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.
-
Gym Jordan, grammar expert
Leading Republican congressman Jim Jordan is well-known as an expert on “pronouns“:
-
A number theory discovery by a 12-year-old Nigerian boy! And one by an 11-year-old Massachusetts girl!
Everyone knows the stereotype: mathematical discoveries are made by white and Asian males in their 20s and 30s. Right? Well, like all stereotypes, there’s a certain amount of statistical reality that supports this impression and obscures all examples to the… Read More ›
-
What’s wrong with being named Quartus anyway?
So you’ve never heard of the name Quartus? I’m not surprised. Almost no one, after all, is named Quartus. But why not? Peter Gainsford answers the question—and other questions as well, most of which you didn’t even know you had…. Read More ›
-
The road to hell
Suppose you did something wrong—unintentionally. Does your lack of ill intent mitigate the offense? The issue arose recently in a slightly heated conversation with a good friend of mine. I was upset with her because she had inadvertently done something… Read More ›
-
Tavolo
Barbara and I had a yummy take-out dinner last night from Tavolo via curbside pickup: meatballs, polenta with mushroom, shrimp scampi with fettuccine, chitara amatriciana, and flourless chocolate cake. Plenty of leftovers! I am pretending that it was all low-calorie… Read More ›
-
Another sign in Dot
Spotted on today’s walk in Dorchester, at the corner of Neponset Ave and South Monroe Terrace:
-
Dorchester loves Georgia.
Spotted on Carruth Street during yesterday’s walk:
-
That’s Life. “Uncertainty is the only certainty.”
This is life: In a world where truth seems to be at a premium and the future unsure, it’s comforting to know precisely when the sun is going to come up and that when it does, it will do so… Read More ›
-
The (apparently) oxymoronic Anthology of Cozy-Noir
Cozy-noir? Cozy and noir? Hmmm… certainly sounds like an oxymoronic pair of mystery sub-genres! But maybe editor Andrew MacRae has something up his sleeve. Has he managed to combine the two into a seamless whole? It was an intriguing enough… Read More ›
-
“Why haven’t I ever been to Petra?”
That’s what I kept asking myself as I was watching the PBS Nova episode Petra, Lost City of Stone, which I somehow missed when it first aired six years ago. This amazing archaeological site in Jordan competes in quality with… Read More ›
