Author Archives
In 2018 I semi-retired by retiring from Weston High School after my 21st year teaching mathematics there. This was also my 44th year as a teacher altogether. In 2023 I retired fully, adding in my 18 years at Harvard’s Crimson Summer Academy each summer. For 21 years I had taught at the Saturday Course in Milton, MA, and I used to serve on the board of the Dorchester Historical Society.
I read, cook, and spend a lot of time building my model railroad. For some reason I’m left with less free time than would be ideal, considering that I’m supposed to be retired, but somehow I also manage to devote time to my wife, Barbara, and to our varying number of cats (once up to six, but now sadly down to one).
Larry Davidson
ljd@larrydavidson.com
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Is Modern Hebrew a conlang?
So I keep seeing references to posts on Reddit…and I always ignore them. But then I said to myself, “Why not give Reddit a chance? What’s there to lose?” That led me to sign up for a few subreddits in… Read More ›
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Friends with words
Yes, you read that correctly: the title really is Friends with Words, not the more familiar phrase Words with Friends. And even the correct phrase, Friends with Words, has at least two meanings (think about it). If you yourself are… Read More ›
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This year’s traditional Christmas dinner
In accordance with long-established tradition, Barbara and I went to Chau Chow yesterday for a delicious Christmas feast: beef noodle, Chinese broccoli, har gao, shumai, xiao long bao, shrimp paste in tofu skin, stuffed taro, and pan-fried noodles with jumbo… Read More ›
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Where are you dining today?
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Claude predicts the future of English.
Recently I’ve been playing with Claude AI, so I asked it (him? are we personifying AI’s these days?) to predict how English will change over the next 600 years. (Why 600? Because Middle English was spoken about 600 years ago,… Read More ›
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A Chanukah carol (in Yiddish)
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Two pop linguists who are worth listening to…
and whose videos nevertheless share one particular flaw. I’m talking about Julie Maksimova, better known as Julingo, and Dr. Taylor Jones, better known as Language Jones. You can see what they’ve both done there with their noms, but that has… Read More ›
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The kittens say hello.
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“A language I love is…”
What took me so long? Today I learned about a new-to-me linguistics blog and podcast called “A language I love is…” This blog has been around since June of 2020, and the podcast since 2023, so I certainly should have… Read More ›
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Thanksgiving
Today I asked Barnaby and Cassandra what they are thankful for. “Each other!” they meowed. “And our forever home.”
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Language city: The fight to preserve endangered mother tongues in New York
The title and subtitle may make this book sound rather esoteric. But in that case they are unintentionally misleading. You don’t have to be a linguist or a cultural anthropologist to enjoy reading Language City. If I still have your… Read More ›
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“So you want a model railroad” — a well-known… okay… not-so-well-known Warner Bros. film from 1955
When you watch a movie made in 1955, you can’t judge it with 2025 glasses. A lot has happened in 70 years! With that caveat, enjoy this short Warner Bros. film. Also keep in mind, as the French say, plus… Read More ›
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A slowly dying cause
What do you know about Cornwall? Cornish hens, I suppose. And Cornish pasties, but only if you’ve been to Britain. That’s probably it, unless you have an esoteric linguistic interest in the lesser-known Celtic languages, as I do for some… Read More ›
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Three cheers for Jason Jensen — not only a model railroader but also a true American artist!
Model railroading is both a craft and an art. My favorite model railroader on YouTube is Jason Jensen, who is #1 as both a craftsman and an artist. Many of his videos are lengthy, but they’re worth it, as he… Read More ›
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Thai Oishii
Looking at the name of this Dorchester restaurant, your first thought is that its cuisine must be Thai. It’s right in the name after all! But then you realize that the second word, oishii, is clearly Japanese, not Thai (we… Read More ›
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The new Springsteen bio-pic
Your most urgent question (I’m sure) is why did I put a hyphen in biopic. The answer is that I learned recently that a majority of people pronounce biopic to rhyme with myopic! (In other words, they are parsing it… Read More ›
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Happy birthday, Cassandra. You are no longer a kitten.
Happy first birthday, Cassie! You have left your kittenhood behind and are now officially a full-grown cat.
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Everything possible
Back in 1983 I first heard this beautiful song, as a result of a recommendation by my sister Ellen. It was written and performed by Fred Small, who is least known as a lawyer, better known as a UU minister,… Read More ›
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Chinese food in Greater Boston, then and now
A shout-out for Richard Auffrey, the Passionate Foodie, whose blog by that name has been providing thorough and accurate info about food and wine for almost 20 years! In particular, I want to commend him for his numerous posts about… Read More ›
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Abby wants more admirers.
Learning Strategies 