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.

• Wrong address?

  By ljd42 on February 28, 2020

  

  Somehow I suspect that they sent this to the wrong email address. Should I fill out the form? I do meet three of their criteria, after all.    

• Gaslight

  By ljd42 on February 26, 2020

  

  Barbara and I had a special dinner last night at Gaslight, a “classic French restaurant in the South End of Boston” in their own words. The first thing to say is that they have free parking in their own parking… Read More ›

• They know how to keep warm…

  By ljd42 on February 25, 2020

  

  …even when the furnace isn’t working.  

• Can a man write a good novel? Or can only a woman do that?

  By ljd42 on February 24, 2020

  

  I only read women. I know that men write books. But their lives are so limited. It’s such a small and narrow experience. That’s what famous author Marian Keyes says (in the Daily Mail of all places). It startles us in… Read More ›

• Gender or gender?

  By ljd42 on February 22, 2020

  

  Is sex the same thing as gender? When I was learning a little Latin and less French in middle school, I learned that gender was nothing but a grammatical category, having little or nothing to do with sex. Why should… Read More ›

• Which languages are the most “efficient”? Which are the least?

  By ljd42 on February 20, 2020

  

  Perhaps you’ve learned some Latin, or German, or Russian. If so, you probably don’t find those languages very “efficient”: they have too many fussy endings, too many details you have to pay attention to. If, however, you speak Mandarin, that… Read More ›

• Can you say Buttigieg? Can you even say Klobuchar? What makes them so hard to pronounce?

  By ljd42 on February 18, 2020

  

  We all try to say Mayor Pete’s name correctly — but most of us fail. That’s partly because we’re told that his neighbors pronounce it “Buddha judge” whereas his campaign insists on “Boot Edge Edge,” according to the New York… Read More ›

• Valentine’s Day Dinner at Tavolo

  By ljd42 on February 16, 2020

  

  Barbara and I had an excellent virtual-Valentine’s-Day dinner last night at Tavolo. (Yes, I know it was the “wrong” day: their Valentine’s specials lasted for two days!) We both had the combo of filet mignon, lobster tail, duchess potatoes, asparagus,… Read More ›

• Weston wins! High School Quiz Show: Tantasqua vs. Weston

  By ljd42 on February 14, 2020

  

  Congratulations to Weston High School for their impressive performance in the opening salvo of this year’s WGBH High School Quiz Show! Weston beat Tantasqua Regional by the comfortable margin of 555–440, despite the fact that Tantasqua’s team consisted of four… Read More ›

• Mathematics Galore!

  By ljd42 on February 13, 2020

  

  The aims of a mathematics masterclass and of this book are to enthuse educate inspire challenge audiences of young people, their parents and teachers, with the wonder, excitement, power, beauty, and relevance of modern mathematical ideas. So it says in… Read More ›