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.

• What’s wrong with spelling reform anyway? And what about the Shaw Alphabet?

  By ljd42 on October 30, 2020

  

  I’ve heard that there are some people who think that English spelling is difficult. In fact, I think I know a couple of them. But nobody has to spend years learning how to spell Spanish words, so why do we… Read More ›

• I am the very model of…

  By ljd42 on October 28, 2020

  

  No, I’m not talking about Tom Lehrer’s famous song, “The Elements,” nor about n–2 others of the n parodies of Gilbert & Sullivan’s Major General’s song, where n must be a large number. I’m talking about “I Am the very Model of a Biblical… Read More ›

• Who remembers diagramming sentences? And what does it have to do with Facebook? And the Supreme Court?

  By ljd42 on October 27, 2020

  

  Who remembers diagramming sentences? I do, I do! If you’re my age, you never forget the experience of diagramming sentences. Love it or hate it (I was one of the few who loved it), you don’t forget it. Maybe you forget… Read More ›

• Just Thai

  By ljd42 on October 26, 2020

  

  Barbara and I had a yummy take-out dinner last night from the new Thai restaurant in Fields Corner, Just Thai: chicken wings with ginger glaze, ground peanuts, and scallion; spring rolls; scallion pancakes; Tom Yum soup; shrimp pad thai; and broccoli… Read More ›

• Will he go?

  By ljd42 on October 25, 2020

  

  Will he go? Of course he will! We hope. He says he’s “not sure” that he will accept the results. I have just finished reading the short but vital book by Lawrence Douglas with the full title of Will He Go?… Read More ›

• It’s pronounced “GIF”!

  By ljd42 on October 24, 2020

  

  That headline isn’t very helpful, as you have no doubt figured out. After all, it’s spelled “GIF,” but it’s pronounced with a hard G as in “gift” — or perhaps with a soft G as in “giraffe.” But which? You probably know the answer…… Read More ›

• What’s so special about the Mandelbrot Set?

  By ljd42 on October 22, 2020

  

  Nobody tires of Mandelbrot Set images, especially the zoomed-in ones. But there aren’t very many non-mathematicians who can explain them — though I hope my former Precalculus students can do so. For everyone else, you really need to watch a… Read More ›

• Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra… and Gavagai… and intertextuality!

  By ljd42 on October 21, 2020

  

  Hmmm… how can you communicate with someone when the two of you have no language in common? In linguistics this has been a major conundrum, especially in earlier centuries when there was no worldwide communication; in science fiction it has… Read More ›

• Does he fit?

  By ljd42 on October 19, 2020

  

  William thinks he fits in this box. William is wrong.

• Is this really what (male) math professors are like?

  By ljd42 on October 18, 2020

  

  The philosophers in the program were kind and excellent teachers, but the math professors I met in those days were somewhat less skilled at teaching or relating to people. One told us that we should think of him as a… Read More ›