Author Archives

I am entering my 21st year as a math teacher at Weston High School, the sole public high school in Weston, MA. It’s also my 44th year as a teacher altogether. In addition to my day job, I taught for 20 years at the Saturday Course in Milton, MA. I also teach at Harvard’s Crimson Summer Academy each summer; 2017 was our 14th consecutive summer.

Sometimes I work on educational software. I also read, cook, and continue building my model railroad whenever I can. For some reason I'm left with less so-called free time than would be ideal. Nevertheless, I manage to devote time to my wife, Barbara, and to our excessive number of cats as well.

• Are teachers entitled to get Social Security benefits?

  By ljd42 on November 21, 2019

  

  “All the money you’ve put into Social Security goes down the drain,” a certain Weston teacher explained to me in 1998. We had been talking about our work histories and future plans. You need to know three facts: Massachusetts public-school teachers… Read More ›

• Shady Characters

  By ljd42 on November 19, 2019

  

  You don’t have to be a typography nerd to enjoy this book, as long as you read it slowly and carefully. Keith Houston (who is not a professional typographer) has written a surprisingly lively book with the title Shady Characters: The… Read More ›

• “The biggest problem teachers have with parents”

  By ljd42 on November 18, 2019

  

  The Math Curmudgeon writes: The biggest problem teachers have with parents is getting them to let go the reins, stop the constant hovering, … essentially to back off and let their children learn in peace. … HS is the time… Read More ›

• The Newish Jewish Encyclopedia

  By ljd42 on November 17, 2019

  

  How does one review an encyclopedia? Look specific things up in it? Dip into it randomly? Read it in order cover-to-cover? I suppose one solution is for us to look up a term that we are familiar with, and then… Read More ›

• “Tell it to Kim and I.”

  By ljd42 on November 15, 2019

  

  “Tell it to Kim and I.” That’s grammatically correct, right? Not to those of us who were traditionally trained: older people like me and younger people who were indoctrinated by people like me. But apparently it’s correct now. And not… Read More ›

• The Quantum Spy

  By ljd42 on November 13, 2019

  

  Espionage, quantum computing, cryptography: a fascinating trifecta of themes. Mostly techno-thriller, with a bit of science fiction, The Quantum Spy by WaPo columnist David Ignatius seamlessly combines all three themes. There are two orthogonal ways to look at a novel like this…. Read More ›

• Forensics? Forensic linguistics?

  By ljd42 on November 12, 2019

  

  What does the word “forensic” mean to you? And what on earth could forensic linguistics possibly be? Let’s see what Mr. Google says about “forensic”: relating to or denoting the application of scientific methods and techniques to the investigation of… Read More ›

• BuffySpeak

  By ljd42 on November 10, 2019

  

  Who remembers Buffy? Hands up so I can see them! OK. You can put them down now. If you remember Buffy, you probably also remember some of the quirky language used in that show.  Or maybe it was too long… Read More ›

• The Doomsday Book

  By ljd42 on November 9, 2019

  

  Connie Willis is my second favorite science fiction author, so I decided to read The Doomsday Book for the third time. Yes, I do read books more than once. I know that I’m in the minority in that respect. And yes, I… Read More ›

• Language families: amazing maps!

  By ljd42 on November 7, 2019

  

  What a diversity of languages we have! With 7000 languages spread out over the world in a patchwork quilt, we can fuse linguistics and maps into a single combined representation. That’s what Annemarie Verkerk’s article “Language Family Maps” is all… Read More ›