaica Plain today — name kept anonymous to protect the oh-so-innocent — and I ask the clerk if they sell Hennessy Privilege (a cognac, for those of you who don’t know). She says… Read More ›
Can high-school students conduct an excellent interview and write an excellent article about it? Anna Salvatore and Joe Hanlon certainly can! No, I have never taught these two. I have never even met them. But I highly recommend Anna’s blog, High… Read More ›
This time the student teaches the teacher! I had a great time yesterday at MakeIt Labs in Nashua, participating in a four-hour class taught by a former student of mine, Johnathan Vail, who was in two or three courses of… Read More ›
As you know, the President of the United States takes an oath to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” And of course our current president does that faithfully — right? — but not everyone is familiar with… Read More ›
As you probably know, John Urschel is both a professional mathematician (at MIT, no less) and a recently retired professional football player (in the NFL, of course — recently retired from the Baltimore Ravens). What a combination! A few days… Read More ›
Did you hear that they’re teaching Arabic numerals in public schools? I’m shocked, shocked. In America, no less! What is this world coming to? A recent poll showed that 56% of Americans don’t want public schools to teach Arabic numerals…. Read More ›
Speaking of Asia, why do so many Americans think that Asians mix up R and L? (Asians? East Asians? Chinese and Japanese? How far does this stereotype go?) Before we answer this question, I need to point out a more… Read More ›
My former student Julia Metraux is a staff writer for The Tempest, an online magazine that describes itself like this: The Tempest is the guide for diverse women to share, feel, and claim their voices – and power. We’re the… Read More ›
William is helping with the iPad:
With one notable exception, Barbara and I enjoyed our meals in New York. We had decided to try to pick walkable destinations whenever possible, and that wasn’t difficult since our hotel’s Murray Hill neighborhood contained a bunch of restaurants that… Read More ›
We were in Manhattan, after all, so we spent a portion of each day at a museum. I’ve already reported on the Tolkien exhibit we saw at the Morgan. The next day we went to the National Museum of Mathematics,… Read More ›
On May Day I wrote about the Tolkien exhibit and promised to discuss the rest of our NYC trip in my “next post.” Unfortunately that task turned out to be far too big for one post, so it is being split among… Read More ›
It’s a dark panel in a dark elevator, so I’m not sure how well you can see the details, but this is the elevator panel in the hotel where Barbara and I have been staying in NYC. The puzzle is… Read More ›
“No masks, wizard staffs, scepters, axes, bow and arrows, or swords are permitted.” Yesterday was the first time I’ve ever been to a museum show with such a rule! As I had promised in this space back on June 17 of last… Read More ›
Learning Strategies 